Rationality & Faith

3 Commentsby   |  03.21.11  |  Beginning of Scientific Psychology (Part III)

I’ve been revisiting in my mind, the discussion of evolutionary psychology and religion that occurred before spring break.   On the day that we watched the video of how similar humans are to apes including the resemblance of our facial expressions, I brought forth the comment that it bothered me how animalistic evolutionary psychology made humans out to be.  I believe that God designed humans uniquely, as written in Genesis, God made Adam and saw that it was not good for man to be alone, so he then made Eve.   In reviewing evolutionary psychology and sociobiology in chapter 19 to write this blog, I again had a hard time to accept it with the looming thought in my mind that God made humans different from animals.  Yes, there is a rational aspect of females choosing males with “good genes” to have healthy and fit children, and there is rationality behind survival of the fittest, but the thought of these instinctual behaviors (being easy to compare to the behaviors of animals) being the root of humans’ actions or the essence of who human beings are greatly bothers me.  I have a faith in God that has been instilled in me since I was an infant that God created a beautiful earth, and he created man to rule over His creation on earth until the fall of man occurred, and Jesus later died on the cross, so we could be saved and have eternal life with Him.  I can’t find where my faith fits in or can even coincided with the ideas behind evolutionary psychology.  Where is the soul in this idea, and where is the belief in humbleness and good in a survival of the fittest world?  I think that is where I am struggling to accept this belief, which is difficult because it also makes rationale sense in the instinctive sense.  I think it’s important to discuss topics like this, because I do not want to use my faith as a tool of ignorance for learning; however, at the same time, I do not want to accept ideas that are contradictory of my faith… perhaps this is an example of free will, but at the moment I do not feel free, because I am stuck in trying to make sense of rationality and the comfort to accept so much rationality in my spirit.

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3 Comments

  1. Myriah Miller
    9:31 pm, 03.21.11

    I felt the same way about some of the ideas in evolutionary psychology. Especially the thoughts about choosing partners based on traits that we wanted to be expressed. I would challenge this by asking about all of the people/relationships that do not fit that mold. What about those who do not want to have children, or those who get married despite a severe disability of one or both individuals. I would also be interested to find out how evolutionary psychology approaches the topic of homosexuality. I find the theory very interesting, but I understand some of the stumbling blocks that you felt, because I also had some unsettling thoughts.

  2. Bradye McQueen
    10:19 pm, 03.21.11

    I feel that I am very opinionated when it comes to evolutionary and how animalistic it is as well. I love animals, they are a wonderful thing to have on the earth (a gift.. to EAT!), and it is our job to care for them, but they are NOT God’s people. They lack a part of the brain that makes them spiritual beings. We are NOT like animals. You can’t “evolve” into a spiritual being. It just doesn’t happen. I agree that there is an amazing observation from the evolutionary theorists and that there is much to be learned about the way they study living things, but I just have to say that they are WRONG!

  3. Tiffani Johnson
    10:25 pm, 03.21.11

    I think everyone was a little unsettled after that class, I know I was. Evolution in general is still something we are figuring out and it is very complex thing. I was also unsettled by being compared to apes. It helped me a little bit to go home and do some research on my own about evolution and all of the different theories out there. I suggest you maybe look into them as well so at least you can defend your stance well.

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