Evolution Bends to Fit the Evidence
May 2, 2011
A good scientific theory should predict what is observed. When the theory is confronted with unexpected evidence, should the theory be jettisoned or modified?
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Darwin Was Wrong About Geology
December 2, 2009
Field geologists have revisited a site Darwin visited on the voyage of the Beagle, and found that he incorrectly interpreted what he found. A large field of erratic boulders in Tierra del Fuego that have become known as “Darwin’s Boulders” were deposited by a completely different process than he thought. The modern team, publishing in […]
Last of the Darwin Celebrations
November 24, 2009
On the 24th of November 1859, 150 years ago today, Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection and the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life sold out. Biographer Janet Browne (03/07/2009) explained in the bonus features of the film The Voyage that Shook the World (see Resource of the Week […]
Where Chairman Mao and Teenage Nihilists Got Their Motivation
November 12, 2009
What propelled Mao Zhedong to become the biggest mass murderer in world history? Let a professor of Chinese history answer the question. James Pusey (Bucknell U), writing in Nature this week for a series on “Global Darwin,”1 was explaining the vacuum left by the collapse of the reform movement in the early 20th century. A […]
Darwin Marketed to Kids
November 10, 2009
There’s a move on to get Darwin’s ideas taught to tots. Britain is giving a “birthday present to Darwin,” wrote Andrew Copson for The Guardian, in the form of national curriculum for primary schools that will mention evolution for the first time – and prohibit teaching of creationism or intelligent design in science lessons. […]
Darwinizing of Religion Continues
November 9, 2009
In an ongoing series for the Year of Darwin in Science magazine,1 Elizabeth Culotta wrote an article with the Darwinesque title, “On the Origin of Religion.”2 The editor’s summary acknowledges that “No consensus yet exists among scientists,” but sought the only answer in Darwinian terms: “in the past 15 years, a growing number of researchers […]
The Nature of Darwin and the Darwin of Nature
October 29, 2009
“Even the most ardent fan of Charles Darwin might be feeling weary as his anniversary year draws to a close,” remarked Clive Wynn in another issue of Nature celebrating his bicentennial.1 “Publishers have seemingly explored every corner of Darwin’s life: his youth, his marriage, his attitudes to slavery and religion.” And now Wynn was introducing […]
Materialists: What Do You Know?
October 28, 2009
For people who brag about their work, scientists are an odd lot. At one moment they are touting science as the surest path to knowledge and understanding. The next moment it seems like they are at square one. This is particularly true of materialist cosmologies and Darwinian theories for the origin and development of life. […]
Freud’s Out; Who’s Next?
October 15, 2009
Nature is "shocked by the abandon with which he elaborated his theories on the basis of essentially no empirical evidence."
Whats in a Name? Sima Fossils Confuse Human Evolution Story
October 14, 2009
“A hush fell over the room….” Ian Tattersall had just astonished paleoanthropologists gathered for a meeting on human origins in Gibraltar. The group was puzzling over a treasure trove of hominin bones found in the mid-1990s at Sima de los Huesos in Spain. What should they be called? The co-discoverer, Juan Luis Arsuaga, […]
Evolutionists Answer ‘Why’ Questions With ‘Stuff Happens’
September 22, 2009
Why do ants walk single file? Why are goldfish gold? Why do worms come up on the sidewalk in the rain? Exasperated parents sometimes answer the incessant questions of their young children with “It’s just the way things are!” Presumably science does a better job of explanation, but one might wonder if the following evolutionary […]
Trio of Darwin Films Released
September 16, 2009
This month finds us two thirds of the way between Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of his Origin of Species. Taking advantage of the extra attention Darwin is getting this year (as if he needed more), three films on his life and ideas are being released from three different companies. The Voyage that […]
What Darwin Does to Psychology – And Humanity
September 6, 2009
“Traits that we may find unsavory are nevertheless also products of our evolutionary history.” This quote stands out boldly in a call-out from an article by psychologist Jerome H. Barkow (Dalhousie University) in a review of evo-psych (evolutionary psychology) in PNAS.1 Barkow acknowledged controversy about the premise that the evolutionary history of our psyches produces […]
Evolution 2.0: Whats in the Upgrade?
August 19, 2009
Consider Evolution 1.0. That was the old biological, Darwinian stuff. Now, there’s Evolution 2.0 – the evolution of technology. W. Brian Arthur explained the upgrade package for New Scientist: “On the origin of technologies.” Arthur is not the first to try to define a law of nature for the origin of technology. He […]
Evolution of the Knuckle Head
August 12, 2009
An evolutionary anthropologist looked at the knuckles of chimpanzees. Then she looked at the knuckles of gorillas. Then she looked at her own knuckles. Conclusion: humans evolved from tree climbers, not knuckle walkers. Her theory can be read in Live Science, based on a paper in PNAS.1 Tracy Kivell and Daniel Schmitt from […]