STEVEN PINKERRELIGION IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY

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Cognitive psychologist

Harvard Professor

Advocate evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind

Opposed to the notion of bank slate of mind

named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential scientists and thinkers in the world in 2004

named by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the top global thinkers

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RELIGIOUS BELIEF IS UNIVERSAL? WHY?

Steven Pinker: “As a scientist, I like to interpret claims as testable hypotheses, and this certainly is one. It predicts, for example, that miracles should be observable, that success in life should be proportional to virtue, and that suffering should be proportional to sin. I don't know anyone who has done the necessary studies, but I would say there is good reason to believe that these hypotheses have not been confirmed.”

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• Religion is not the best explanation for moral codes.  

• Religious claims: there are worlds of incomprehensible wonder, power, and mystery that are accessible by clergymen only.

• The world is not by design. The perception of a just and moral world is an illusion.

• Darwin's theory of natural selection is the only theory that can explain this illusion of design.

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• Traits that are adaptations: products of Darwinian natural selection,

• Traits that are by-products of adaptations (Religion)

• Vehicles are good for transportation. The by-product (CO) is bad!

• Why is our blood red? There is no adaptive advantage. It is not good for camouflage. Our enemies can follow us by the blood trail.

• Our blood is red because it is adaptive to have a molecule that can carry oxygen (hemoglobin). Hemoglobin just happens to be red when it's oxygenated.

• By-product? No advantage? Red makes us alert. If you are injured in a remote area, you expect the rescue team can follow your blood trail to locate you!

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• What role religion has played in our historical progress? Not good.

• Many humanitarian reforms were hindered by church authorities (e.g. the elimination of cruel punishment and the abolition of slavery)

• Fascism coexisted with Catholicism in Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Croatia.

• Many Nazis fused Nazism with Christianity. Holocaust was the extension and continuation of long history of anti-Semitism in Christian nations.

• Religion does not contribute much to our adaptive fitness and progress. But in the process of adaption, we created this by-product.

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OTHER EVOLUTIONARY EXPLANATIONS

Why do we like the photos of water?

Our ancestors need water to survive.

How about natural disasters caused by flooding?

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OTHER EVOLUTIONARY EXPLANATIONS

Why do we like the pictures of babies?

Gene propagation

But how about Van Gogh, Rembrandt, The Gates of Hell, The Burghers of Calais?

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