{"id":72085,"date":"2019-03-27T13:16:40","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T19:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=72085"},"modified":"2019-03-27T19:15:22","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T01:15:22","slug":"the-mutant-says-in-his-heart-there-is-no-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/the-mutant-says-in-his-heart-there-is-no-god.html","title":{"rendered":"“The Mutant Says in His Heart, ‘There Is No God'”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Edelfelt's<\/a>
Louis Pasteur in his Paris laboratory, ca. 1885 (by Albert Edelfelt)
Wikimedia Commons public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t yet read this article, which appears in the journal\u00a0Evolutionary Psychological Science<\/em> 4\/3 (September 2018): 233-244, and I have absolutely nothing invested in the validity of its specific thesis, but it makes an intriguing (albeit very surprising) suggestion and, I\u2019m sure, will be received with universal serenity and equanimity:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mutant Says in His Heart, \u201cThere Is No God\u201d: the Rejection of Collective Religiosity Centred Around the Worship of Moral Gods Is Associated with High Mutational Load\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reductionists like to dismiss humans as mere bodies, and to claim that human minds are merely epiphenomenal and transitory byproducts of blind neurochemical processes. \u00a0Whatever. \u00a0That\u2019s a topic for other occasions. \u00a0But even the physical processes operating in our bodies right now \u2014 every second of our lives \u2014 are staggeringly complex, and even, in a very real sense of the word, miraculous.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here is a 6.5-minute partially animated video on some of those process that occur on an incomprehensibly tiny, submicroscopic scale. \u00a0Kent B. Wallace kindly brought the video to my attention, but I\u2019m grateful for the tip and I heartily recommend it for your consideration and contemplation:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYour Body\u2019s Molecular Machines\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, here is a highly significant article, slightly longish, that I also recommend for those interested in the issues that it raises:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mismeasurements of Stephen Jay Gould\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

What issues does it raise?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The late Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) was a palaeontologist, but also a very gifted popularizer of science and a successful writer of highly successful books on evolution and related topics, at Harvard University. \u00a0He died far too young, but he continues to enjoy some degree of fame to this day. \u00a0This article, however, contends that he was cavalier with the facts, biased in his analysis, and perhaps even flatly dishonest in his 1981 book The Mismeasure of Man<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A major part of the thesis of that book is that ideology and racial prejudice had deformed scientific attempts to measure human intelligence. \u00a0Ironically, argues \u201cThe Mismeasurements of Stephen Jay Gould,\u201d Gould\u2019s own book is replete with evidence of serious ideological bias, prejudice, and agenda-driven distortion. \u00a0This raises the general issue of the place of human bias in scholarship generally and in science in particular.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, by the way, after reading the article I was pleasantly surprised to discover that its author, Dr. Russell T. Warn<\/a>e, teaches at Utah Valley University, which is within reasonable walking distance of the place where I\u2019m currently typing these words.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 I haven\u2019t yet read this article, which appears in the journal\u00a0Evolutionary Psychological Science 4\/3 (September 2018): 233-244, and I have absolutely nothing invested in the validity of its specific thesis, but it makes an intriguing (albeit very surprising) suggestion and, I\u2019m sure, will be received with universal serenity and equanimity: \u00a0 \u201cThe Mutant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"The Mutant Says in His Heart, 'There Is No God'"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    I haven't yet read this article, which appears in the journal\u00a0Evolutionary Psychological Science 4\/3 (September 2018): 233-244, and I have\" \/>\n<meta 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