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Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on Reflections on rationality a year out - Less Wrong
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FWIW, I am inclined to think that "rationality" is a bad brand identification for a good thing. Rationality conjures up "Spock" (the Star Trek character) not "Spock" (the compassionate and wise child rearing guru). It puts an emphasis on a very inhuman part of the kind of human being you feel you are becoming.
Whatever it means in your context, as a brand to evangelize to others about its benefits, it is lacking. Better, in the sense of offering a positive vision, perhaps than "atheism" or "secularism" but not still not grounded and humane enough. I like "naturalist" better, although it is loaded with the connotation of bird watching, and also "humanist" although the term, without the modifier "secular" can mean little more than someone who gives a damn. "Enlightened" (as in the Enlightenment era) might be a good term if it weren't so damned arrogant in the modern vernacular.
The sense that I think you are trying to capture of something of the sense conveyed by the title to Carl Sagan's book "Demon Haunted World." You want to convey the joys of having exorcised the demons and opening yourself to seeing the world more clearly. But, to sell it to others, I think it is necessary to find a better marketing plan.
NYLW has done some preliminary testing, asking people what they think of when they hear the word "rational". So far the results have been positive.
So far as I know I've been the one doing most of the asking, and I don't have a large enough sample size to declare anything, just seven people. The results have been mostly neutral, with one enthusiastically positive and two slightly negative. If I were to extrapolate from this, I'd say that enough people are at least neutral to the word that it won't harm us to use it.
If our goal was to find an optimum marketing word, I'd wait until we'd done much more substantial testing. But I think there's benefit to changing the Spock Perception, so as long as people are mostly neutral towards the word, it's worth using. (I'd still want more than seven responses before committing to it)
The specific question I've been asking people is:
"I'm just curious, if someone were to describe themselves as a Rationalist to you, what stereotypes would come to your mind about that person?"
(The first time I started by saying "what thoughts and feelings come to your mind if say "Rationality?" That prompted some questions and confusion that I don't have time for in the typical elevator ride, which is where I do the asking. By the third query I had narrowed it down to the phrasing above, because it seemed to cut to the heart of the matter. People might be okay with "rationality" but are they okay with people who strongly "identify" with rationality?)
When I hit some arbitrary milestone that triggers warm fuzzies, I'll post the results so far and invite analysis. (I'm thinking 20's a decent number to start with)