CONCLUSION
"One of the things cognitive science teaches us is that when people define their very identity by a worldview, or a narrative, or a mode of thought, they are unlikely to change – for the simple reason that it is physically part
of their brain, and so many other aspects of their brain structure would also have to change;
that change is highly unlikely."
~ George Lakoff, from his book The Political Mind, p. 59
"A man with a conviction is hard to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts for figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point".
~ Leon Fistinger. Stanford University (stated while studying UFO devotees)
One of the 1960’s youth rebellion slogans is the famous phrase attributed to Jack Weinberg in 1964, “We have a saying in the movement that we don’t trust anyone over 30”. An important, but frustrating, observation I have learned in discussing and debating origins with people over the past 40 years is that if the person is in midlife or older there appears to be no amount of sound, robust evidence that will move them to change their origin beliefs. Certain beliefs can be elevated to sacred values in importance so that they become merged with a person’s identity and no amount of evidence will change them. Any discussion of why evolution is true feels like a dangerous assault to their very core values and they often argue to absurd lengths that the evidence against their evolution can’t be correct. Too much of their lives have been built around some core beliefs and changing them would undermine their very identity, challenging their life’s purpose and meaning.
According to some anti-evolutionists, the ERVs I’ve discussed are not retroviruses but were changed somehow from their original functions and locations in the past. The reason the ERVs (mostly LTRs), are found in the same locations between chimps and humans according to them is because of common design, common functional needs, and not because of retroviruses randomly inserting like we can see now. The fact that some scientists resurrected a mutated non-functioning group of related ERVs into a single active ancestral proviral retrovirus, and it produced infective retroviruses as predicted and not some “other function”, is dismissed. Shared ERVs between humans and the other great apes, especially chimps, rises to the level of proof for evolution - macroevolution. Objections have utterly failed.
It doesn’t matter that when looking at whales and whale fossils all the particulars of how whales evolved are not clear. The overwhelming evidence points decidedly that they evolved from a small terrestrial ancestor. Nature does not care if we can’t imagine how it happened in about 15 million years and involved numerous amazing adaptations. Like a pilot flying in a storm, trust your instruments over your “gut” and feelings when they don’t match those tried and true instruments. Your instrument package is science. Evolution is true. And it has consequences for views.
Many just feel they have too much to lose if evolution is true. Yet, people around the world with different world views and beliefs have found ways to accommodate the science.
"No evidence is powerful enough to force acceptance of a conclusion
that is emotionally distasteful.”
~ Theodosius Dobzhansky
This phenomena of certain groups rejecting evolution most often applies to religious beliefs but any sacred beliefs such as flat earth views, astrology, homeopathy, UFO alien claims, anti-vaccination, and many more will be defended no matter how irrational the defense becomes. Note that in order to hold a flat earth view, one has to believe the moon landing never took place, that NASA, the Russians, Chinese Japanese, Europeans and other countries are faking their space photographs and videos, and that hundreds of thousands of engineers and others working in space exploration all have physics and engineering wrong - and are keeping quiet and not seeking out news publications to reveal the “truth” about the so called fake space announcements over 10 years and hundreds of thousands of staff. In the case of many versions of anti-evolution, all of science and especially the biological sciences have science wrong but a relatively small group of people have “the truth”. The world we see is exactly the way it should be if evolution were true. Even William Lane Craig and Joshua Swamidass have explained how a historical Adam is possible for them and the acceptance is appropriate given the overwhelming evidence for human evolution.
Why Facts Don't Change Our Minds. New discoveries about the human mind show the limitations of reason
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/why-facts-dont-change-our-minds
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Holding onto false beliefs about the world may be comforting but does have potentially deleterious effects. Anti-evolution and anti-science activity holds back science and stunts student’s intellectual growth.
In the movie The Matrix, Morpheus offers two pills to Neo who is in the Matrix, a computer generated immense simulation that appears and feels real but is not. The blue pill will keep him as he is with his beliefs and comfort about his world. The red one will remove him from the Matrix and show him reality. Morpheus tells Neo, “Remember, all I’m offering you is the truth, nothing more.” Neo takes the red pill and eventually is pulled by Morpheus into his ship from the disposal pool the machines have thrown Neo into. Neo, violently pulled from the Matrix, becomes very ill as he learns all the truth. After Neo recovers from the trauma of learning everything he thought was real is not, Morpheus, sitting by his bed, attempts to comfort him:
Neo: “I can’t go back, can I?”
Morpheus: “No, but if you could would you really want to? I feel I owe you an apology. We have a rule. We never free a mind once its reached a certain age. It’s dangerous. The mind has trouble letting go…”
It is indeed very difficult and rare for older persons to significantly change erroneous views. People believe all kinds of things that are not true. In many ways we are living in cultures that mimic a Matrix of comforting delusions.
Other Erroneous Beliefs
Why do the false beliefs persist? Because we are a social species and in order to survive in the past, we had to cooperate. Through deep time anything that would pressure a group to stay together with common goals would be selected for and a common set of beliefs does that well. This usually involves religion but we can see other false group beliefs in politics, anti-vaccinations, homeopathy, flat earth, BigFoot, UFOs, etc. that also are central to group adhesion. Note what happens to individuals that reject the group beliefs. They can be attacked, shunned or forced to leave the group. When we were hunter gatherers in small tribes this would often be a death sentence. In addition, our brains are wired to take short cuts for survival. We tend to make mistakes that involve applying agency where there is none and pattern recognition errors. For example if our ancestors noted grass moving it was better to assume a lion rather than the wind; a mistake could cost you your life whereas the other mistake would just cost you some unnecessary energy to run away. We tend to undergo false pattern recognition also. That's why people often loose money investing in the stock market thinking they are seeing patterns that are not really there.
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Why it Matters
Since evolution is true, we are here by contingency and chance, and possibly emergent physical properties. The universe doesn’t care about us, but we can care about this life we have been gifted. Even if you have severe physical or emotional problems, at least you have a chance compared to the 80% of human fertilizations that never live to reproductive age. Evolution tells us when, how, from where and what we came from. This informs the why, what philosophers and theologians have been chasing for thousands of years without ultimate success. Science may not know the answers to all the great ultimate questions of life, but it has answered many or most of them in my opinion, without really making that a priority. What makes us human is slowly being revealed through evolutionary psychology, neuroscience and DNA studies. Why we act the way we do in relationships and even investing in the stock market has evolutionary answers. Viewing individuals and societies through an evolutionary lens becomes mandatory. Why we are moral is mostly due to evolution. Do we punish people for bad behavior or really try and rehabilitate them because of free will issues? Does solitary confinement accomplish? What does the research show?
I have learned much about reality in my time here so far on this amazing blue dot. What a gift and curse this has been. Searching for truth has its own rewards but it can be a lonely and isolating endeavor if living in a society instilled with woo, superstitions and ideological erroneous beliefs.
"It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion,
however satisfying and reassuring."
~ Carl Sagan
I chose truth over at times comfort. What I really found are some very smart, courageous people over the ages who sometimes paid for their speaking and writing with their lives, and presently many who have shared their knowledge with me that I have found. I doubt very little I’ve written is original to me. For those opposed to my opinions I’m sure I sound arrogant or full of hubris. I assure you I’m not overly intelligent and I know so many people who have made the same journey and arrived at the same conclusions about life. Choose the red pill.
“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt,
as far as possible, all things.
~ Rene Descartes
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Several years ago I posted this onto my social media page:
Why do I harp so much on evolution? Because where we came from, when, from what, and how we and all life got here informs the "Why". And religion, philosophy, and much of art and literature explores what it means to be human. What it means to be moral. Is there purpose and meaning in life? Evolution not only touches on the proximal questions of life - why do we have a recurrent laryngeal nerve and vestigial ear muscles, why the pattern of fossils in the geological records of earth, or why people behave the way they do - but also many of the ultimate questions of life that philosophers and theologians have been struggling with for thousands of years.
I posit that it is the single most important discovery ever made because it affects so much of our lives and cultures, transcending the individual and transcending societies. It also falsifies many religious claims and so is continually attacked. Nature really doesn't care what we believe. The Theory of Evolution is as well established as the scientific theories of gravity, cell, germ, and relativity. These can be modified in minor ways but will not be overthrown. And so the theory of evolution is also here to stay and will continue to play a crucial role in understanding our world and ourselves.
In the next section I propose to look at a few consequences given that evolution in the form of macroevolution is true. I will ask as Francis Schaeffer asked, “How should we then live?” Only I will answer with the demonstrable knowledge that evolution is true means we must approach life with the context and lens of Evolutionary Theory.
These consequences affect us all and in perhaps surprising ways.
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