We’re too Greek. Nothing against Greeks, as my son-in-law is one, but the kind of Greek I’m talking about is our Western way of thinking that is fueling our donkey elephant war. We have a big fat Greek problem. (*1)

One of the primary books I read as part of my research was The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Religion, by Jonathan Haidt. Suffice it to say that as a lifelong Christian with a bachelor’s degree in science and a master’s degree in divinity, I didn’t spend much time reading evolutionary psychology. Putting all my cards on the table, I didn’t even know evolutionary psychology was a thing. Haidt self-identifies as a liberal, atheist evolutionary psychologist, so to say that his and my worldviews are a world apart would be not only safe, but an understatement. Which explains why I read the book (and some other similar material), since worldview clashes are at the center of the donkey elephant war. I learned plenty, found much of it a fascinating read, and ended up quite encouraged in an odd sort of way, which I’ll fully explain later in my concluding chapters.

Here are Haidt’s own words as he concludes Part 1 (of three) (*2):

The first principle of moral psychology is Intuition comes first, strategic reasoning second.

—We are obsessively concerned about what others think of us, although much of the concern is unconscious and invisible to us.

—Conscious reasoning functions like a press secretary who automatically justifies any position taken by the president.

—With the help of our press secretary, we are able to lie and cheat often, and then cover it up so effectively that we convince even ourselves. (*3)

—Reasoning can take us to almost any conclusion we want to reach, because we ask “Can I believe it?” when we want to believe something, but “Must I believe it?” when we don’t want to believe. The answer is almost always yes to the first question and no to the second.

—In moral and political matters we are often groupish, rather than selfish. We deploy our reasoning skills to support our team, and to demonstrate commitment to our team.

I was familiar with the concept of natural selection developed by Charles Darwin, but unfamiliar with the concept of group selection. While the insights above match, I believe, a Christian understanding of human nature, the material on group selection seemed particularly relevant. What follows is my very brief summary of Haidt’s writing on an evolutionary view of social development.

• Individuals compete with individuals, and that competition rewards selfishness, but simultaneously groups compete with groups, and the tribes that are more cohesive (team players who cooperate and work for the good of the group) generally win.

• Morality is the key to understanding humanity, because it binds groups together while blinding the group to other groups’ strengths. (*4)

• Group selection happens when individuals find ways to suppress selfishness and work as a team, in competition with other teams. For example, one person pulls down a branch while the other plucks the fruit, and they both share the meal. Ironically, chimpanzees, widely believed to be the closest to humans in terms of development, never do this. (*5)

• Humans construct moral communities out of shared norms, institutions, and gods that they will fight, kill, and die to defend. (*6)

• The co-evolution of tribal minds and tribal cultures didn’t just prepare us for war; it also prepared us for far more peaceful coexistence within our groups, and in modern times, for cooperation on a vast scale as well. (*7)

• Groupishness is focused on improving the welfare of the in-group, not on harming an out-group. (*8)

Tribal identity is central to understanding our donkey elephant war. Tim Urban, whose website my son introduced me to (WaitButWhy.com), comes from a similar place as Haidt, and even quotes his work occasionally. He writes,

On the ancient landscape—the one we were designed for—the human being wasn’t really the independent life form of the human race. The tribe was. In the human world, we think of “Me vs. You” selfishness and “Us vs. Them” tribalism as different concepts, but they’re actually just the same phenomenon. (*9)

I’ve only given tribalism the briefest of overviews here, so some readers may want to check out either of the primary sources I’ve cited. Remember that with no reference to evolutionary psychology whatsoever, Rwandan Pastor Celestin Musekura arrived at the same conclusion in his observations of America. I’ll explore further the issue of identity in the next chapter.

One more Haidt quote for now.

WEIRD is an acronym for Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic. The WEIRDer you are, the more you see a world full of separate objects, rather than relationships. (*10)

Haidt identifies this Western worldview as part of the problem, arguing for more of a group view to moral psychological development than an individual view. How fascinating, to me at least, that two people as different as imaginable arrived at the same conclusion from opposite foundational starting points: we’re too Greek (Western).

1. Reference to the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I’m not referring to the size of any Greek people.

2. Haidt, pp. 105-106.

3. I don’t know about you, but I always find it encouraging when people arrive at Biblical truth through other means. C.S. Lewis is quoted as saying, “Truth is truth wherever you find it.” Compare Haidt’s conclusion with Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

4. Haidt’s assertion, p. 231.

5. Haidt, p. 238.

6. Haidt, p. 240. Clearly, here is a place where our worldviews clash, as I do not believe that we created God, but rather that God created us.

7. Haidt, p. 246.

8. Haidt, p. 253.

9. WaitButWhy.com, The Story of Us, Chapter 2. Urban’s blogs are available on his website, but not published elsewhere that I’m aware of, so the best I can do for a reference is cite the chapter from which the quote is taken.

10. Haidt, p. 112.