Tag: Samuel Wilberforce

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

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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 ›

Charles Darwin observing wildlife in the Galápagos Islands, surrounded by lush flora and fauna, including giant tortoises, birds, and exotic plants, symbolizing evolution

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post

Author
Andrew McDiarmid

Date
October 30, 2025

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Charles Darwin, Darwinism, Darwinists, Enlightenment, evolution, False Messiah, intellectuals, modern science, natural selection, nature, Neil Thomas, On the Origin of Species, Reductionism, Samuel Wilberforce, scientific discoveries, skepticism, survival of the fittest, Taking Leave of Darwin, Victorian England, William Wordsworth}

He Taught Darwinism for Decades (Then Changed His Mind)

_{Andrew McDiarmid
October 30, 2025

Evolution, Intelligent Design

3}

English Romantic poet William Wordsworth provided a philosophical barrier against reductionist views of life like those of Darwin. Read More ›

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post

Author
Richard Weikart

Date
December 11, 2024

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Alfred Russel Wallace, August Weismann, Cambridge University Press, Darwin Mythology, group selection, John Hedley Brooke, Michael Ruse, mythology, On the Origin of Species, Samuel Wilberforce, The Descent of Man, Thomas Henry Huxley}

A New Scholarly Book Trying to Debunk Myths about Charles Darwin and His Theory

_{Richard Weikart
December 11, 2024

Evolution, Intelligent Design

5}

Some debunkers need to be debunked themselves, because instead of correcting falsehoods, they end up creating or perpetuating falsehoods. Read More ›

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post

Author
Denyse O’Leary

Date
September 5, 2024

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Alfred Russel Wallace, Big Book, Charles Darwin, Daniel Dennett, Darwin's bulldog, Darwin’s Bluff, Darwinism, evolution, evolutionary theory, intelligent designer, Luther College, natural selection, natural theology, On the Origin of Species, orchids, Richard Dawkins, Robert Shedinger, Samuel Wilberforce, Stephen Jay Gould, Thomas Henry Huxley}

What Ever Happened to Darwin’s Big Book?

_{Denyse O’Leary
September 5, 2024

Evolution, Intelligent Design

6}

Why didn’t Darwin publish the evidence for his momentous theory? And why was his thesis hailed as one of the greatest ideas in science despite that fact? Read More ›

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post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
August 26, 2022

Categories
Evolution
Evolutionary Psychology
Science
Tagged
, Alfred Russel Wallace, Charles Darwin, evolution, history, John William Draper, Joseph Hooker, natural selection, Nature (journal), On the Origin of Species, Peter Bowler, propaganda, Royal Society, Samuel Wilberforce, Thomas Henry Huxley, X Club}

Why Darwin Eclipsed Wallace: The Role of Propaganda

_{Neil Thomas
August 26, 2022

Evolution, Evolutionary Psychology, Science

6}

To isolate and quantify the factors which ultimately led to the acceptance of Darwinian ideas is not a straightforward task. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
August 24, 2022

Categories
Evolution
Science
Tagged
, Adam Sedgwick, Alfred Russel Wallace, Britain, Down House, evolution, friendship, history, HMS Beagle, intelligent design, Isaac Newton, natural selection, Peter Bowler, Richard Owen, Robert Chambers, Samuel Wilberforce, Thomas Huxley, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, Westminster Abbey, William Whewell}

Why Darwin Eclipsed Wallace: Darwin and the English Class System

_{Neil Thomas
August 24, 2022

Evolution, Science

7}

The theory of natural selection was the co-discovery of two men, but by the mid 1860s one of its progenitors began to reject his own theory. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
July 15, 2022

Categories
Evolution
Faith & Science
Tagged
, Aristotle, Charles Darwin, Christianity, Europe, faith, Geoffrey Chaucer, George Levine, Lucretius, Mother Earth, Mother Nature, natural selection, natural theology, On the Origin of Species, Ovid, paganism, Plato, Robert J. Richards, Samuel Wilberforce, Victorian England, William Paley}

Nature Divinized: Darwin’s Goddess for All Seasons

_{Neil Thomas
July 15, 2022

Evolution, Faith & Science

10}

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 ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
March 21, 2022

Categories
Biology
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Charles Darwin, Charles Kingsley, creation, evolution, James Moore, Origin of Species: From Discussion Document to Nihilist Dogma (series), Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce, theistic Darwinism, theistic evolution, theology}

The Rise of Theistic Darwinism

_{Neil Thomas
March 21, 2022

Biology, Evolution, Intelligent Design

4}

This form of objection left the door ajar to the kind of “hybrid” interpretation favored by some in both Britain and America in the later Victorian period. Read More ›

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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 ›

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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 ›