Tag: Charles Bradlaugh

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
September 25, 2025

Categories
Arts
Evolution
Tagged
, alchemy, ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Aristotle, Ben Jonson, Charles Bradlaugh, Christopher Marlowe, Cicero, David Berman, Doctor Faustus, Enlightenment, Epicurus, evolution, Galen, George Eliot, George Henry Lewes, H. J. Shephard, history, HMS Beagle, intellectual history, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Journal of Researches, literature, Lucretianism, Lucretius, Matthew Arnold, Misia Landau, Origin of Species, Peter Bement, philosophy, Plato, Renaissance, seafaring, The Alchemist, Tom Wolfe}

Darwin, Faust, and the Alchemist: Unexpected Roots of a Scientific Idea

_{Neil Thomas
September 25, 2025

Arts, Evolution

19}

Today we would of course brand both Faust and the Alchemist fantasists or “mad scientists” of the first order. Was Darwin prone to such wishful thinking? Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
August 25, 2025

Categories
History of Science
Scientific Reasoning
Tagged
, agnosticism, Alfred Russel Wallace, Anselm, Anselm of Canterbury, atheism, Basil Willey, Brights, C. S. Lewis, causality, Charles Bradlaugh, Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, Christian Bandea, Daniel Dennett, Deborah Lavin, deism, Discovery Institute Press, Down House, ectoplasm, Edward Aveling, Enlightenment, Erasmus Darwin, False Messiah, Francis Bacon, ineffable, Jacques Monod, Karl Marx, Lamarckism, Lawrence Krauss, Leslie Stephen, Lisbon earthquake, logomachia, Louise Mabille, Marcus du Sautoy, Meister Eckhart, Moses Maimonides, natural selection, negative theology, New Atheists, Newtonianism, Noam Chomsky, Peter Vorzimmer, philosophy, phlogiston, Plato, problem of pain, Pyrrho, quantum physics, Robin Le Poidevin, Sextus Empiricus, Sigmund Freud, skepticism, Steve Taylor, The above consideration, Thomas Aquinas, truth, tsunami, Unmoved Mover, via negativa, Virginia, Werner Heisenberg, wortelos, wortlos}

Enlightened No More: Darwin as Prefiguration of Postmodern Man

_{Neil Thomas
August 25, 2025

History of Science, Scientific Reasoning

17}

Whether we like it or not, Erasmus Darwin’s simple and predictable world is no more, and we now find ourselves subject to a profoundly mysterious cosmos. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
November 4, 2024

Categories
Bioethics
Evolution
Tagged
, Aldous Huxley, Alfred Russel Wallace, Alice in Wonderland, atheism, behaviorism, Caligula, Charles Bradlaugh, Charles Darwin, cosmogony, David Berlinski, Freudianism, Lewis Carroll, Madame Blavatsky, Marxism, multiverse, On the Origin of Species, quantum fluctuation, Richard Dawkins, theistic Darwinism, Theory of Everything, Theosophy, Tom Wolfe, Universal Darwinism, Victorians}

Existentialist Science: Darwin as Proto-Absurdist

_{Neil Thomas
November 4, 2024

Bioethics, Evolution

16}

The existentialist story might arguably start with Charles Darwin and his conception of the chance evolution of life. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
June 13, 2024

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Charles Bradlaugh, Charles Darwin, childhood, Enlightenment, Erasmus Darwin, evolutionary psychology, Greek gods, HMS Beagle, Janet Browne, Martin Luther, Michael Neve, Misia Landau, Robert Chambers, Samuel Haughton, sociobiologists, Stephen Jay Gould, telos, Thomas Huxley, William Wordsworth}

Darwin’s Science and Storytelling

_{Neil Thomas
June 13, 2024

Evolution, Intelligent Design

17}

His five-year voyage was undoubtedly an eye-opening rite of passage but perhaps not as foundational to his intellectual development as is sometimes proposed. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
February 12, 2024

Categories
Biology
Chemistry
Evolution
Faith & Science
Tagged
, A. N. Wilson, abiogenesis, Anaximander, Anaximenes, apologetics, Arthur Eddington, atheism, Big Bang, Charles Bradlaugh, Daniel Dennett, Darwinism, Erasmus Darwin, evolution, Goldilocks Zone, Karl Popper, Lucretius, Melanie Phillips, natural preservation, natural selection, New Atheists, New Synthesis, randomness, Richard Dawkins, spontaneous generation, teleology, The Descent of Man, The Selfish Gene, Thomas Hardy, Thomas Malthus, Victorian period, Werner Heisenberg}

Richard Dawkins and the Law of Unintended Consequences

_{Neil Thomas
February 12, 2024

Biology, Chemistry, Evolution, Faith & Science

20}

The New Atheists’ failure to understand the nuanced way that “ordinary people” think was a profound strategic error. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
January 5, 2024

Categories
Ethics
Evolution
Faith & Science
History of Science
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Adam and Eve, agency, Annie Besant, atheism, Charles Bradlaugh, Cicero, Connop Thirlwall, David Hanke, David Newsome, deduction, Enlightenment, evolution, fact, Garden of Eden, induction, intellectual history, intelligent design, James Henry Froude, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Gribbin, Julian Huxley, metaphysics, Nancy Pearcey, natural selection, Old Testament, On the Origin of Species, Paul Davies, progress, Richard Dawkins, Roman Catholic, teleology, theology, Thomas Huxley, Tom Wolfe, Uncertainty Principle, vera causa, Victorian England, watchmaker, Werner Heisenberg, William Blake}

Darwinism as Fact? The Waning of an Historical Myth

_{Neil Thomas
January 5, 2024

Ethics, Evolution, Faith & Science, History of Science, Intelligent Design

20}

Historically the unfathomable subtleties of our terrestrial environment have been viewed as in and of themselves empirical markers for design. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
January 16, 2023

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, abiogenesis, Alphonse de Candolle, Aristotle, atheism, atomism, Charles Bradlaugh, Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, Christianity, complexification, David Hume, Edward Aveling, Epicurus, Erasmus Darwin, Friedrich Engels, Georges Cuvier, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Greece, Homo sapiens, Karl Marx, Law of Correlation, Lucretius, Matthew Arnold, Middle Ages, natural selection, On the Origin of Species, Patrick Matthew, Plato, Rome, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Malthus, transhumanism, Unmoved Mover, Victorian England, William Paley}

Old Wine in New Bottles: How Darwin Recruited Malthus to Fortify a Failed Idea from Antiquity

_{Neil Thomas
January 16, 2023

Evolution, Intelligent Design

16}

It was undoubtedly a tremendous philosophical coup for Darwin whose knowledge of formal philosophy was limited. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
November 8, 2022

Categories
Bioethics
Faith & Science
Tagged
, agnosticism, atheism, Bible, Charles Bradlaugh, Charles Darwin, Christianity, creed, faith, Great Britain, nature, Psalms, theology, UK Parliament, Victorian England, William Hale White, William James, William Wordsworth, Wordsworth versus Darwin (series)}

Wordsworth and the Faith of the Victorians

_{Neil Thomas
November 8, 2022

Bioethics, Faith & Science

3}

Even Charles Bradlaugh, the first atheist member of Parliament, was haunted by the psalmist’s reproach, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
October 4, 2022

Categories
Biology
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Annie Besant, atheism, Charles Bradlaugh, Charles Darwin, conflict myth, Erasmus Darwin, history, materialism, New Atheists, On the Origin of Species, Richard Dawkins, Thomas Malthus, UK Parliament}

Darwin and the “New Atheists”

_{Neil Thomas
October 4, 2022

Biology, Evolution, Intelligent Design

8}

There is surely some historical irony in the attempt to enlist Charles Darwin posthumously in defense of the atheist cause. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
August 2, 2022

Categories
Evolution
Faith & Science
Tagged
, A. N. Wilson, Aldous Huxley, Annie Besant, Arthur Conan Doyle, Basil Willey, Charles Bradlaugh, Charles Darwin, Crisis of Doubt, evolution, Madame Blavatsky, On the Origin of Species, secularism, secularists, Sherlock Holmes, spiritualism, Theosophy, Timothy Larsen, William Shakespeare}

Darwin, Group Think, and Confirmation Bias

_{Neil Thomas
August 2, 2022

Evolution, Faith & Science

11}

How was Darwinian theory, despite its lack of empirical support or even semblance of verisimilitude, able to advance to its present position of orthodoxy? Read More ›