Al Mohler has a fascinating article discussing the research of two Yale psychologists up on his blog today. One of the more interesting quotations is the following:
Our intuitive psychology also contributes to resistance to science. One significant bias is that children naturally see the world in terms of design and purpose. For instance, four year-olds insist that everything has a purpose, including lions ("to go in the zoo") and clouds ("for raining"), a propensity that Deborah Kelemen has dubbed "promiscuous teleology." Additionally, when asked about the origin of animals and people, children spontaneously tend to provide and to prefer creationist explanations.
Just as children's intuitions about the physical world make it difficult for them to accept that the Earth is a sphere, their psychological intuitions about agency and design make it difficult for them to accept the processes of evolution.
I recommend reading the post. Science should proceed from observations in the world, which form hypothesis, which are tested. But not anymore. Conceptual philosophy is grafted onto all conclusions where even the most counterintuitive constructs must be accepted...why? Because this is the way it has to be if there is no purpose, no design, no God...we ought to listen to these kids...
Some scientific opinions today would have you believe the following:
- There isn't a conscious entity, which is not your brain, that IS you
- That the appearance of design in the world is an illusion
- That the experience of moral reality is the creation of a herd of apes...or philosophers.
- That belief in God is for silly, superstitious folks that have yet to pull up their metaphysical bootstraps
- That there is no transcending death
May 29, 2007








Comments
"The main source of resistance to scientific ideas concerns what children know prior to their exposure to science. The last several decades of developmental psychology has made it abundantly clear that humans do not start off as "blank slates.""
there goes tabula rasa!
Posted by: BV | May 29, 2007 01:46 PM
Yes, Pinker's The Blank Slate, blasted the tabula rasa stuff :) It is amazing how hard enlightenment thought fought against the doctrines of depravity/sin and argued for the original goodness of man in a state of nature. Now everyone believes we may be born selfish evil doers...not for theistic reasons, but that we want to eat each other...or that our genes control us and do whatever the hell they want.
We have somehow received "predetermined" depravity - from evolution of course. But at least one enlightenment myth has fallen (no pun intended - well, maybe)
Posted by: Reid Monaghan | May 29, 2007 04:13 PM