Language: Darwin’s Eternal Mystery

Alfred Russel Wallace, Big Bang, Bonfire of the Vanities, Carrara marble, cosmogony, Descent of Man, Evolution, Genesis, George Lemaître, Headlong Hall, James Burnet, Johann Gottfried Herder, language, Lord Monboddo, Melincourt, Michelangelo’s David, Miller-Urey experiment, natural selection, Neuroscience & Mind, Noam Chomsky, Oxford English Dictionary, Philological Society of London, Richard Lewontin, Sir Oran Haut-ton, Steady State, The Kingdom of Speech, Theory of Everything, Thomas Love Peacock, Tom Wolfe, Ueber den Ursprung der Sprache
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. Source
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How Darwin and Wallace Split over the Human Mind

Alfred Russel Wallace, Animal Liberation, Anthony Flew, Anthony O’Hear, biology, consciousness, cosmogonism, Darwin, David Bentley Hart, David Hume, deism, Donald Hoffman, Erasmus Darwin, Europeans, Evolution, Francis Crick, How Darwin and Wallace Split over the Human Mind, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, Lawrence Krauss, Lucretius, materialism, Michael Ruse, mind, natural selection, natural theology, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, Peter Singer, Racism, rationalism, Richard Dawkins, Richard Rorty, Richard Spilsbury, Stephen Hawking, Ternate letter, The Origin of Species, Thomas Huxley, Tom Wolfe
Marvelously free of racist prejudice, Wallace noted in his fieldwork in far-flung locations that primitive tribes were intellectually the equals of Europeans. Source
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On Evolution and Racism, Scientific American Goes to War Against the Truth

African Americans, Africans, Alfred Russel Wallace, Allison Hopper, Amsterdam, Bible, border wall, Cain, Charles Darwin, Chautauqua, Darwinian theory, death penalty, Descent of Man, Electoral College, eugenics, Evolution, fake news, filibuster, Final Solution, Fox News, Francis Galton, genocide, human dignity, Human Zoos, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Intelligent Design, John West, Jon Levine, New York Post, Politics, qualified immunity, Scientific American, standardized testing, student loan debt, systemic racism, white supremacy
Given evolution’s racist baggage, you might think the theory’s proponents would be somewhat abashed to accuse the critics of Darwin of “white supremacy.” Source
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When Darwinian Evolution Became Obsolete

Alfred Russel Wallace, Anthropological Society, archaeal cells, Carl Woese, Charles Darwin, Dreams of Earth and Sky, eukaryotic cells, Evolution, Freeman Dyson, Jerry Coyne, Linnean Society, natural selection, Origin of Species, prokaryotic cells, Reductionism, Richard Dawkins, Richard Owen, scientistic positivism, “selfish gene”
The theory of evolution by natural selection was unveiled to a poorly attended and generally inattentive audience at a Linnean Society meeting. Source
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Some Additional Comments on Social Darwinism

Adrian Desmond, Alfred Russel Wallace, Applied Eugenics, Culture & Ethics, Current Anthropology, Darwin Industry, Darwinian evolution, Derek Freeman, Evolution, Herbert Spencer, James Moore, Jeffrey O’Connell, John C. Greene, Marvin Harris, Michael Ruse, natural selection, Origin of Species, Richard Weikart, Robert Richards, Social Darwinism
O’Connell and Ruse’s failure to engage deeply and fully with the historiography of this question makes it hard to take their effort seriously. Source
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Charles Darwin in Light of Black History Month

African Americans, Alfred Russel Wallace, Black History Month, Charles Darwin, Culture & Ethics, Darwinism, Darwinists, eugenics, Europeans, Evolution, Francis Galton, ID The Future, indigenous races, Intelligent Design, Jay Richards, Martin Luther King Jr., materialism, scientific racism, sterilization, theology, Victorian England
Was Darwin’s racism purely a function of his time and place, Victorian England? Historian Michael Flannery says no. Source
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