The Pinker Delusion

Psychologist Steven Pinker often says that we believe in God because our brain is playing a trick on us—we’ve evolved for survival, not for truth and so we believe untrue things that had survival value for our ancestors. But in other contexts, Pinker says that we should rely on reason because the truth is useful and so our brains evolved to give us the truth. The contradiction is obvious. Should we believe our brains because it tells us to believe in God and our brain evolved for truth, or should we refuse to believe our brains because they are deception machines in which case we shouldn’t believe rationality either? To say, “We should only believe our brains when it tells me something I like” is unfounded prejudice. Why reject part of our brain’s truth apparatus, but not another? Pinker has no answer.