Evolutionary Adaptation or Curse?

Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.

I’m now slogging through a very dense tome by psychologists, The Enigma of Reason by Mercier and Sperber, which argues that humans adapted reason primarily as a way to persuade others not to decide which truths we ourselves will accept. They seem to be suggesting that reason is used to solidify our current ideological tribes. This explains why Left Wing LGBTQ protesters, part of an ideological tribe, don’t see the irony of supporting a Palestine that would gladly kill or imprison them. If you point this out, watch how fast the rationalizations will fly forward to defend what is felt deeply. The same goes for the data about right-wing voters. (As an aside, I suspect most of you reading this had no problem believing the irrationality of LGBTQ students but got really suspicious about the right-wing voter study. See? Motivated reasoning. Don’t feel bad. It is part of being human, after all.)

What Mercier and Sperber see as an evolutionary adaption, I can’t help but see it as a curse. The taste of dust blowing through a garden. It foments wars, divides families, and kills church communities. But thanks be to God, we read in the New Testament hints of what will happen when we are finally released from that curse. Paul talks of the Holy Spirit uniting us despite our tribes. Galatians holds out the vision that some of our deepest divisions can be healed. John speaks of the Holy Spirit teaching, confirming, and guiding us so that we can be certain of the basics that Jesus is the Son of God, that he rose from the dead, and that we will be like Him.

― Jonathan Miles (professor of philosophy and ethics, and teaching elder/pastor).

https://midwestoutreach.org/2023/11/02/the-curse-of-futile-thinking/