Reflections on the Core: What is Enlightenment - Immanuel Kant

I am reading this article by Immanuel Kant as an introduction to the second part of a "Contemporary Western Civilization" class. Just from reading the first two paragraphs, I was really fascinated by the clear presentation he gives of people who refuse to "grow up" and use logic. It is also astonishing how 250 years later fundamentalists are still working on the exact same (mis)logic, and refuse to grow up...

It is a short essay and totally worth reading.

"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to know! "Have the courage to use your own understanding," is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.
Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why such a large part of mankind gladly remain minors all their lives, long after nature has freed them from external guidance. They are the reasons why it is so easy for others to set themselves up as guardians. It is so comfortable to be a minor. If I have a book that thinks for me, a pastor who acts as my conscience, a physician who prescribes my diet, and so on--then I have no need to exert myself.
Those guardians who have kindly taken supervision upon themselves see to it that the overwhelming majority of mankind--among them the entire fair sex--should consider the step to maturity, not only as hard, but as extremely dangerous.
First, these guardians make their domestic cattle stupid and carefully prevent the docile creatures from taking a single step without the leading-strings to which they have fastened them. Then they show them the danger that would threaten them if they should try to walk by themselves.
Now this danger is really not very great; after stumbling a few times they would, at last, learn to walk. However, examples of such failures intimidate and generally discourage all further attempts."

- Immanual Kant, Essay: What is enlightenment, 1-20.

http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/CCREAD/etscc/kant.html