The following is a page from Steve Allen's book Dumbth, The Lost Art of Thinking. The book is one of my favorites and I revisit it every now and then to enjoy his wit and wisdom.

Part of this book is a list of a "101 ways to reason better and improve your mind." One of the ways or rules that I like is as follows.

"When some people hear reason being endorsed they assume that, if the amount of rationality in the world is increased, it must inevitably follow that certain increments of sensation and emotion will decrease. The supposition--or fearful concern--is, of course, groundless. Certain things will indeed be decreased if the domain of reason is enlarged, but they are such things as foolishness, fanaticism, brawling, fear, ignorance, bigotry, and racial, ethnic, and religious prejudice.

"As for the enjoyment of the senses, as for the warm, beautiful, endearing emotions, two things are possible: Either they will be unaffected by an increase in the reasoning faculty or--as seems more likely--they will be enhanced since the increased exercise of reason will to a certain extent decrease those negative emotional factors that now limit the sensible joys of life.

"Almost by way of underlining these observations, as I sit dictating them on the breeze-washed patio of the open-air dining room of the Outrigger Canoe Club on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, I perceive in the distant background enormous white clouds, blue sky, low mountains; off to the right the tall waterfront hotels of the area curving around the long beach; in the middle distance sailboats, catamarans, curling white waves on turquoise-blue water, surfers, and bathers; and, in the immediate foreground, palm trees, bright green shrubbery, a remarkably beautiful Hawaiian woman seated at a nearby table, and a kingfisher-like bird, with a lipstick-red head and brown body, that flits among tables looking for fallen crumbs. In a moment--it is hoped--I shall enjoy the equally pleasant prospect of my wife, for whom I am waiting. All such wonders of physical nature, and the appreciative emotions to which they give rise, need not at all be dulled by the improvement in the power of reason."

--Bob Lane