The afterlife

Belief in an afterlife is a malignant delusion, since it devalues actual lives and discourages action that would make them longer, safer, and happier. Exhibit A: What’s really behind Republicans wanting a swift reopening? Evangelicals. https://t.co/ppo2bwiVGn

— Steven Pinker (@sapinker) May 21, 2020

Evangelicals believe that we will one day have to give an account of our "actual lives" to the Judge of all the earth and that the decisions we make in our "actual lives" can have eternal consequences.

Atheists like Professor Pinker believe otherwise.

You do the math. https://t.co/LFVtF47FhD

— James Anderson (@proginosko) May 21, 2020

Rather than dunk on the latest Steven Pinker tweet I'll just say that I've always wanted to hear more about his wife's paranormal experience and how she (in her words) reasoned it away:https://t.co/cGSxVsfYpE pic.twitter.com/YVHQDYOp2j

— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) May 21, 2020

It's an incomplete entry in my file of nonconversion stories:https://t.co/HRskv5KDQJ

— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) May 21, 2020

The Better Angels of Our Nature

In the wake of the Chas church shooting, we have the predictable demand for gun bans. 

Steven PInker wrote a book that's very popular among secular humanists: The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.

Pinker's book has many critics. But let's assume for the sake of argument that his trajectory is accurate. Guns didn't even exist for most of human history. So, according to Pinker, at the very time when you have far more violent deaths (percentage-wise), you had zero access to guns. By definition, there could be no gun-related violence before guns were invented. Conversely, violent death has gone down at the same time access to guns has gone up. An inverse ratio between gun-ownership and violent death.

I'd add that even if you disagree with Pinker's dubious stats, it's still the case that human history was enormously violent long before the advent of guns. Mass murder doesn't require guns. Massacres were committed far and wide without gun access. 

Blinkered Pinker

Bill Vallicella skewers Steven Pinker on scientism.