Tara Westover and The Scout Mindset

In Tara Westover's wildly successful memoir Educated, she documents her unlikely transformation from her parents' brand of anti-government, anti-education, homeopathic prepper beliefs, to a PhD in history from the University of Cambridge and, well, a wildly successful memoirist. I won't go into a lot of detail here--if you haven't read it, you should--but I just want to make a few observations.

Tara's decision to take the ACT and enroll in university, without ever having any formal education in public schools, was a huge step, and was certainly critical in her transformation. But it occurred to me that Tara could have just as easily returned home from school with nothing more than a music degree and a stronger conviction of the world's corruption. I could picture her settling back near her parents, having lots of babies, directing the church choir, and mixing herbs and essential oils for her mom.

So what really made the difference? Something that struck me in her story was her consistent reaction to new information she learned in school, especially that which conflicted with her prior beliefs or understanding. There were several times in the book where she heard something new or unfamiliar, and immediately ran to the library or got on Google and learned as much as she could about the subject. Whether it was The Holocaust, Martin Luther King, Bipolar disorder, the Naples Idaho standoff (the Weavers), Feminism, or whatever, she would soak in as much information as she could, with a completely open mind. She didn't get defensive or avoid information that conflicted with her father's teachings; in fact it seemed the more incongruent the information was to her prior beliefs, the more intrigued she was.

Soldier vs. Scout Mindset

While most people get defensive when their beliefs are challenged, others derive pleasure from learning information that forces them to shift their paradigm. Tara Westover is a perfect example of what Julia Galef calls a "scout mindset." The following is a quote from Galef's 2016 TED Talk.

Just as soldier mindset is rooted in emotions like defensiveness or tribalism, scout mindset is too; it's just rooted in different emotions. For example, scouts are curious. They are more likely to say that they feel pleasure when they learn new information, or an itch to solve a puzzle. They're more likely to feel intrigued when they encounter something that contradicts their expectations. Scouts also have different values. They're more likely to say that it's virtuous to test your own beliefs, and they're less likely to say that someone who changes their mind seems weak.

There are certainly evolutionary advantages to a soldier mindset. In hunter-gatherer tribes, children who listened to their parents without questioning were probably more likely to survive to produce their own children. And defending the norms and rules of your tribe was likely to lead to more cohesive communities. Anyone who deviated from these norms was more likely to be cast out, and therefore less likely to survive. But there's no doubt that a scout mindset, in the long run, is more likely to lead to truth.

Religion vs. Science

Most of the debates about whether religion and science are compatible tend to focus on the conclusions of science versus the doctrines and narratives of religion; for example, evolution, the age of the earth, Noah and the flood, etc. But the fundamental difference between science and religion is not their conclusions, but their methods and values. It's not what they believe, but how. 

Religion is based on authority--of scriptures, prophets, parents, etc.--while science is based on unbiased inquiry, and is anti-authoritarian. Religion relies on people learning a narrative when their minds are too young to question it, and by the time their intellect has matured, using it to defend that narrative rather than to doubt it. Just like the soldier mindset, religion relies on defensiveness and tribalism in order to thrive. When a belief is threatened, your connection to your tribe is also threatened. Often people's commitment to uphold their beliefs is strongly tied to their loyalty to their parents and their communities. Questioning, doubting, and challenging these beliefs is to alienate yourself from your tribe.

Science is not driven by any loyalties or authorities. It is based only on a commitment to the unending search for truth. Questioning, challenging, and doubting are considered the strongest virtues of science. Progress is never made without a willingness to re-examine old paradigms, even sacred ones.

Religion relies on the soldier mindset, while science depends on the scout mindset.

Reconciling New Beliefs with Old

When people try to reconcile religion and science they are trying to hold on to the beliefs of their community. They recognize the value of science, or the scout mindset, but are not willing to adopt it for themselves, at least not fully. They believe in the findings of science, but only insofar as these findings don't threaten their fortress of unscientific beliefs, and therefore haven't truly embraced the values of science. They still have a soldier mindset.

Once you recognize that the values of science--curiosity, unbiased inquiry, experimentation--provide a better method for determining truth than the values of authority and tribalism, the first thing you should do is re-evaluate any beliefs that you acquired through the latter method, using your new tools and values. The only way to do this honestly, is to be willing to completely let go of your old beliefs. It doesn't mean you have to immediately toss them out. It just means you need to be willing to if they don't hold up to your new standard of inquiry. Your commitment to truth must be stronger than your loyalty to the beliefs of your family or tribe.

Imagine what would have happened if Tara Westover had tried to hold on to her parents' belief system while learning all the new things that conflicted with it. Instead of eagerly researching new ideas, she would've cast them from her thoughts. She could've focused on her music classes, and only learned enough to get by in her other classes. Still, she would have encountered a lot of cognitive dissonance, and would've certainly felt confused and defensive. But in the end, her loyalty to her parents' beliefs would have prevented her metamorphosis, and she would've ended up back in rural Idaho making tinctures for her mom and canning peaches for the end of the world. And none of us would have ever heard of her.

Additional Resources

You can find Tara Westover's book, Educated, on Amazon or Audible here.

Julia Galef's book, The Scout Mindset, to be released next month, can be found here. Her TED Talk is below. 

I highly recommend Mr. Deity's 3-part series, "Science & Religion are Mortal Enemies" (part 1 embedded below).