An interesting set of talks on the subject. I find it interesting that a lot of psychology programs do not require a base in Evolutionary Biology. Why is that? If we are studying the human brain and how it affects behavior, how can we do that without first knowing the basis of how the brain got developed to this point, and the reasons for the development?
Psychology fascinates me simply because it is the only way to truly understand human behavior. If you have an Evolutionary Psychologist who says that the reason for behavior A is Development B in the anatomical and chemical structuring of the brain, versus a normal Psychologist saying that Behavior A is because of past experience A, Who is right and why? How do experiences change the playing field when compared with anatomical development?
Psychology fascinates me simply because it is the only way to truly understand human behavior. If you have an Evolutionary Psychologist who says that the reason for behavior A is Development B in the anatomical and chemical structuring of the brain, versus a normal Psychologist saying that Behavior A is because of past experience A, Who is right and why? How do experiences change the playing field when compared with anatomical development?
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An evolutionary psychologist will mostly focus on explaining why a behavior exists rather than on the anatomical / physiological / heuristic basis of the same. For example, the rush we feel inside us when faced with adversity is because of adrenalin and our final response is based on both experience and hormones. This is the physiological / heuristic basis of this behavior. But EP explains why we have this mechanism to start with and why did we come to learn from prior experience and not how!
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@Nicholas - Thanks for sharing such a fantastic interview introducing EP! David Buss is truly amazing! Interesting views about religion and continuity of life beyond death and why people tend to believe in them. They both partially agree that we as a species are probably engineered to encourage such beliefs irrespective of their truthfulness. Faith has been a part of every culture to date and it would be interesting to trace faith to its evolutionary origins!
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@Praveen- Indeed, perhaps then we could figure out a way to deal with the social corruption of organized religion without taking away the community aspect of it. I see benefits in communities that come together and all share the same space and ideals, it strengthens the bonds of the community, but on a large scale it degrades society.
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Communities, just like people, come in many colors and shades. Communities are usually beneficial to humanity as long as they do not preach dogmas or antagonize one another. Most importantly they should be open to rational argument and accept change as a quintessential part of their philosophy. When people accept change and embrace rational argument, so will our religions and systems. As long as we act like sheep, there will always be those shepherds who will lead us to slaughter!
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@Praveen- Sheep seems to be the common breed now a day! Plato's cave people metaphor always strikes into my mind on the subject of communities, I find it depressingly fascinating how systematically it holds. It also throws shadows of doubt on my own personal scale, how can we be sure we are even seeing the truth of things?
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@Nicholas - Truth?? We can never be sure of it. All that matters is whether we are pursuing it or not! When anyone proposes anything we should have the will and integrity to approach it with open mind and rational argument!
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@Praveen- Aye "All that I know, Is that I know nothing at all" Socrates said it best, he certainly is the go to man for describing the human condition, which saddens me that in all that time we haven't changed much, more over it seems that we have solidified further into these characteristics of trusting things at face value. How do we re-educate without having our educators end up like Socrates?
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@Nicholas - Thats a difficult problem indeed. Realigning the masses and their approach is a herculean task even to begin with. Capitalistic economies have forced people to think short term with an emphasis on rewards while the socialist / communist agendas have stalled progress and encouraged corruption. The best option is to re-engineer our education system to include philosophical thought process as part of our curriculum. How and when are still open questions and this change will not be easy!
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@Praveen- Indeed, but nothing worth doing ever is easy! Perhaps if there were a course that studied the history of global religions, the facts, such as beliefs, history, etc, and then people armed with the proper knowledge would decide for themselves, wouldn't that be grand?
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@Nicholas - Thats exactly what I am talking about! Education and the institutions attached to this activity have to be as unbiased as possible and should think beyond preparing the young for a career. They are not just training tomorrow's workforce but nurturing future citizens. Sadly religion is so deeply rooted that education is hardly out of its clutches. Eg. Some states are demanding Evolution out of curriculum! How can we uproot religious bias in a democracy of ill-informed citizens?
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