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