Islam: An Evolutionary Perspective

by Edward Dutton, John Derbyshire (Preface)

An intellectual gap separates the Islamic world and the West. Muslim children under-perform on most all educational measures, and Muslim societies produce fewer books, scientific advances, and cultural achievements. Evolutionary psychologist Edward Dutton demonstrates that this is not just a matter of genetics, war, or politics; the problem derives from Islam itself. Holding to Islamic belief forces people to avoid 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 its advantages. The Muslim practices that reduce cognitive ability also elevate in-group cooperation. 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 intelligence. 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? --- Edward Dutton is Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at Asbiro University in Lódź, Poland, and is a prolific researcher and commentator. He is the author of Religion and Intelligence (2014), Making Sense of Race (2020), among many other books. --- " Edward Dutton is one of the liveliest and most engaging of this new generation of academic dissidents. " - John Derbyshire

Genres: Islam, Religion, Politics

138 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 3, 2021

Reviews

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

9/10.

Summary: Islam has many features which lower one’s IQ (take pregnant mothers fasting for a month as an example), but also many measures which are very effective at policing its ranks to ensure that there are no selfish defectors (a classic evolutionary problem). This, in turn, strengthens altruistic and ethnocentric behaviors of the Islamic in-group. Because of this, and because the West has opened its borders, we are seeing Islamic societies being created in the West. When added to the fact that Western intellectuals no longer justify their group’s existence because of spiteful mutations coming from a non-Darwinian environment, added to the fact that Westerners do not reproduce at replacement level for the same reason, we reach a pessimistic conclusion: the West will no longer be the West in 100-200 years, but will be a Caliphate either through intermating or through a genetic winter.

Is there a solution? The only solution seems to be creating a Darwinian environment to get rid of spiteful mutations (especially in intellectuals who spread them throughout the population), or to make the West more religious, as religion correlates .3 with ethnocentrism. The problem is that our religions have been degraded to nonsense, preaching that God is not actually real, but just some urge of Love. So Dutton sees a solution in Eastern religions, perhaps Eastern Orthodoxy. But really, the ending is pessimistic: we have so many spiteful mutations which are increasing further and further that any pushback to the modern situation of maladaptive behavior will only occur via collapse. Our leaders surely will not allow genetic engineering to modify ethnocentric behavior! — even if our current levels of it mean that we will be outcompeted at a population level (confirmed by computer simulations to always be the case).

[Emesa]

As this man is described ‘Edward Croft Dutton (1980–) is an alt-right eccentric English Youtuber, terrorist-sympathizer,[2] anti-feminist, race and intelligence pseudoscientist,[3] homophobe, Islamophobe, sexist, transphobe, anti-semite, anti-vegan, and white supremacist.’ I don't think much more could be said about one taking any of his trash seriously. It's as though this guy is just writing out of spite. I'm not sure who would take from someone who quotes Winston Churchill with a straight face either. This guy doesn't understand how Fiqh or Usul seems to work, it's as though he didn't open any book or, at the very least, visit a Muslim country before running his mouth on some nonsense. He needs to find himself a job soon.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a small book just chock full of insights on culture (ethnocentricity), intelligence and religion. As with all of Dutton's books he covers the basics of the Evolutionary Psychological view and then applies them to a condensed and wide ranging analysis of Islam. The gist is that Islam encourages a stunted intelligence (in a fascinating variety of ways) and (thus) a boosted sense of ethnocentrism. European/American cultures (modern Christian and secularly materialistic) on the other hand foster higher IQ and lower ethnocentrism which in the end (inevitably) is doomed to being replace (and assimilated into) the more aggressive/fit and less intelligent Islamic tidal wave. Not much can be done to stop this trend, and in the end it may just make humanity fitter to survive (intelligence after all isn't the be-all-end-all of quality of life), but fortunately for us all that'll be several generations from now...

[Alexandros_D · Rating 1 out of 5]

This man obviously hasn't done his research I am an Eastern Orthodox Christian and we fast as well does he mean we have low IQs as well by his logic? That's quite questionable indeed. Deserves one star. As he is truly stumped in his research

[Fearless Leader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but not many new ideas from Dutton here.

[AttackGirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review?

[Graham Seibert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dazzling insights are available when you take off your politically correct blinders. Talking about human biodiversity (the differences among populations) is taboo. We are not allowed to talk about differences in intelligence, in personality, or in cultural practices. With these blinders firmly in place, the French wonder why knife attacks are up, English wonder why white girls are raped by Muslim grooming gangs, and the Germans wonder why the Turks have failed to assimilate after half a century. Dutton doesn't wonder. He knows, and he will tell you. It is a measure of the extent to which the world is not crying to find out that I write this first review a month after its publication.

What is Islam? Why are Muslims so fanatical in support of their religion, and so antithetical toward us in the West? More to the point, why have we chosen to blind ourselves to the obvious fact that they always been like this? Why are we letting an intellectually inferior people overrun us?

Albert Einstein spent the last half of his life looking for a Unified Field Theory to explain the fundamental forces governing elementary particles. He came up with quite a bit, but nobody understood it. Dutton is different. He is looking for a Unified Social Theory to explain elementary human nature. Most of his insights, once you read them, are blindingly obvious. Dutton's problem is not that people cannot understand, but rather that they willfully refuse to understand the fundamental principles of evolution, psychology and religion.

Dutton has been publishing on these themes throughout his career. The Genius Famine is a treatise on intelligence and how the outlier intelligence of a few members of society goes a long ways toward determining the success of the entire society. The Silent Rape Epidemic: How the Finns Were Groomed to Love Their Abusers is an analysis of the politically correct establishment's unwillingness to confront the reality of Muslim behavior. At Our Wits End - Why We're Becoming Less Intelligent and What it Means for the Future addresses the increasing rapidity with which human intelligence is dropping. Race Differences in Ethnocentrism is a book length dissertation supporting the second half of this current title "… and Means You Will Conquer the World."

Dutton draws a number of ideas from the subject of his biographical book J. Philippe Rushton – A Life History Perspective. Lastly, and curiously, although he has written in Churchill's Headmaster: The 'Sadist' Who Nearly Saved the British Empire that Churchill was a dangerous man, that dangerous man is eminently quotable and played an outsized role in twentieth century history. Dutton makes good use of Churchill's quotes on Islam.

As John Derbyshire writes in the introduction "Good quantitative knowledge about human nature—good enough for the kind of robust speculation that energizes scientific discovery, sometimes good enough to have immediate predictive value—is accumulating very fast. Yet even as our understanding advances, public discussion of topics in the human sciences is fiercely constrained by obscurantist political taboos."

With this introduction out of the way – all the important reasons why people would tell you not to read this book – we can get to the substance you are not supposed to notice. First, Does Islam makes you stupid? If so, how?

Dutton devotes a chapter to the discussion of what is intelligence. There is nothing new here – he simply recounts information most of which has been known for half a century and well described by researchers such as Arthur Jensen in The g Factor: The Science of Mental Ability, Earl Hunt in Human Intelligence, and myriad others including Linda Gottfredson, James Flynn and too many others to name. Ignorance sufficient to deny the reality of intelligence must be strongly willed.

Dutton cites the expert, Richard Lynn, who has compiled intelligence research from all over the world in two masterful books, IQ and the Wealth of Nations and IQ and Global Inequality. He goes right to the point in the third book Race Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis. Charles Murray presents the same conclusions and what he hopes is a palatable form in his recent Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class. This is surely a vain hope from the guy who wrote "The Bell Curve." Suffice it to say – the science all points the same way.

Dutton pegs several practices that reduce intelligence to the five pillars of Islam: faith, prayer, fasting, charity and the hajj to Mecca. Intellectual curiosity is stultified when the holy book provides the answers to all of life's questions, and people who display too much curiosity can find themselves branded as heretics to be shunned or stoned.

Prayer is mandatory five times a day. There is no way that cannot impact productivity. It also is a strong incentive to conformity. All that said, it may not vastly affect intelligence.

Devout Muslims must fast from dawn to dusk during the month of Ramadan. There is a measurable
correlation between lack of nutrition during pregnancy and intellectual deficiency. And this is in the tropics! One can hardly imagine what it was like in Dutton's adopted Oulu, Finland where the nights were only four hours long in 2014.

Charity and the once-in-a-lifetime trip to Mecca are mostly financial concerns. If you don't have enough money the kids may not get proper nutrition, and probably won't get educated to the extent of their abilities.

Dutton has an interesting and welcome new take on the topic of education. Whereas most of the authors named above would say that intelligence is mostly a matter of genetics, Dutton cites studies showing that being around intelligent people in early life raises a child's measured intelligence – we already knew that – but furthermore, some of the gain may persist into adulthood. He also cites studies showing that people who don't use their brains, such as retired engineers and doctors, lose a bit of intelligence.

Dutton writes extensively about the process of female circumcision, called female genital mutilation until that term went out of favor with political correctness. You will not often read about the horrors of the ghastly process itself or how widespread it is and certain Islamic countries. For a first-hand account, read Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book "Infidel." While FGM deals with body parts other than the brain, the traditions of purdah, female seclusion, are consistent with women not being educated up to their potential and with no premium being placed on intelligence in the selection of a wife.

Other aspects of purdah certainly don't help intelligence. Covering the whole body can result in a vitamin D deficiency, heat exhaustion and other problems.

All that said, why is Islam going to conquer the world? The answer to that question lies more with us in the West than with them. They are as they have always been, and they have always been at our door, from Córdoba and Tours to Lepanto and the gates of Vienna. Dutton observes that Islam has always displayed mutual support through positive ethnocentrism and antipathy toward others - negative ethnocentrism. Whereas the West has never been terribly ethnocentric, a century ago we were enough so that our superior intelligence and technology was enough to ward Islam off.

We are now too effete to defend ourselves against anybody. Few of us are convinced we have anything worth defending. We are not raising children in the Christian faith – indeed, we are not having many children at all. Islam is simply following the 3 billion year old dictate of evolutionary success – be fruitful and multiply. It is we who have changed.

Though Dutton doesn't go into it in depth, it is not just the Christian West that is not having children. Northeast Asia has an even worse fertility problem than white people. Among Jews, like Christians, it is only the fundamentalist minority who are having children. As Dutton describes in another chapter, religion correlates somewhat negatively with intelligence. Most notably, the highly intelligent fraction of all societies seems to be very reluctant to put their energies into raising children.

The dictionary defines consilience thus: "In science and history, consilience refers to the principle that evidence from independent, unrelated sources can "converge" on strong conclusions." Dutton marshals evidence from a large number of intellectual disciplines to support his two conclusions, first about Muslim intelligence and second about Islam's impending domination of the Christian world. It offers a different view of Islam itself, insight into recent work in evolutionary psychology and related fields, and some trenchant observations about those of us in what is left of the Christian West. Five stars.

[Calle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book definitely has some interesting ideas and seems well researched (around 350 footnotes in ~140 pages). Still, many of the conclusions feel rather speculative, and Dutton's solution — that the West should perhaps convert to Eastern Orthodox Christianity in order to be able to meet the threats posed by Islam — feels quite absurd. I don’t regret reading it because it was a quick read and had some interesting ideas and information, but it just wasn’t very convincing (some conclusions made sense, others not so much).