Tag: Victorians

^{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
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

Date
November 30, 2023

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Origin of Life
Tagged
, agnostics, Alfred Russel Wallace, angels, beauty, cells, Charles Darwin, Darwinians, evolution, gods, human race, intelligence, intelligent beings, intelligent design, materialism, materialists, Michael Flannery, mind, nature, Nature's Prophet, power, purpose, universe, veins, Victorians}

New Thoughts on Evolution: Views of Professor Alfred Russel Wallace, O.M., F.R.S.

_{Science & Culture
November 30, 2023

Evolution, Intelligent Design, Origin of Life

17}

"The scales on the wings of a moth," he said quietly, "have no explanation in Evolution. They belong to Beauty, and Beauty is a spiritual mystery." Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Flannery

Date
November 22, 2023

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Alfred Russel Wallace, Arthur Koestler, Charles Darwin, creationism, Daniel Dennett, Darwinism, Edinburgh University, evolution, history, intelligent evolution, natural theology, On the Origin of Species, penicillin, socialism, South America, spiritualism, teleology, Thomas Kuhn, Victorians, William Paley}

Alfred Russel Wallace’s Greatest Journey

_{Michael Flannery
November 22, 2023

Evolution, Intelligent Design

7}

Alfred Russel Wallace took a journey Darwin could not follow. He went from natural selection to natural theology. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Nancy Pearcey

Date
June 16, 2023

Categories
Bioethics
Ethics
Evolution
Evolutionary Psychology
Tagged
, African Americans, american enterprise institute, Charles Murray, Darwinism, drugs, evolution, George Gilder, just-so stories, marriage, men, morality, rape, religion, Robert Wright, Rutgers University, Scripture, sexuality, Steven Pinker, The New Yorker, The Toxic War on Masculinity, Victorians, violence, women}

The Toxic Assumptions of Evolutionary Psychology about Men

_{Nancy Pearcey
June 16, 2023

Bioethics, Ethics, Evolution, Evolutionary Psychology

14}

As Darwinism is discredited scientifically, we should challenge the way it has shaped the secular code for masculinity. 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 ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
July 11, 2022

Categories
Biology
Evolution
Faith & Science
Geology
Tagged
, BBC, Bible, Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, Christianity, creation, Darwinism, faith, fundamentalism, Gospels, HMS Beagle, Honest to God, John Robinson, miracles, New Testament, Old Testament, original sin, orthodoxy, Oxford University, Principles of Geology, revelation, Richard Dawkins, Robert Fitzroy, Rudolf Bultmann, theology, Tower of Babel, Victorians}

Darwin, Lyell, and a Tale of Two Faiths

_{Neil Thomas
July 11, 2022

Biology, Evolution, Faith & Science, Geology

10}

Darwin found himself in the unhappy position of having his faith undermined by what he saw as the non-directed processes of geological and biological evolution. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
June 16, 2022

Categories
Evolution
Faith & Science
Scientific Reasoning
Tagged
, antiquity, Aristotle, atomism, Cambridge University, Darwinism, David Hume, Enlightenment, evolution, Gospels, Judeo-Christian tradition, Meister Eckhart, Mendelian genetics, Middle Ages, New Testament, On the Origin of Species, Oxford University, Phillip E. Johnson, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Thomas Aquinas, Victorians}

On Darwinism and the Abdication of Reason

_{Neil Thomas
June 16, 2022

Evolution, Faith & Science, Scientific Reasoning

15}

It is a pity that Darwin’s homeland no longer boasts a satirist of the caliber of Thomas Love Peacock to exploit this rich seam of comic absurdity. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
April 7, 2022

Categories
Evolution
Faith & Science
Intelligent Design
Linguistics
Tagged
, Antoine Lavoisier, biosphere, Charles Darwin, David Hume, Epicurus, evolution, Lawrence Krauss, Lucretius, natural selection, neologisms, Peter Atkins, Stephen Hawking, universe, Victorians, Why Words Matter: Sense and Nonsense in Science (series)}

Why Words Matter: Sense and Nonsense in Science

_{Neil Thomas
April 7, 2022

Evolution, Faith & Science, Intelligent Design, Linguistics

4}

One might, with Darwin, theorize that the development of the biosphere was simply down to that empirically unattested variant of chance, "natural selection." Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
March 1, 2022

Categories
Evolution
Faith & Science
Tagged
, body parts, COVID-19, Darwin and the Victorian Crisis of Faith (series), England, evolution, faith, Fleeming Jenkin, Lord Kelvin, natural selection, On the Origin of Species, pandemic, reviewers, Victorians}

Darwin and the Victorian Crisis of Faith

_{Neil Thomas
March 1, 2022

Evolution, Faith & Science

2}

Fleeming Jenkin (the distinguished Scottish scientist who with Lord Kelvin spearheaded the laying of the transatlantic cable) was particularly scathing. Read More ›