Post #1 - Pinker

While Pinker often jumps around throughout “The Blank Slate”, I believe he brings up some intriguing and valid arguments that require some additional conversation. I can’t say that I quite agree with everything that Pinker brings up, but there is one specific topic that hit me on a personal level. Throughout my life, I have been raised on the belief that there is a God, and I have always held this faith pretty close. While my parents have always been the most religious members of my family, my siblings and I have continuously practiced our faith regardless of our scientific backgrounds.

Now Pinker brings up an interesting point that has caused me conflict throughout my life. In discussing neuroscience and the ghost in the machine near the end of page 4 and into the beginning of page 5, he brings up God. Under my interpretation, Pinker discusses the idea of “losing God” when people hear certain scientific findings. Pinker states that, “many people are sorry to ‘lose God’ when they hear these findings, or at least sorry to lose the values that have traditionally been associated with God.” Of the many ideas that Pinker introduces and discusses, this one BOTH affirms and contradicts my beliefs. While I believe that there is a God, I am also a scientist and can believe and accept scientific findings such as evolution that heavily contradict the existence of a God. While I understand that this may seem confusing, I live life based on the idea that there is some gray area on the subject instead of it being so black and white.

I went through this article several times to really find something that resonated with me, and while Pinker surely has plenty of ideas, he also finds ways to reflect back on both sides of the argument (or at least that’s what I think he was doing). In a way this is how I currently choose to address my feelings and beliefs. Pinker somewhat addresses my thought process later on in his article, or at least brings up how there are people that are like me that have some conflict surrounding this topic. As I do believe in God, I feel that this action alone is an act against the “science wars”, but as I said there is a side of me that accepts the scientific reasoning and findings that the “science wars” argue. While I know that the stakes are high to believe what I do, I’m comfortable with living with a little bit of ambiguity. I feel that I’ve jumped around quite a bit through this post, but maybe that means I’m a little more like Pinker than I originally thought.