Science and Culture Today Discovering Design in Nature
Topic

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

RembrandtvanRijn-Ascholarinhisstudy1634-2
Image: A Scholar in His Study, by Rembrandt van Rijn, via Wikimedia Commons.

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

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 ›
DebH-new-york-public-domain-resized
Photo credit: U.S. Department of the Interior, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Nature in the Image of Man: Introducing the New Social Darwinism 

Always, the initial social/intellectual change has come first, and the scientific paradigm shift has followed after. Read More ›
mirror
Photo credit: Andre Mouton, via Unsplash.

Evolution Evolved to Mirror the Zeitgeist

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 ›
Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz
Image: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, by Christoph Bernhard Francke, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Before Darwin — How Evolution Evolved

The soil was prepared — soon, seeds were sprouting. In roughly the third quarter of the 18th century, evolutionary theories of biology proliferated.  Read More ›
Platos-Revenge
Image source: Discovery Institute Press.

Eavesdropping in the Platonic Academy 

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 ›
Jonathan-Wells
Photo: Jonathan Wells, by Brian Gage.

Humor, Humility, and a Treasured Friend and Colleague: Sternberg Remembers Jonathan Wells

Wells would occasionally bring up lessons he had learned about hubris from a famous tragic play by German polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Read More ›
Darwin's shoes
Photo: Detail of Darwin statue, Natural History Museum, London, by Rept0n1x (Own work) [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Darwinism as Fact? The Waning of an Historical Myth 

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

© Discovery Institute