The Psychology of Religion - Steven Pinker

The always entertaining, though often reductionist, Steven Pinker, talking about the psychology of religion. Oh yeah, speaking of reductionism, this is a Richard Dawkins project, so don't expect religion to be treated as the necessary part of human culture that it is.

In an illustration more typical of Pinker's cultural taste, he quotes the opening scene of Woody Allen's movie Annie Hall, when the young Alvy Singer tells a psychiatrist that he won't do his homework because the universe is expanding. If the universe is going to fall apart, he says, what is the point of human existence? "What has the universe got to do with it?" his mother wails at him. "You' re here in Brooklyn! Brooklyn is not expanding!"

That kind of reductionism is confusing two levels of analysis," Pinker says. "We have meaning and purpose here inside our heads, being the organisms that we are. We have brains that make it impossible for us to live our lives except in terms of meaning and purpose. The fact that you can look at meaning and purpose in one way, as a neuro-psychological phenomenon, doesn' t mean you can' t look at it in another way, in terms of how we live our lives."

The collection of genes known as Steven Pinker made the point most forcibly in How The Mind Works, where he explained his own decision not to have children - which apparently runs counter to the demands of evolution - and says that if his genes don't like it, "they can take a running jump."

Part One:


Part Two:


Part Three:


Part Four:


Part Five:

Tags: The Psychology of Religion, Professor DeRose, Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker, Religion, Science, Psychology, consciousness, culture, meaning, purpose Added The Psychology of Religion, Professor DeRose