Tag: metaphors

Natural Selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype, text concept button on keyboard

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
November 17, 2025

Categories
Evolution
Scientific Reasoning
Tagged
, agnosticism, Artificial Selection, breeders, Charles Darwin, Christianity, English, fossil record, George Eliot, HMS Beagle, livestock, metaphors, natural selection, naturalists, Naturphilosophie, Origin of Species, physiology, Quarterly Review, Richard Owen, Samuel Wilberforce, terminology, theology, Victorian England, world spirit}

What’s in a Name? Darwin’s Confusing Terminology

_{Neil Thomas
November 17, 2025

Evolution, Scientific Reasoning

10}

In the English language prior to Darwin, “natural selection” was a term used by those who reared animals to denote nature’s serendipity. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
David Klinghoffer

Date
April 1, 2024

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Aeon, Casey Luskin, cells, Google, hierarchy, metaphors, Monty Python, nurturing, organelles, Politics, socialism, violence}

The Cell as an “Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune”

_{David Klinghoffer
April 1, 2024

Evolution, Intelligent Design

2}

Dr. Navare, a science writer and an enthusiast of Feminist Science Studies, plausibly makes a scientific case against seeing the cell as a hierarchical entity. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Casey Luskin

Date
April 1, 2024

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Aeon, amoeba, biological systems, biology textbooks, cell biology, church, college, computers, cytoplasm, Denis Noble, developmental biologists, egg cell, embryo, factory, feminism, genes, human technology, humanities, humans, ideology, information, intelligent design, machines, Marcello Barbieri, metaphors, nucleus, organelles, post-modernism}

Aeon: “The Cell Is Not a Factory” — It’s Far More Complex

_{Casey Luskin
April 1, 2024

Evolution, Intelligent Design

11}

Viewing the cell’s nucleus as keeping a “collaborative notebook” implies record-keeping to maintain order and to act toward a purpose. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
David Coppedge

Date
January 4, 2024

Categories
Botany
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, blood clotting, California, Darwinism, devolution, Douglas Axe, error correction, evolutionary biologists, fitness landscape, intelligent design, Irreducible Complexity, metaphors, Michael Behe, mount improbable, mousetrap, Paris, phenotypes, PNAS, Richard Dawkins, savannah}

Trapdoors in the Fitness Landscape: Scientists Revive Worries About an Evolutionary Metaphor

_{David Coppedge
January 4, 2024

Botany, Evolution, Intelligent Design

9}

What if the structure of the landscape is like a block of Swiss cheese, flat and riddled with holes? Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
March 7, 2023

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Alfred Russel Wallace, Charles Darwin, Denis Diderot, Erasmus Darwin, evolution, history, Howard Glicksman, intelligent design, Jerry Fodor, Julien Offray de la Mettrie, L’Homme Machine, Lamarckism, Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, metaphors, Mother Nature, natural causes, natural selection, nature, On the Origin of Species, philosophes, Steve Laufmann, Thomas Malthus, transmutation, Victorians, world spirit}

Natural Selection: The Evolution of a Mirage

_{Neil Thomas
March 7, 2023

Evolution, Intelligent Design

19}

Natural selection reveals itself as not just a metaphor but a mixed one: Nature being dumb but nevertheless capable of discrimination. Read More ›

Aerial view of New York downtown building roofs. Bird's eye view from helicopter of cityscape metropolis infrastructure, traffic cars, yellow cabs moving on city streets and crossing district avenues

^{Type
post

Author
David Klinghoffer

Date
February 1, 2017

Categories
Biochemistry
Biology
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, __nedited, analogy, cell biology, cells, cellular functions, kinesin, metaphors, purpose, The Workhorse of the Cell}

The Cell as a City: Examining an Apt Metaphor

_{David Klinghoffer
February 1, 2017

Biochemistry, Biology, Intelligent Design

3}

On most days, city services are invisible to residents. We take them for granted through a lack of thoughtfulness -- and gratitude. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Date
January 29, 2017

Categories
Biology
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, __nedited, analogy, Ann Gauger, cell biology, DNA, information, Library of Congress, metaphors, transcription, translation}

Inside the Cell: DNA as a Library

_{Science and Culture
January 29, 2017

Biology, Intelligent Design

2}

Biologist Ann Gauger draws a thought-provoking analogy to a famed institution in our nation's capital. Read More ›