Download unit10_pinker

STEVEN
PINKER
1
RELIGION IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF
EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY
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
2
named by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the
top global thinkers
RELIGIOUS BELIEF IS
UNIVERSAL? WHY?
3
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.”
• 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.
4
• Darwin's theory of natural selection is
the only theory that can explain this
illusion of design.
• 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.
5
• 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!
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 byproduct.
6
•
OTHER EVOLUTIONARY
EXPLANATIONS
Why do we like the photos of water?
Our ancestors need water to survive.
7
How about natural disasters caused by
flooding?
OTHER EVOLUTIONARY
EXPLANATIONS
Why do we like the pictures of babies?
Gene propagation
8
But how about Van Gogh, Rembrandt, The Gates of Hell, The
Burghers of Calais?