Author: Neil Thomas | Page 9 | Science and Culture Today

^{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, David Hume, deism, Enlightenment, evolution, faith, George Eliot, John Stuart Mill, Ludwig Feuerbach, On the Origin of Species, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Samuel Wilberforce, secularization}

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, Epicurus, evolution, fear, human beings, Jacques Monod, Lucretius, natural selection, Richard Dawkins}

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, Phoenix, Plato, pre-Socratic philosophers, Stoics, Thomas Aquinas}

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 ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
January 25, 2022

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Philosophy
Tagged
, afterlife, atomism, Charles Darwin, Charles Darwin and the Ghost of Epicurus (series), Darwinian theory, demiurge, Epicurus, evolution, gods, Greek, Latin, Lucretius, materialism, Matthew Arnold, Victorians}

Charles Darwin and the Ghost of Epicurus

_{Neil Thomas
January 25, 2022

Evolution, Intelligent Design, Philosophy

4}

Darwinism, when viewed from a philosophical perspective, might more accurately be understood as a late sub-branch of ancient speculative thought. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
January 12, 2022

Categories
Evolution
Life Sciences
Tagged
, agnostics, atheism, atomism, Charles Bradlaugh, Charles Darwin, Christianity, Edward Aveling, Epicurus, Erasmus Darwin, evolution, George Eliot, HMS Beagle, London, Lucretius, Ludwig Feuerbach, Natural Selection: Discovery or Invention? (series), Naturphilosophie, world spirit}

Darwinian Theory: Science or Speculative Philosophy?

_{Neil Thomas
January 12, 2022

Evolution, Life Sciences

7}

Bottom line: Darwin did not have a single scrap of empirical fieldwork to document his conjectures. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
January 10, 2022

Categories
Biology
Evolution
Life Sciences
Tagged
, "survival of the fittest", capitalism, economics, evolution, laissez-faire, Michael Denton, Natural Selection: Discovery or Invention? (series), Tom Wolfe}

Myth-Making and Malthus

_{Neil Thomas
January 10, 2022

Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences

4}

After reading Malthus out of personal interest, it dawned on Darwin how he might usefully appropriate the Malthusian analogy. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
January 9, 2022

Categories
Biology
Evolution
Life Sciences
Tagged
, abiogenesis, Charles Darwin, divine image, eagle, Erasmus Darwin, evolution, history, microscopes, natural selection, Natural Selection: Discovery or Invention? (series), On the Origin of Species, Samuel Wilberforce, whale}

The Legacy of Erasmus Darwin

_{Neil Thomas
January 9, 2022

Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences

3}

Erasmus even touched on the theory of natural selection when he concluded that the strongest and most active animals would propagate the species. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
January 8, 2022

Categories
Biology
Evolution
Geology
Life Sciences
Tagged
, catastrophism, Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, Erasmus Darwin, evolution, HMS Beagle, Homo sapiens, Natural Selection: Discovery or Invention? (series), naturalists, Principles of Geology, speciation, species, transmutation, uniformitarianism}

Darwin’s John the Baptist

_{Neil Thomas
January 8, 2022

Biology, Evolution, Geology, Life Sciences

5}

Catastrophism viewed the planet as having been molded by forces far more powerful than any observable at the present day. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
January 7, 2022

Categories
Biology
Evolution
Life Sciences
Tagged
, Charles Darwin, evolution, Greek gods, history, HMS Beagle, Janet Browne, Natural Selection: Discovery or Invention? (series), Prometheus, South America, Travel}

The Evolution of Natural Selection

_{Neil Thomas
January 7, 2022

Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences

3}

Remarkably, Darwin’s evolutionary ideas did not derive from his empirical observations in the South Seas or anywhere else. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
January 6, 2022

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Alfred Russel Wallace, ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Charles Darwin, Denis Diderot, Epicurus, Erasmus Darwin, evolution, gods, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, John Herschel, Judeo-Christian tradition, Julien Offray de la Mettrie, L’Homme Machine, Lucretius, natural selection, Natural Selection: Discovery or Invention? (series), On the Origin of Species, philosophes, Robert Chambers, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, Victorians}

Natural Selection: Discovery or Invention?

_{Neil Thomas
January 6, 2022

Evolution, Intelligent Design

6}

Denis Diderot mooted the possibility of a creature evolving through habitual functioning into another form of life altogether. Read More ›