First of all, thank you for an article on an important topic that is not discussed nearly as much as we need it to be.

For my money, ideology diverted the Enlightenment. Ideologies are based on beliefs as surely as sacral religions are, and are therefore no more rationalistic than any religion is. Ideologies became substitutes for sacral religion. [I understand that nowadays sacral religions are considered to be ideologies, but for me there is intellectual value in keeping them separate: ideologies are based on secular beliefs that, like sacral beliefs, transcend material existence, but, unlike sacral beliefs, do not refer to a deity (or deified existence, e.g. ancestor worship) of any kind.]

‘Scientific’ knowledge — information referring to material existence that is (sufficiently) verified within material existence — is rational knowledge. It is the only possible verifiably universal knowledge available to us for negotiating material life.

Most of all, humanity needs an ethic that is in the form of such knowledge. I have discovered one: "Real Justice (summarized for a '5 min read')” here in Medium.