Author: Neil Thomas | Page 8 | Science and Culture Today

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
March 6, 2022

Categories
Evolution
Faith & Science
Life Sciences
Tagged
, ancient Greeks, atomists, Baruch Spinoza, Charles Darwin, Christian de Duve, Christianity, Darwin and the Victorian Crisis of Faith (series), Erasmus Darwin, logos, magical thinking, philosophers, Simon Powell, supernatural, Thomas Malthus}

Evolutionary Theory as Magical Thinking

_{Neil Thomas
March 6, 2022

Evolution, Faith & Science, Life Sciences

4}

Charles Darwin himself exemplified the Argument from Pique, alluded to in past entries in this series, to a tee. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
March 5, 2022

Categories
Evolution
Faith & Science
Tagged
, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Charles Darwin, Darwin and the Victorian Crisis of Faith (series), evolution, faith, First Cause, Flower Power, Germany, Higher Criticism, information, Roman Catholic, secularism, Victorian England}

Darwin and the Swinging 1860s

_{Neil Thomas
March 5, 2022

Evolution, Faith & Science

3}

The threat which such thinking posed to theistic beliefs was not lost on the Roman Catholic Church when Pope Pius IX convened the First Vatican Council of 1869. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
March 4, 2022

Categories
Evolution
Faith & Science
Tagged
, Alfred Tennyson, Algernon Charles Swinburne, asceticism, Charles Darwin, Christianity, Darwin and the Victorian Crisis of Faith (series), Dover Beach, Epicurus, Greek gods, In Memoriam, Matthew Arnold, Mrs. Humphry Ward, On the Origin of Species, Oxford, Robert Elsmere, theomachy, Victorian England}

Darwin and Theomachy

_{Neil Thomas
March 4, 2022

Evolution, Faith & Science

4}

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) provides the closest chronological fit with Darwin. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
March 3, 2022

Categories
Evolution
Faith & Science
Tagged
, Alec Ryrie, Charles Darwin, Darwin and the Victorian Crisis of Faith (series), Das Wesen des Christentums, Death and the Ploughman, faith, James Thomson, literature, Ludwig Feuerbach, Michael Ruse, Percy Shelley, religion, Richard Swinburne, The Essence of Christianity, Thomas Hardy, William Blake}

Literary Footnotes to the Book of Job

_{Neil Thomas
March 3, 2022

Evolution, Faith & Science

3}

Of immediate relevance to Darwin’s generation were writers who can be traced in a fairly direct line from the beginning of the 19th century. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
March 2, 2022

Categories
Evolution
Faith & Science
Philosophy
Tagged
, Alec Ryrie, Arthur Schopenhauer, atheism, Baruch Spinoza, Charles Darwin, Darwin and the Victorian Crisis of Faith (series), Darwinism, David Hume, doubt, evolution, faith, intellectuals, Ludwig Feuerbach, Mrs. Humphry Ward, novels, On the Origin of Species, Oxford, Robert Elsmere, Victorian England}

Darwin and the Victorian Culture Wars

_{Neil Thomas
March 2, 2022

Evolution, Faith & Science, Philosophy

4}

As Alec Ryrie pointed out in his history of Doubt, “intellectuals and philosophers may think they make the weather, but they are more often driven by it.” Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
March 1, 2022

Categories
Evolution
Faith & Science
Tagged
, body parts, COVID-19, Darwin and the Victorian Crisis of Faith (series), England, evolution, faith, Fleeming Jenkin, Lord Kelvin, natural selection, On the Origin of Species, pandemic, reviewers, Victorians}

Darwin and the Victorian Crisis of Faith

_{Neil Thomas
March 1, 2022

Evolution, Faith & Science

2}

Fleeming Jenkin (the distinguished Scottish scientist who with Lord Kelvin spearheaded the laying of the transatlantic cable) was particularly scathing. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
January 29, 2022

Categories
Bioethics
Evolution
Geology
Tagged
, Ada Lovelace, Charles Babbage, Charles Darwin and the Ghost of Epicurus (series), Charles Lyell, Darwinism, evolution, Great Britain, Isaac Newton, Lord Byron, mathematician, On the Origin of Species, Richard Hofstadter, uniformitarianism, Victorian England}

Darwin and the Newtonian Metanarrative

_{Neil Thomas
January 29, 2022

Bioethics, Evolution, Geology

5}

People chose to believe what they wanted to believe in obedience to the then reigning intellectual fashion. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
January 28, 2022

Categories
Bioethics
Evolution
Philosophy
Tagged
, Bible, Charles Darwin, Charles Darwin and the Ghost of Epicurus (series), Christianity, Das Wesen des Christentums, David Hume, deism, demythologization, Enlightenment, evolution, faith, George Eliot, John Stuart Mill, Ludwig Feuerbach, On the Origin of Species, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Samuel Wilberforce, secularization, The Essence of Christianity, Thucydides}

For Darwin, Timing Was Everything

_{Neil Thomas
January 28, 2022

Bioethics, Evolution, Philosophy

7}

Charles Darwin, as we saw yesterday, pulled off an intellectual coup against the major thinkers of the Western tradition. How did he do it? Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
January 27, 2022

Categories
Chemistry
Evolution
Faith & Science
Philosophy
Tagged
, atomism, Chance and Necessity, Charles Darwin, Charles Darwin and the Ghost of Epicurus (series), Darwinism, David Hume, David Sedley, Epicurus, evolution, fear, human beings, Jacques Monod, Lucretius, natural selection, Richard Dawkins, theomachy}

The Ghost of Epicurus and the Doctrine of Natural Selection

_{Neil Thomas
January 27, 2022

Chemistry, Evolution, Faith & Science, Philosophy

6}

The classical pantheon, lacking moral credibility, had become a source of embarrassment to thoughtful Greeks. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
January 26, 2022

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Philosophy
Tagged
, Aristotle, Charles Darwin, Charles Darwin and the Ghost of Epicurus (series), Cicero, David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Enlightenment, Erasmus Darwin, evolution, Galen, intelligent design, Lucretius, Mind of God, Phoenix, Plato, pre-Socratic philosophers, Stoics, Thomas Aquinas, Weltanschauung}

The Enlightenment (Re)turn to Atomism

_{Neil Thomas
January 26, 2022

Evolution, Intelligent Design, Philosophy

8}

What distinguished thinkers had long called out for its manifest absurdity was now, Phoenix-like, rising from the ashes. Read More ›