The Cruel Legacy of Social Darwinism in Nigeria

Africa, Africans, biology, Charles Darwin, chimpanzees, colonialism, Culture & Ethics, Darwin Comes to Africa, ethnicity, Europe, Europeans, Evolution, French Guinea, genetics, historiography, Joseph Stalin, Mandinka, morality, nationality, natural selection, Nigeria, Northern Nigeria, pseudo-science, Race, Racism, random mutation, religion, scientific racism, Social Darwinism, tiger, tiger moth
Social Darwinism rests like a tiger moth on Darwinism, its mother theory; when challenged with facts, it just flits to a slightly different position. Source
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Can Red Have “Redness” if No Self Perceives It?

apes, chimpanzees, Closer to Truth, genomes, human exceptionalism, illusion, inner feeling, Julian Baggini, lichens, neurons, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, origin of life, philosophy, qualia, red, redness, religion, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, rocks, science, scientific explanation, self
Is not the fact that we are having these discussions the best available evidence that we are not “just overgrown apes or undergrown apes”? Source
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What Would It Take To Prove That God Doesn’t Exist?

2. Does God Exist?, Al Serrato, Answers to Skeptics questions, Apologetics, Atheists arguments, Christianity, God, Jesus, religion, Skeptics, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Al Serrato Atheists who feel certain that there is no God are staking out a rather interesting position. As a corollary of their position, they are of course also convinced that those who believe in God are engaging in a form of wishful thinking, that their desire to believe in a “cosmic judge” of good and evil clouds their thinking, preventing them from following where “the science” actually leads, as they believe they have done. Indeed, many believe that religion is no more than the opiate of the masses. But a bit of careful consideration will lead to quite the opposite conclusion. Holding to atheism may have some superficial appeal, as the theist must concede that it is not possible to directly see or experience God. But pretending to…
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Reviewing Sapiens: An Evolutionary Deconstruction of Human Rights

animism, atheists, creator, Culture & Ethics, David Klinghoffer, Declaration of Independence, elites, equality, ethics, Evolution, freedom, Hammurabi, Homo sapiens, human rights, monotheism, morality, myths, polytheism, religion, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, social order, Thomas Jefferson, truth, Voltaire, Yuval Noah Harari
Yuval Noah Harari deconstructs the most famous line from the Declaration of Independence. Source
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Jordan Peterson Springs the Trap of Scientism

Andrew Copson, beauty, Carl Jung, competence, Faith & Science, history of ideas, Holocaust, hydrogen, hydrogen bomb, Intelligent Design, Johannes Kepler, John Lennox, Jordan Peterson, Lawrence Krauss, leprosy, Michael Shermer, myths, Oxford Union, physicists, psychology, religion, Return of the God Hypothesis, Sam Harris, scientific method, scientific revolution, scientism, Stephen Meyer
There’s a gaping God-shaped hole in both Krauss and Peterson’s particular ways of spinning all this. Source
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Jordan Peterson, Lawrence Krauss, and the God Hypothesis

Atheism, Beyond Order, Big Bang, Faith & Science, God Hypothesis, Jordan Peterson, Lawrence Krauss, Macbeth, metaphysics, physics, Physics, Earth & Space, psychology, religion, Return of the God Hypothesis, Richard Dawkins, Santa Claus, scientists, secular humanism, Stephen Meyer, supernatural, universe
Stephen Meyer opens his new book with a memorable anecdote about debating Krauss live while battling a fierce migraine. Source
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Did Religion Evolve, or Was It Designed, to Foster Cooperation?

Aboriginal Australians, Agricultural Revolution, Catholics, Crusades, dead ends, designer, Faith & Science, Fiction, group cohesion, hospital, Human Origins, Jesus, myths, religion, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, selfish genes, shared beliefs, strangers, unguided evolution, Yuval Noah Harari
Harari’s assurance about building group cohesion is simplistic and woefully insufficient to account for common characteristics of religion. Source
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Scientific Racism and the Confederate Flag

A New Birth of Freedom, Adam Smith, Africans, Alexander H. Stephens, alt-right, Charles Darwin, Civil War, Confederacy, Confederate flag, Cornerstone Speech, Culture & Ethics, Darwinian evolution, dreamscape, eugenics, Evolution, Galileo, genocide, Harry Jaffa, Human Zoos, John West, March for Science, NASCAR, Nextdoor, Oregon, Portland, Psalms, Racism, religion, Seattle, Southerners, The Biology of the Second Reich, The Descent of Man, vacation homes, William Harvey
Alexander H. Stephens was Vice President of the Confederacy. In 1861 he delivered an oration justifying slavery and rebellion on scientific grounds. Source
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