Tag: Tom Wolfe

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

^{Type
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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, Johann Gottfried Herder, John Keats, Judeo-Christian tradition, Noam Chomsky, Richard Barns, Richard Dawkins, Robert Ryan, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Dawkins Proof for the Existence of God, The Descent of Man, The Kingdom of Speech, The Selfish Gene, theism, There Is a God, Tom Wolfe, Über den Ursprung der Sprache, 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, Ben Jonson, Charles Bradlaugh, Christopher Marlowe, Cicero, David Berman, Doctor Faustus, Enlightenment, Epicurus, evolution, Galen, George Eliot, George Henry Lewes, H. J. Shephard, history, HMS Beagle, intellectual history, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Journal of Researches, literature, Lucretianism, Lucretius, Matthew Arnold, Misia Landau, Origin of Species, Peter Bement, philosophy, Plato, Renaissance, seafaring, The Alchemist, 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, Caligula, Charles Bradlaugh, Charles Darwin, cosmogony, David Berlinski, Freudianism, Lewis Carroll, Madame Blavatsky, Marxism, multiverse, On the Origin of Species, quantum fluctuation, Richard Dawkins, theistic Darwinism, Theory of Everything, Theosophy, 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, Annie Besant, atheism, Charles Bradlaugh, Cicero, Connop Thirlwall, David Hanke, David Newsome, deduction, Enlightenment, evolution, fact, Garden of Eden, induction, intellectual history, intelligent design, James Henry Froude, 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, Bonfire of the Vanities, cosmogony, Genesis, Headlong Hall, homologies, ideology, language, Michelangelo’s David, Miller-Urey experiment, natural selection, Noam Chomsky, Oxford English Dictionary, perverse incentives, phrenology, Richard Lewontin, Steady State, The Descent of Man, The Kingdom of Speech, Theory of Everything, Thomas Love Peacock, 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, Richard Spilsbury, Stephen Hawking, Ternate letter, 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 ›

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post

Date
March 24, 2022

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

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

_{Science and 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 ›

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post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
January 10, 2022

Categories
Biology
Evolution
Life Sciences
Tagged
, "survival of the fittest", capitalism, cosmogenic myth, economics, evolution, laissez-faire, Michael Denton, Natural Selection: Discovery or Invention? (series), The Bonfire of the Vanities, 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 ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
December 13, 2021

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Linguistics
Tagged
, Abrahamic faiths, Alfred Russel Wallace, Animal Liberation, Antony Flew, Bonfire of the Vanities, brain, Charles Darwin, Church of England, Communism, Cristian Bandea, cytology, Daniel Dennett, Darwinism, Denis Diderot, East Germany, Erasmus Darwin, Eric Metaxas, evolution, intelligent design, Michael Flannery, natural selection, Noam Chomsky, Peter Singer, philosophes, religion, Stephen Meyer, The Descent of Man, The Kingdom of Speech, The Return to the God Paradigm (series), Tom Wolfe, William Paley}

Toward a New Natural Theology

_{Neil Thomas
December 13, 2021

Evolution, Intelligent Design, Linguistics

9}

Alfred Wallace was arguing his position from simple logic rather than on the authority of revelation from any of the Abrahamic faiths. Read More ›

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post

Author
David Klinghoffer

Date
February 16, 2021

Categories
Evolution
Science Reporting
Tagged
, analysis, biogeography, Charles Darwin, cladistics, conservatives, Darwin-skeptics, Darwin's House of Cards, Discovery Institute, Evolution News, fossil record, friendship, Harper’s Magazine, Hebrew Bible, journalists, loyalty, materialism, National Review, On the Origin of Species, Oxford University, Richard Lenski, skeptics, The Weekly Standard, thought, Tom Bethell, Tom Wolfe, William F. Buckley Jr., writing}

Iconoclast: Farewell to Tom Bethell

_{David Klinghoffer
February 16, 2021

Evolution, Science Reporting

4}

I remember having an exchange with Tom about the meaning of his last name, which seems to correspond to the Biblical place name Beth El, meaning "House of God." Read More ›