Reflections on Evolutionary Psychology
Myers, D. G. (2010). Social Psychology (10th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
This is the first college textbook that I have encountered so far that has permitted and contained any criticism or critique of evolutionary psychology and the evolutionary perspective. The points that it makes are useful and valid in my humble opinion.
Evolutionary Psychology is an oxymoron and a misnomer. Psychology is the study of the Human Psyche; and, even the evolutionists know on an instinctive level that Random Mutations and Natural Selection cannot touch nor change the Human Psyche. Most of these people have chosen to believe that we don’t have a Psyche; therefore, evolutionary psychology and an evolutionary perspective have NO explanatory power whatsoever when it comes to the Human Psyche and all those other psyches.
Natural selection happens, but it doesn’t touch our genes. It can’t. It’s physically impossible. Natural selection can’t reach into our genome and change our genes. It has NO mechanism for doing so.
Reflections on Evolutionary Psychology
Critics see a problem with evolutionary explanations. Evolutionary psychologists sometimes start with an effect (such as the male-female difference in sexual initiative) and then work backward to construct an explanation for it. That approach is reminiscent of functionalism, a dominant theory in psychology during the 1920s, whose logic went like this: “Why does that behavior occur? Because it serves such and such a function.”
You may recognize both the evolutionary and functional approaches as examples of hindsight reasoning. As biologists Paul Ehrlich and Marcus Feldman have pointed out, the evolutionary theorist can hardly lose when employing hindsight. Today’s evolutionary psychology is like yesterday’s Freudian psychology, say such critics: Either theory can be retrofitted to whatever happens. It is, scorns paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, mere “speculation [and] guesswork in the cocktail-party mode.”
As in many scientific fields, observations inspire a theory that generates new, testable predictions. The predictions alert us to unnoticed phenomena and allow us to confirm, refute, or revise the theory. Critics nevertheless contend that the empirical evidence is not strongly supportive of evolutionary psychology’s predictions.
Our common evolutionary heritage does not, by itself, predict the enormous cultural variation in human marriage patterns. Nor does it explain cultural changes in behavior patterns over mere decades of time. The most significant trait that nature has endowed us with, it seems, is the capacity to adapt – to learn and to change. Therein lies what we can all agree is culture’s shaping power.
Critics say that evolutionary explanations are sometimes after-the-fact conjectures that fail to account for the reality of cultural diversity.
(Social Psychology, pp. 178-179.)
Evolutionary psychology was made-to-fit after-the-fact. It has NO predictive power and very little explanatory power. The Human Psyche can override its nature and nurture at will.
There’s nothing astonishing or amazing about the “predictive powers” of evolution, because the theory of evolution was designed after the fact to fit the facts. There are NO predictions associated with evolutionary psychology, because like Freudian Psychology it is ALL hindsight-based. Evolution (random mutations and natural selection) itself doesn’t do any design and programming of new functional genomes from scratch. It can’t. It’s physically impossible.
Chemical evolution, abiogenesis, spontaneous generation, and macro-evolution have NEVER been observed; and, they never will be. They are physically impossible and prevented from happening by entropy or the second law of thermodynamics. Consequently, chemical evolution and macro-evolution will NEVER inspire nor generate new, testable predictions. Chemical evolution and macro-evolution have been refuted and falsified; therefore, there is nothing there to revise or improve. There will NEVER be any empirical evidence supporting Design and Creation by Evolution, because such a thing is physically impossible and ALL of the observed evidence falsifies the Theory of Evolution.
Of course, we don’t have an evolutionary history – that’s just an illusory correlation – “speculation and guesswork”, with NO observational evidence to support it. Our evolutionary history isn’t going to predict anything, because we don’t have an evolutionary history. God designed and created ALL of the genomes. Nothing has an evolutionary history. How do we know? We know because evolution (genetic change), random mutations, and natural selection did not exist and could not exist until after God designed, created, and deployed the proteins, the genes, the genomes, the cells, the eyes, the brains, and the life forms in the first place.
Furthermore, we know that there is something fundamentally wrong with the theory of evolution, natural selection, and survival of the fittest because homosexuality still exists in the human species and other species. If the theory of evolution and natural selection worked as advertised, then there would be no homosexuality. Homosexuality and same-sex attraction would have been eliminated from the gene pool a billion years ago. The fact that homosexuality still exists FALSIFIES evolutionary psychology and the theory of evolution. We are infinitely more than just our genes.
God endowed the Human Psyche with the capacity and ability to choose, adapt, learn, change, repent, and grow. It’s a Psyche thing and has nothing to do with our genes. Our genes can’t change themselves or reprogram themselves at will; but, the Human Psyche certainly can. Our genes make no decisions or choices for us; but, our Psyche certainly does.
The evolutionary perspective is indirect, illusory, correlational, and based upon both hindsight bias and confirmation bias. Every aspect and version of the Theory of Evolution is correlational rather than observational. No type of evolution has ever been caught in the act of designing and creating new proteins, new genes, new genomes, and new life forms because NO type of evolution can do design and creation.
Evolution of any kind doesn’t touch the Human Psyche; but, those other psyches definitely have an impact on the Human Psyche both at the quantum level and the physical level. Social Psychology is the scientific study of the interaction of the Human Psyche with all those other psyches, which means that Social Psychology will remain valid and useful long after our physical brain is dead and gone. The one is useful; and, the other is worthless. Psyche is based upon syntropy, and evolution is based upon entropy. The one can design and create; and, the other one can’t.
Tautologies, circular reasoning, hindsight bias, and confirmation bias are logic fallacies; but, these are the things upon which the theory of evolution and evolutionary psychology are based. Remember, the theory of evolution doesn’t predict anything because random mutations cannot do anything constructive or productive for us and natural selection doesn’t touch our genes. By definition, in principle, entropy cannot design and create; and, evolution is entropy.
Of course, the Materialists and Naturalists demand that you accept the belief that evolution and natural selection control or determine our biology; whereas, our culture controls or determines our psychology. Actually, though, it’s our genetics that control the development and maintenance of our physical body; and, our genome is God’s Signature. Programming code such as a genome doesn’t write itself, and it doesn’t spontaneously generate out of thin air either. Random mutations and natural selection don’t do anything for us except to lead us towards disease, brain damage, cancer, death, and extinction. Random mutations slowly destroy the genome that God gave us; and, natural selection doesn’t touch our genome.
I think that was probably my greatest scientific discovery – the realization that evolution of any kind cannot design and create anything. Evolution is entropy. Random mutations are entropy. Entropy cannot design and create anything. It’s physically impossible for entropy to design, create, manufacture, and produce things from scratch. And, natural selection doesn’t touch our genes. The theory of evolution is a non-starter. It doesn’t go anywhere; and, evolution doesn’t do anything except hasten our death and extinction.
It’s unfortunate that they chose to call it Evolutionary Psychology and an evolutionary perspective, because the theory of evolution has been constantly in dispute ever since Darwin presented it. Some of the statistical polls that I have seen online have stated that up to 50% of the people in the United States do not believe in the Theory of Evolution, and for good reasons. It’s lacking in direct observational evidence. Nobody has ever caught Chemical Evolution, Spontaneous Generation, Creation Ex Nihilo, Abiogenesis, or Macro-Evolution in the act; and, they never will, because these different types of Spontaneous Generation are prevented from happening by entropy or the second law of thermodynamics. They didn’t happen, because they can’t happen; and therefore, Evolutionary Psychology and an evolutionary perspective is fruit from the poisoned tree.
They should have called it a Genetic Perspective rather than an evolutionary perspective, because an evolutionary perspective is in dispute whereas a Genetic Perspective is not. A Genetic Perspective is real, true, and has been experienced and observed, whereas an evolutionary perspective has been falsified trillions of times in thousands of different ways.
In my humble opinion, the Scientific Community as a whole should officially switch from an evolutionary perspective over to a Genetic Perspective. That would resolve ALL of the confusion and disputation. A Genetic Perspective is indisputable. There is wide consensus all across the world backing a Genetic Perspective. There’s no sense denying it. Problem solved.
If the World and the Scientific Community were to switch over to a Genetic Perspective, then everyone would finally have the truth; and then, we can simply leave it up to the Theists and New Atheists to debate over whether our genome was produced by God or produced by random chance. It doesn’t affect a Genetic Perspective one way or the other. Just get rid of the Theory of Evolution because it isn’t needed. It’s in dispute and does science more harm than good. A Genetic Perspective is a superior replacement anyway, because the genes are demonstrably real and have been experienced and observed. Go with the Observational Evidence rather than the philosophical wishful thinking and confirmation bias of the Materialists, Naturalists, Darwinists, Nihilists, and Atheists.
Simple. Logical. Parsimonious. Useful. True.
Mark My Words
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Source Material
Scientific Proof of God’s Existence: Finding God Where the Atheists Refuse to Look for Him.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B26CRHX
Myers, D. G. (2010). Social Psychology (10th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Sanford, J. (2014). Genetic Entropy (4th ed.). Cornell University: FMS Foundation.
References
Quantum Neuroscience: The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079Z6QQQB
NATURE vs. NURTURE vs. NIRVANA: An Introduction to Reality
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JWRCSVA
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1521132615
BioPsychoSocial: Including Psyche or Light into our Theoretical Models
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0713NDHVW
Science 2.0: I Upgraded My Science.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0771K6WTX