Tag: Tom Wolfe

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
May 12, 2026

Categories
Evolution
History of Science
Scientific Reasoning
Tagged
, Asa Gray, bacteria, Charles Darwin, Charles Kingsley, cosmogonism, Crotchet Castle, crotchets, David Stove, Europe, evolution, evolutionary psychology, False Messiah, fish, Francis Darwin, G. B. Müller, Heilsgeschichte, HMS Beagle, humans, James Moore, Jenny (orangutan), Lamarckian theory, Melanie Phillips, monkeys, nescience, Origin of Species, panspermia, Parousia, progress, Question Time, Richard Dawkins, S. A. Newman, sociobiology, The Kingdom of Speech, Thomas Love Peacock, Thomas Malthus, Tom Wolfe, Victorians}

Paradigm Lost: Darwinism and the Idea of Human Progress

_{Neil Thomas
May 12, 2026

Evolution, History of Science, Scientific Reasoning

17}

The notion of progress is now of course increasingly questioned, especially after what has come to be known as “the calamitous 20th century.” Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
David Klinghoffer

Date
January 13, 2026

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, biology, Brian Josephson, cancer, consensus, cosmology, creationists, Dilbert, doctors, evolution, evolutionary theory, faith and science, intelligent design, Internet trolls, J. P. Moreland, Michael Egnor, Michael Keas, Nick Bostrom, skepticism, Stephen King, Thomas Nagel, Tom Wolfe, YouTube videos}

Scott Adams: Intelligent Design (Of a Sort!) Is “Close to 100 Percent” Certain

_{David Klinghoffer
January 13, 2026

Evolution, Intelligent Design

5}

I wrote the following in December 2018. Poor Scott Adams, beloved podcaster and creator of Dilbert, died today of cancer at age 68. Read More ›

Silhouette of ape under a starry sky with trees framing the scene in a dark and dreamy setting

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
October 22, 2025

Categories
Arts
Evolution
Faith & Science
Tagged
, Alfred Russel Wallace, British Rationalist Association, Charles Darwin, Christianity, Darwinian paradigm, Darwinism, evolution, False Messiah, John Keats, Judeo-Christian tradition, Noam Chomsky, Richard Dawkins, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Descent of Man, The Kingdom of Speech, The Selfish Gene, theism, There Is a God, Tom Wolfe, William Wordsworth, Woody Allen}

False Messiah: An Addendum on Darwin and Theism

_{Neil Thomas
October 22, 2025

Arts, Evolution, Faith & Science

12}

The standpoint of poet John Keats is certainly gaining resonance in our doubt-ridden 21st century. I for one welcome its openness to questioning and wonder. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
September 25, 2025

Categories
Arts
Evolution
Tagged
, alchemy, ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Aristotle, Charles Bradlaugh, Cicero, Enlightenment, Epicurus, evolution, Galen, George Eliot, history, HMS Beagle, intellectual history, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Journal of Researches, literature, Lucretianism, Lucretius, Matthew Arnold, Misia Landau, Origin of Species, philosophy, Plato, Renaissance, seafaring, 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
November 4, 2024

Categories
Bioethics
Evolution
Tagged
, Aldous Huxley, Alfred Russel Wallace, Alice in Wonderland, atheism, behaviorism, Charles Bradlaugh, Charles Darwin, cosmogony, David Berlinski, Freudianism, Marxism, multiverse, On the Origin of Species, quantum fluctuation, Richard Dawkins, theistic Darwinism, Theory of Everything, 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
January 5, 2024

Categories
Ethics
Evolution
Faith & Science
History of Science
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Adam and Eve, agency, atheism, Charles Bradlaugh, Cicero, deduction, Enlightenment, evolution, fact, Garden of Eden, induction, intellectual history, intelligent design, 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
August 18, 2022

Categories
Cosmology
Evolution
Human Exceptionalism
Linguistics
Neuroscience & Mind
Tagged
, Alfred Russel Wallace, apes, Big Bang, cosmogony, Genesis, homologies, ideology, language, Michelangelo’s David, Miller-Urey experiment, natural selection, Noam Chomsky, perverse incentives, phrenology, Richard Lewontin, The Descent of Man, The Kingdom of Speech, Theory of Everything, Tom Wolfe}

Language: Darwin’s Eternal Mystery

_{Neil Thomas
August 18, 2022

Cosmology, Evolution, Human Exceptionalism, Linguistics, Neuroscience & Mind

14}

A whole host of “certified geniuses” have failed to crack the human language problem, and this must count as a blow to Darwinian ideas of evolution. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
June 13, 2022

Categories
Biology
Evolution
Neuroscience & Mind
Tagged
, Alfred Russel Wallace, Animal Liberation, Anthony Flew, consciousness, Darwin, David Bentley Hart, David Hume, deism, Donald Hoffman, Erasmus Darwin, Europeans, evolution, Francis Crick, intelligent design, Irreducible Complexity, Lawrence Krauss, Lucretius, materialism, Michael Ruse, mind, natural selection, natural theology, neuroscience, On the Origin of Species, Peter Singer, Racism, rationalism, Richard Dawkins, Richard Rorty, Stephen Hawking, Thomas Huxley, Tom Wolfe}

How Darwin and Wallace Split over the Human Mind

_{Neil Thomas
June 13, 2022

Biology, Evolution, Neuroscience & Mind

17}

Marvelously free of racist prejudice, Wallace noted in his fieldwork in far-flung locations that primitive tribes were intellectually the equals of Europeans. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Date
March 24, 2022

Categories
Intelligent Design
Neuroscience & Mind
Psychology
Tagged
, Carl Sagan, human brain, neurons, neuroscience, speech, The Kingdom of Speech, Tom Wolfe}

Yes, the Human Brain Is the Most Complex Thing in the Universe

_{Science & Culture
March 24, 2022

Intelligent Design, Neuroscience & Mind, Psychology

2}

Our brains have actually shrunk by 10 percent over the last 40,000 years, coinciding with spectacular intellectual achievements. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
January 10, 2022

Categories
Biology
Evolution
Life Sciences
Tagged
, "survival of the fittest", capitalism, economics, evolution, laissez-faire, Michael Denton, Natural Selection: Discovery or Invention? (series), Tom Wolfe}

Myth-Making and Malthus

_{Neil Thomas
January 10, 2022

Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences

4}

After reading Malthus out of personal interest, it dawned on Darwin how he might usefully appropriate the Malthusian analogy. Read More ›