Science and Culture Today Discovering Design in Nature
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Mother Nature

DSC02355-LegendofAataentsic30956029438
Photo credit: Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Destroyer or Nurturer? Darwin’s Divinized Conception of Nature

The powers of natural selection transcend human intelligence to such a degree that Darwin came close to imputing to it the capacity for intelligent design. Read More ›
TerraformedMarsGlobeRealistic
Photo: A terraformed Mars...don't hold your breath, by Daein Ballard, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Earth and Mars — A Rare Gem and a Sharp Contrast

Apparently, simple living organisms must exist for eons on a planet before more advanced life can thrive. Read More ›
ynews-molecular-machine
Image source: Yale University (press release).

Newly Discovered War Machines in the Immune System

A newly discovered defense against pathogens involves armor and bullets that render an attacker immobile and self-destructing. Read More ›
Board-of-Directors

Company Names “Nature” to Board of Directors

Look what a frivolous culture we are becoming, with the private sector increasingly fueling our intellectual and moral decline. Read More ›
Darwin's finch
Photo: Darwin's finch, by Victor Gleim, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Natural Selection: The Evolution of a Mirage

Natural selection reveals itself as not just a metaphor but a mixed one: Nature being dumb but nevertheless capable of discrimination. Read More ›
Mother Earth
Image: Mother Earth, via Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC BY 2.5 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Nature Divinized: Darwin’s Goddess for All Seasons

Some modern archaeologists have even gone so far as to claim that the archetype of the Great Mother has been a mythic universal. Read More ›
Mother Earth
Image: Mother Earth, by Glyptothek, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Darwin’s Goddess: Natural Selection as “Divine Surrogate”

When parsed carefully, the metaphorical structure of Darwin’s argumentation emerges as little less than a periphrastic description of the goddess Natura. Read More ›
Nilgiri Hills
Photo: Nilgiri Hills, Tamil Nadu, India, by Fruiticos, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

India High Court: Nature Is a “Living Being” with “Rights”

Nature-rights laws generally allow anyone who believes that nature’s “rights” are being violated to sue to prevent the violation and to seek redress. Read More ›
Darwin's finches
Image: Darwin's finches, via Wikimedia Commons.

Natural Selection: A Conceptually Incoherent Term

As a schoolboy I remember being told that the surest way of finding out if any given English proposition made sense or not was to try to translate it into Latin, French, or German. Read More ›
cave fish
Photo: Cavefish (Phreatichthys andruzzii), by Hectonichus, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection Has Left a Legacy of Confusion over Biological Adaptation

Our ability to adapt to fantastically diverse circumstances did not result from the happenstance of environmental conditions. Read More ›

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