> You'd think a group of people devoted to being rational would be a group of monk-like beings, cerebral, disconnected from the concerns of the flesh.

Human beings are fundamentally irrational, and it's a really great way to deceive oneself to believe otherwise.

If you can convince yourself that you're unbiased, objective and "rational", then whatever you happen to believe must be correct! You can rationalize practically anything, so it's no surprise rationalists start getting weird when left to their own devices.

“To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good... it is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions.” -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“Man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal.” -Robert A. Heinlein