The Evolutionary Psychology of Religion
In The Evolutionary Psychology of Religion written by Steven Pinker he explores the possible reasons why religion is universal across all societies. In his writing he tries to answer the question, do we have a “God gene” or a “God module”? Pinker goes on explaining how the human mind is well engineered and that is, we can see, think, move, talk, understand, and achieve goals better than any robot or computer. Also, goes into telling how religious belief can be adaptations and that there are three hypotheses, which are that religion gives comfort, religion brings a community together, and religion is the source of our higher ethical yearnings.
I think Steven uses a variety of ethos, pathos, and logos in his article. Also, using rhetorical questions to get his readers attention. For example in his opening paragraph he asks, Do we have a “God gene” or a “God module”? which gets the reader more interested to learn which one. He uses the logos appeal in statistics of what we believe in “25% of Americans believe in witches, 50% in ghosts, 50% in the devil, 50% believe that the Book of Genesis is literally true, 69% believe in angels, 87% believe Jesus was raised from the dead, and 96% believe in a god or a universal spirit.” Steven uses pathos by asking questions and really trying to get you to understand the belief of religion and relation it to love and comfort. He also uses ethos by stating and describing his three hypotheses.
My personal take on the debatable topic is adaptation, which is mentioned through out the whole article. I was born in a catholic home, which makes my religious belief Catholic. If my family had been a different religion such as Greek or Judaist I would have different beliefs as I grew up and I wouldn’t believe what I do today. I think Steven did a very good job of getting the readers attention and really got you to think about what he was saying through out the whole article and about religion...