Author: Daniel Witt | Page 2 | Science and Culture Today

^{Type
post

Author
Daniel Witt

Date
June 4, 2025

Categories
Evolution
History of Science
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, "survival of the fittest", Alexis de Tocqueville, animals, capitalism, Charles Darwin, Erasmus Darwin, Europe, evolution, Evolution News, evolutionary biologists, food, French Revolution, Industrial Revolution, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Margaret Sanger, mental climate, Modern Synthesis, Neil Thomas, On the Origin of Species, paradigm shift, population, printing press, Social Darwinism, Thomas Malthus, United States, Winston Churchill, World War II, worldview, Zeitgeist}

Evolution Evolved to Mirror the Zeitgeist

_{Daniel Witt
June 4, 2025

Evolution, History of Science, Intelligent Design

12}

By the mid 1800s, the mental climate had shifted, and the time was ripe for a new Darwin to craft a new Darwinism. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Daniel Witt

Date
May 28, 2025

Categories
Evolution
History of Science
Life Sciences
Tagged
, Age of Exploration, animals, Arthur Lovejoy, C.S. Lewis, Charles Darwin, civilization, Darwinism, Edward Young, Enlightenment, Erasmus Darwin, evolutionary theories, F. W. J. Schelling, French Revolution, Gottfried Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, James Burnett, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste Robinet, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Lord Monboddo, Michael Flannery, Night-Thoughts, P.T. Barnum, philosophers, Robert Richards, scientific paradigms, sea creaturess, The Discarded Image, The Great Chain of Being, University of Chicago, worldview, Zoonomia}

Before Darwin — How Evolution Evolved

_{Daniel Witt
May 28, 2025

Evolution, History of Science, Life Sciences

13}

The soil was prepared — soon, seeds were sprouting. In roughly the third quarter of the 18th century, evolutionary theories of biology proliferated. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Daniel Witt

Date
May 19, 2025

Categories
History of Science
Intelligent Design
Philosophy
Philosophy of Science
Tagged
, Andreas Wagner, Aristotle, biology, Brian Miller, calculations, Charles Darwin, Darwin's Black Box, Darwinism, Denis Noble, Empedocles, evolution, Evolution Evolving, gene knockout, information, Institute for the Study of Complex Systems, Io, Irreducible Complexity, Jupiter, Michael Behe, Middle Ages, Mount Etna, Nature (journal), neurons, Ole Rømer, Oxford University, Peter Corning, Plato's Revenge, Presocratic philosophers, René Descartes, telescope, Theodosius Dobzhansky, University of Zurich}

Settled Science Is Becoming Radically Unsettled: Get Ready for Revolutions

_{Daniel Witt
May 19, 2025

History of Science, Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Philosophy of Science

12}

It might be early to say whether Richard Sternberg's calculations are correct — but the point is, this kind of calculation is only just becoming possible. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Daniel Witt

Date
May 14, 2025

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Philosophy of Science
Tagged
, algorithms, Andreas Wagner, Aristotle, biology, C.H. Waddington, Casey Luskin, creationists, demiurge, Denis Noble, DNA, Erwin Schrödinger, evolutionary biology, Günter Bechly, Hans Driesch, Harvard University, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Lars Löfgren, Michael Levin, microbes, Plato, Plato's Revenge, Platonism, René Descartes, René Thom, Richard Sternberg, Robert Rosen, sequoia trees, Summer Seminar on Intelligent Design, theoretical biology, Tufts University, University of Zurich, vitalism}

Eavesdropping in the Platonic Academy

_{Daniel Witt
May 14, 2025

Evolution, Intelligent Design, Philosophy of Science

10}

I can relate to the paleontologist Günter Bechly, who, after hearing Sternberg lay out his thesis, lay awake unable to sleep as he considered the implications. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Daniel Witt

Date
April 16, 2025

Categories
Intelligent Design
Neuroscience & Mind
Zoology
Tagged
, biology, brain tumor, caterpillars, chrysalis, CT scan, Denyse O'Leary, earth, epicycles, German, Guillermo Gonzalez, Günter Bechly, Harvard University, heliocentric model, Johannes Kepler, Karina Kofman, Kevin Mitchell, materialism, Metamorphosis, methodological materialism, Michael Egnor, Michael Levin, mind, neuroscience, planets, Plato, Richard Sternberg, solar system, The Immortal Mind, Tufts University}

Biologist Michael Levin Is at It Again, Now Pushing at the Mind-Brain Equation

_{Daniel Witt
April 16, 2025

Intelligent Design, Neuroscience & Mind, Zoology

10}

When caterpillars are in their chrysalises, their brains physically dissolve (along with the rest of their bodies) and are rebuilt as butterfly brains. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Daniel Witt

Date
March 28, 2025

Categories
Evolution
Genetics
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, biochemists, biology, Darwinism, DNA, heuristic, junk DNA, junk RNA, lncRNAs, long noncoding RNAs, mRNA, neo-Darwinian paradigm, Nobel Prize, predictions, proteins, RNA, scientific progress, The Catalyst, Thomas Cech, W. W. Norton}

Nobelist Thomas Cech on “Junk RNA”

_{Daniel Witt
March 28, 2025

Evolution, Genetics, Intelligent Design

6}

We can add this prominent biochemist to the ever-growing list of scientists who reject the “junk DNA” paradigm. Or, more pertinently, the junk RNA paradigm. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Daniel Witt

Date
March 11, 2025

Categories
Intelligent Design
Neuroscience & Mind
Scientific Reasoning
Tagged
, Big Bang, biologists, causes, conscious experience, Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, explanations, free will, gravity, infinite chain, infinite regress, movement, neuroscientists, Peter Corning, philosophers, physical universe, physicists, promissory note, quantum mechanics, Robert Sapolsky, Stanford University, turtles, universe}

Revenge of the Turtle Lady

_{Daniel Witt
March 11, 2025

Intelligent Design, Neuroscience & Mind, Scientific Reasoning

14}

You’ve probably heard the story about the old lady who tells a Famous Professor that the world is actually sitting on the back of giant turtle. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Daniel Witt

Date
March 5, 2025

Categories
Evolution
Neuroscience & Mind
Philosophy
Tagged
, brains, color, consciousness, Darwinism, determinism, evolution, Free Agents, free will, hard problem of consciousness, intelligent design, Kevin Mitchell, materialism, materialists, Michael Levin, naturalism, neurons, pain, Platonism, purpose, randomness, René Descartes, will}

Did Evolution Give Us Free Will? (Continued)

_{Daniel Witt
March 5, 2025

Evolution, Neuroscience & Mind, Philosophy

10}

The door is open to other causes — even those that neuroscientist Kevin Mitchell himself would prefer to keep out. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Daniel Witt

Date
March 4, 2025

Categories
Evolution
Neuroscience & Mind
Tagged
, agency, Benjamin Libet, brain, compatibilism, Darwinian processes, Denyse O'Leary, Determined (book), evolution, Free Agents, free will, Kevin Mitchell, materialists, muscles, neurobiology, neuroscientists, randomness, Robert Sapolsky, Trinity College Dublin}

Did Evolution Give Us Free Will?

_{Daniel Witt
March 4, 2025

Evolution, Neuroscience & Mind

8}

If you pick up a book up about free will by a materialist, you are generally safe to assume that the point will be to explain that free will is an illusion. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Daniel Witt

Date
February 28, 2025

Categories
Biology
Engineering
Mathematics
Metaphysics
Tagged
, a priori, abstract objects, Andreas Wagner, Daniel Dennett, David Deutsch, Discovery Institute, DNA, emergence, flatworms, frogs, Günter Bechly, Harvard University, material world, materialism, Max Tegmark, Mereology, Michael Levin, morphogenesis, mysticism, naturalism, philosophy of biology, physical world, physicalism, Platonism, Platonists, Richard Sternberg, Roger Penrose, secondary qualities, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, teleology, Tufts University, universals, University of Zurich, Werner Heisenberg}

Biologist Michael Levin: A Farewell to Physicalism

_{Daniel Witt
February 28, 2025

Biology, Engineering, Mathematics, Metaphysics

15}

Levin proposes a “radical Platonist view in which some of the causal input into mind and life originates outside the physical world.” Read More ›