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Category

Darwinism

Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 6, 2021
Categorized
Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Religion, Science

The religious dimensions of Darwinian evolution theory

Denyse O'Leary
September 6, 2021
Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Religion, Science
What about this? Darwinism was the way an imperial British culture justified its rule over the “lesser breeds without the law?” That really was how they did see it all. And Darwinism was perfect for the purpose. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 5, 2021
Categorized
Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Naturalism
Tagged
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How to explain why you don’t believe in “evolution”

Denyse O'Leary
September 5, 2021
Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Naturalism
Math prof Granville Sewell suggests how to respond when you don't have time to offer a 30-minute answer on all the meanings of the term and, chance are, the yob who is asking is just trying to get you anyway Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 3, 2021
Categorized
Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Philosophy
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Philosopher: Darwinism vs. evidence was always a sore point

Denyse O'Leary
September 3, 2021
Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Philosophy
Laszlo Bencze: As Gertrude Himmelfarb (who did more than any other critic to unmask Darwin’s rhetorical evasions) noted, Darwin’s technique here and elsewhere was “to assume that by acknowledging the difficulty, he had somehow exorcized it,” coming up with a faux confession aimed at propitiating critical dissent. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 31, 2021
Categorized
Darwinism, Engineering, Intelligent Design
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How engineering destroys faith in Darwinism

Denyse O'Leary
August 31, 2021
Darwinism, Engineering, Intelligent Design
Brian Miller: Biologists wedded to scientific materialism have argued that life is so different from human artifacts that they can dismiss engineers’ conclusions about organisms’ limited evolvability. The central fallacy in this argument is that nearly every difference between human creations and life makes the latter ever more challenging to design. And the challenges translate into more daunting obstacles for any evolutionary scenario. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 31, 2021
Categorized
Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Mathematics, Science
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Darwinian evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne speaks out on the war on math

Denyse O'Leary
August 31, 2021
Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Mathematics, Science
Some of us remember when Darwinian commenters chided us for writing about the war on math and the war on science. Now that Jerry Coyne is starting to talk about it, will they start to listen? Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 30, 2021
Categorized
Darwinism, Intelligent Design
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Here’s a podcast with Neil Thomas on his new book, Taking Leave of Darwin

Denyse O'Leary
August 30, 2021
Darwinism, Intelligent Design
From podcast introduction: An erudite and settled Darwinist living comfortably in a thoroughly secular English academic culture, Thomas nevertheless came to reject Darwinian materialism and, as he insists, did so on purely rationalist grounds. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 27, 2021
Categorized
Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design
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Lutheran religious studies prof asks, Is methodological naturalism racist?

Denyse O'Leary
August 27, 2021
Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design
Shedinger: As the authors note, African Americans consistently score higher on surveys of religiosity than the general population. This will not be surprising to anyone familiar with the African American church tradition. But African American undergraduates seem to be aware of the absolute requirement that EEB research be done in accordance with methodological (and de facto metaphysical) naturalism. Their religious inclinations will therefore be in conflict with the culture within the EEB community and it will be difficult for them to feel a sense of belonging in that community. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 27, 2021
Categorized
Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design
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Materialism hangs on to science now — not by evidence but by politics

Denyse O'Leary
August 27, 2021
Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design
A quibble with Brian Miller’s analysis above: It’s not “philosophy” as such that fronts Darwin's stranglehold on the discussion of evolution. It’s the power to cause career ruin. That’s the stick end of politics, not of philosophy. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 24, 2021
Categorized
Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design, speciation
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How things have changed! Even Darwin’s Finches’ defenders are spooked

Denyse O'Leary
August 24, 2021
Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design, speciation
Peter and Rosemary Grant, the iconic Darwinian speciation couple, are backtracking in the face of new evidence that it doesn’t really work that way. On the other hand, this is a great time to be a recovering Darwinist. The world is much more interesting than that. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 22, 2021
Categorized
Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design
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Colin Patterson: A key late twentieth-century establishment Darwin skeptic

Denyse O'Leary
August 22, 2021
Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design
The paleontologist is credited with starting a “revolution.” But then the tenured fossils struck back. If you have ever wondered whether a lot of establishment thinking was blithering nonsense, spare a kind thought for Colin Patterson… Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 22, 2021
Categorized
Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design, rhetoric
Tagged
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Rationalist skeptic comments on the manipulative arguments for Darwinism

Denyse O'Leary
August 22, 2021
Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design, rhetoric
Part of an excerpt from his new book, Taking Leave of Darwin (2021). Science historian Michael Flannery, among others, have often noted this style of Darwinian argument. One might say that it relies on the public’s willingness to be persuaded of the proposition far more on the innate intellectual value of the proposition. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 20, 2021
Categorized
Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design
Tagged
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Why do one-celled organisms undergo programmed cell death? A real evolution puzzle

Denyse O'Leary
August 20, 2021
Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design
Researchers: "In unicellular organisms, however, programmed cell death (PCD) poses a difficult and unresolved evolutionary problem. " It’s not clear just how the researchers think they have answered the question. Claiming that some types of PCD are “true” and others are “ersatz” doesn’t seem to answer the central question — why programmed death occurs at all. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 19, 2021
Categorized
Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Mathematics
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ID theorists publish new paper in Journal of Theoretical Biology

Denyse O'Leary
August 19, 2021
Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Mathematics
We hope the journal isn’t intimidated by Darwin’s Outrage Machine, Inc. Just think, some people are now allowed to bring this up. And not just as an inhouse titter, followed promptly by dismissal of the question. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 2, 2021
Categorized
Atheism, Books of interest, Darwinism, Intelligent Design
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One day, a longtime agnostic suddenly realized that Darwinism couldn’t be true

Denyse O'Leary
August 2, 2021
Atheism, Books of interest, Darwinism, Intelligent Design
Witt: "Critics of intelligent design will have a hard time maligning Thomas as a “creationist in a cheap tuxedo.” He isn’t religious and is a longtime member of the British Rationalist Association, a group known for religious skepticism." Read More ›