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Evolutionary psychology puts people with disabilities in their place. Not a nice place.

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The Shape of Water (film).png From Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, who struggls with a disability, reviewing a sci-fi film at Tor:

I Belong Where the People Are: Disability and The Shape of Water

On the surface, there are many things to like about The Shape of Water. The main characters, the ones in the right, they are all outsiders. They are people like me. With the exception of Children of a Lesser God, it is the first time I have ever seen a disabled woman as an object of desire. It is the first time I have seen someone swear in sign in a mainstream film. It is one of the only films out there to address some of my feelings about my body or depict them on screen. Let’s be honest, Children of a Lesser God was made in 1986. That’s 31 years of film history. That’s my entire life.

Over the holidays, I attended a party where a guest told me that disabled people were cast as evil characters because evolutionary psychology says that asymmetrical people aren’t attractive. He said this, while looking into my asymmetrical eyes. He said this without apology. He said this because he believed it, with my husband not two seats away from me staring daggers at him. The thing is, this isn’t the first time this has happened to me. It probably won’t be the last. There’s nobody fighting back, except the disabled people out there who want to be loved.

Give that party guest a Darwinism award!

I wanted to feel included in the human world. Instead, the film reinforced the narrative that I belong below the surface, to be put on display when it suits the narrative. More.

Elsa, you are an inseparable part of the human world! Evolutionary psychology, mmm, not so much. If that whole “discipline” sailed off a cliff tonight, who would notice? I mean, seriously. It seems to exist only to justify the things right reason abhors.

See also: From the Edge: Another reason not to like evolutionary psychology – support for Chinese eugenics

Romantic love “evolved” to prevent infanticide? Can someone please pull the chain on evolutionary psychology?

and

“The evolutionary psychologist knows why you vote — and shop, and tip at restaurants”

Hat tip: Heather Zeiger

Comments
The presumption that someone with a mutation-caused disability must be some kind of villain is obviously a form of irrational bigotry. But the general desire of most people to find a non-disabled mate is, I think, pretty normal. Even if Darwin's theory of evolution is completely false, and all life on Earth was intelligently designed, isn't there still a process of natural selection that constantly weeds out deleterious mutations? Mostly, the socially "not-nice place" in which disabled people find themselves is an indirect consequence of the deleterious mutation they carry, and cannot be expected to joyously disappear when the reign of Darwinism comes to an end.DarelRex
January 24, 2018
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If that whole “discipline” sailed off a cliff tonight, who would notice? I mean, seriously. It seems to exist only to justify the things right reason abhors.
Agree.Dionisio
January 21, 2018
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ET @3, Good point.Dionisio
January 21, 2018
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True freedom. https://www.truthforlife.org/resources/sermon/sons-of-freedom/ https://www.truthforlife.org/resources/sermon/the-only-thing-that-counts/ https://www.truthforlife.org/resources/sermon/freedom-understood-applied/Dionisio
January 21, 2018
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The Bondage of the Will, the Sovereignty of Grace, and the Glory of God https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-bondage-of-the-will-the-sovereignty-of-grace-and-the-glory-of-godDionisio
January 21, 2018
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It's our human condition, from the beginning of history. Not just Adam and Eve. We are all the same. Paul Anka's song 'my way' is from the 20th century. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV) In the Old Testament, the “heart” is more than the seat of emotion. It represents the basis of character, including the mind and the will (4:19; Prov. 4:23; 16:23). Commentary from Reformation Study Bible provided by Ligonier Ministries. There's no natural remedy for that fatal malady.Dionisio
January 21, 2018
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Seversky- There wasn't any going back. They chose to know for themselves as opposed to letting God provide for them. And it just so happened that knowledge was a rush that Eve wanted to share. You can't un-see what you have already seen and you can't un-know what you have already known/ discovered. Once the choice was made the Garden of Eden would wither away without God's constant care- unless of course they could figure out how to maintain it themselves. Big job for those just starting out and other priorities to face.ET
January 20, 2018
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If somebody is convicted of an offense in court we accept that it is just and fair that they should be punished for that offense. We do not consider that it is just and fair that their family and descendants in perpetuity should also be punished for an offense in which they had no hand since it happened before they were born. Yet you consider it just and fair that the human race is being punished for as long as it exists for Adam and Eve's transgression. And what was that transgression? They ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil after God had told them they should not. They were curious. Since nothing happens but by God's will they were endowed with the capacity for curiosity by their Creator. In other words, they were punished for behaving as they had been designed to behave by their Creator. Yet you believe that is a Good Thing?Seversky
January 20, 2018
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What else is new?
The Nazis took Darwin's ideas of natural selection, in particular the idea of survival of the fittest in the animal kingdom, and applied them to the human world and society (Darwin's Origin of the Species had been published in 1859). It was argued that allowing disabled people to live and have children, led to the "unfit" reproducing more quickly than "the fit". It was said that this weakened society's ability to function efficiently, placing an unnecessary toll on non-disabled people. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/fact/the_holocaust_and_disabled_people_faq_frequently_asked_questions.shtml
Had we remained in Eden, none of this would have been an issue. Too late now. We preferred the tune of Paul Anka's song "My Way" and John Lennon's "Imagine" to any hymn that praises our gracious Creator. We can't complain now. We got what we wished for. Let's admit it, repent and get back to where we once belonged.Dionisio
January 20, 2018
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