Author: Michael Flannery

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Flannery

Date
March 10, 2026

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Neuroscience & Mind
Tagged
, birth, brain, conception, Elliott Sober, epigenetic inheritance, evolution, Evolution of the Brain, evolutionary theory, fetus, individuality, intelligent design, John C. Eccles, Karl Popper, lottery, Mehmet Elgin, mind, natural selection, neuroscience, purpose, purposeful nature, recant, recantation, spiritual creation, testability, The Self and Its Brain, theology, uniqueness}

Popper and Purposeful Nature: A Note on the So-Called “Recantation”

_{Michael Flannery
March 10, 2026

Evolution, Intelligent Design, Neuroscience & Mind

2}

A correspondent raises this famous statement of Karl Popper on natural selection, with his “historically loaded word ‘recant.’” Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Flannery

Date
February 24, 2026

Categories
Biology
Evolution
Philosophy
Tagged
, Alfred North Whitehead, Aristotle, athens, biology, C.S. Lewis, change over time, Democritus, DNA, dynamis, eidos, energeia, evolution, From Logos to Bios, George Gaylord Simpson, H. B. Whittington, Heraclitus, history, Jerusalem, Leucippus, Lev Berg, Malcolm Gordon, metaphysics, Michael Behe, Michael Denton, nomogenesis, philosophy, Pierre-Paul Grassé, Plato, Plotinus, potentiality, Pythagoras, religion, Richard Dawkins, Richard Owen, tautology, Tertullian, The Selfish Gene, universal common descent, Western thought, Wynand de Beer}

Biology (and Cosmology) as Footnotes to Plato: A Review of Wynand de Beer

_{Michael Flannery
February 24, 2026

Biology, Evolution, Philosophy

8}

An important book by Wynand de Beer recaptures the wisdom of the ages and puts it into service not only of science, but of history, philosophy, and religion. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Flannery

Date
December 1, 2023

Categories
Chemistry
Cosmology
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Alfred Russel Wallace, Andrew Berry, Arthur Conan Doyle, intelligent cause, intelligent evolution, Man’s Place in the Universe, Michael Shermer, Nature's Prophet, On the Origin of Species, Richard Dawkins, spiritualism, The Greatest Show on Earth, The World of Life, Wales, William James, William Paley}

Alfred Russel Wallace’s Bicentennial Year: A Cause for Celebration and for Sadness

_{Michael Flannery
December 1, 2023

Chemistry, Cosmology, Evolution, Intelligent Design

15}

All the hyperbole shows the fix is in — Wallace has been made safe for scientism and Darwinian reductionism. The academy can breathe easy. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Flannery

Date
November 27, 2023

Categories
Biology
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Alfred Russel Wallace, Charles Darwin, economics, eugenics, laissez-faire, Michael Shermer, natural selection, Thomas Malthus, Wesley J. Smith, World War II}

Darwin and Wallace Read Malthus Differently, and That Made a Big Difference

_{Michael Flannery
November 27, 2023

Biology, Evolution, Intelligent Design

4}

No wonder Alfred Russel Wallace called eugenics “the meddlesome interference of an arrogant scientific priestcraft.” Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Flannery

Date
November 25, 2023

Categories
Botany
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Alfred Russel Wallace, Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, evolution, HMS Beagle, Joseph Hooker, Linnean Society, Michael Flannery, Nature's Prophet, Robert Chambers, Samuel Stevens, Sarawak Law, South America, The Malay Archipelago, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation}

Alfred Russel Wallace: A Life in Science, Rediscovered

_{Michael Flannery
November 25, 2023

Botany, Evolution, Intelligent Design

8}

Despite the notoriety of Wallace in his own day, he remains a comparatively obscure figure in the history of biology. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Flannery

Date
November 24, 2023

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Alfred Russel Wallace, Andrew Berry, Auguste Comte, Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, Darwinian, David Hume, evolution, history, John Elof Boodin, John Herschel, Nature's Prophet, On the Origin of Species, Overruling Intelligence, Quarterly Review, scientism, St. George Mivart, teleology, Thomas Henry Huxley, transmutation, William James, William Whewell, X Club}

The Outsider: Alfred Russel Wallace’s Reputation in the Darwinian Era

_{Michael Flannery
November 24, 2023

Evolution, Intelligent Design

12}

Was Alfred Wallace a “crazy” crank? Was he an undisciplined “dilettante” bemused by every fringe belief he encountered? Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Flannery

Date
November 22, 2023

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Alfred Russel Wallace, Arthur Koestler, Charles Darwin, creationism, Daniel Dennett, Darwinism, Edinburgh University, evolution, history, intelligent evolution, natural theology, On the Origin of Species, penicillin, socialism, South America, spiritualism, teleology, Thomas Kuhn, Victorians, William Paley}

Alfred Russel Wallace’s Greatest Journey

_{Michael Flannery
November 22, 2023

Evolution, Intelligent Design

7}

Alfred Russel Wallace took a journey Darwin could not follow. He went from natural selection to natural theology. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Flannery

Date
November 21, 2023

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Philosophy
Tagged
, causation, common descent, Darwinism, evolution, intelligent design, intelligent evolution, John West, loss-of-function mutations, Michael Behe, Michael Flannery, natural selection, Nature's Prophet, Neoplatonism, principle of utility, Signature in the Cell, Stephen Meyer, teleology, The Edge of Evolution, The World of Life, theology}

Intelligent Design and Alfred Russel Wallace’s Intelligent Evolution — Different Yet the Same

_{Michael Flannery
November 21, 2023

Evolution, Intelligent Design, Philosophy

6}

If any modern ID proponent fits the Wallacean model it is biologist Michael Behe. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Flannery

Date
October 16, 2023

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Alfred Russel Wallace, Andrew Berry, brain, Charles Darwin, Edinburgh, Ernst Haeckel, Genesis, Harvard University, historiography, human consciousness, Jacques Barzun, Man’s Place in the Universe, materialism, natural theology, Nature's Prophet, Phillip E. Johnson, Plinian Society, Psalms, Romans, Scripture, teleology, The Wedge of Truth, The World of Life}

Wallace’s Frenemies: A Lesson from Phillip Johnson

_{Michael Flannery
October 16, 2023

Evolution, Intelligent Design

8}

We can add Andrew Berry to the list of those quick to praise Alfred Wallace on certain matters but equally quick to condemn him on others. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Flannery

Date
October 7, 2023

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, "survival of the fittest", Alfred Russel Wallace, Charles Darwin, Darwinian evolution, evolution, intelligent evolution, liberals, Loren Eiseley, Louis Pasteur, meaning, natural selection, purpose, The World of Life}

A “Prepared Mind” for Alfred Russel Wallace

_{Michael Flannery
October 7, 2023

Evolution, Intelligent Design

4}

Although Wallace receded into the deep recesses of my memory, I had what Pasteur called “the prepared mind.” Read More ›