Who preferred to rely on reason rather than on traditional or superstition

Scientists

Explanation:

Back in the day many of things we do today were considered taboos, (it highly depends were you are from). it ranged from operating on human bodies to not being able to touch or see high class people (in a caste system). Scientists did majority of their practices a secret since they could be punished with death sentences etc. A great example of this was in the UK (during medieval times). It was against the church to operate on a human body (it was taboo) but if scientist didn't start cutting people up to try to fix them or experiment on them modern day surgery wouldnt be existant. Majority of scientists strayed away from religion and superstition to find out the real reasons why people places and things do what they do.

Hoped this helped :):

four sitting presidents have been assassinated while in office but the first was abraham lincoln,