Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

Can the religious be saved from tribal conflicts? Reflections on Joshua Greene's Moral Tribes How can we escape from the tragedy of religious groups in conflict? Killing, rape, and hate-filled-loud-angry-in-your-face verbal assaults routinely fill news headlines. And the sad thing is that sometimes the conflict is between religious tribes. Who would want to be a part of such a religion? Fortunately, for most of the world, the combat is more subtle. It’s more about killing reputations, insisting that God wants you to live a miserable life (strict rules against divorce or remarriage), or splitting a group over moral clashes like abortion or same-sex marriage. Understanding moral conflict is the quest of philosopher-psychologist Joshua Greene. I read his book Moral Tribes earlier this year (2014) and finally got round to writing a review. There are many ways to analyze his work. I’ll name just two. 1. People act before they think. For me, an intriguing part of t...