Islam: An Evolutionary Perspective

An intellectual gap separates the Islamic world and the West. Muslim children under-perform on almost all educational measures, and the societies as a whole produce fewer scientific advances and cultural achievements. Evolutionary psychologist Edward Dutton argues that this is not just a matter of genetics, war, or politics. It stems from Islam itself. Holding to Islamic belief interferes with analytical and creative ways of thinking. Veiling, female circumcision, the Ramadan fast, polygamy, and even praying regularly does the same, leading to worse education systems, increased poverty, and less intellectual development.

That said, Islam has clear advantages. The Muslim practices that reduce cognitive ability also elevate ethnocentrism-in-group co-operation. And it is the more ethnocentric groups that win in the intense struggle of Darwinian selection. Thus, Dutton predicts that Islam will come to triumph over the West precisely because it reduces cognitive ability. This raises disturbing questions. Are there terminal disadvantages to developing cultures of high intelligence and individualism? Might the West need to adopt something akin to Islam, and become rather less thoughtful, in order to survive?

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Edward Dutton is a prolific researcher and commentator, who has published widely in the field of religious studies. He is Editor at Washington Summit Publishers and Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at Asbiro University in L dź, Poland. Dutton is the author of many books, including Religion and Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis (2014), Race Differences in Ethnocentrism (2019), and *Meeting Jesus at University: Rites of Passage and Student Evangelicals*(2008).

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"Edward Dutton is one of the liveliest and most engaging of this new generation of academic dissidents. . . . He is what Bill Nye the Science Guy would be, if that gentleman dared to present the human sciences with uninhibited objectivity."

-John Derbyshire