My Friend Olufemi Oluniyi and Darwin’s Legacy in Nigeria

Africa, Bible, British Empire, C. S. Lewis Fellows Program, Cambridge University, Catholic University of America, Christianity, COVID-19, Culture & Ethics, Darwin Comes to Africa, Discovery Institute, Evolution, New College, New York Times, Olufemi Oluniyi, Reconciliation in Northern Nigeria, Scotland, Seattle, snobbery, Social Darwinism, Summer Seminars, University of Edinburgh
Olufemi opened my eyes and heart to the importance of Nigeria to Africa, the dynamic role of Christians there, and the importance of Africa to the world. Source
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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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African Genocide: The Horror of Scientific Racism

"survival of the fittest", Africa, age restriction, algorithms, censorship, Charles Darwin, Christianity, Culture & Ethics, Darwinism, documentary, Evolution, genocide, German ideology, German Southwest Africa, Herero people, imperialism, Namibia, Politicians, pop culture, preachers, Racism, religious racism, scientific racism, Second Reich, Social Darwinism, The Biology of the Second Reich, World War I, YouTube videos
My documentary only tells one part of the story of racism, and only a part of the story of Social Darwinism's influence on Western imperialism. Source
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The Casual Racism of Charles Darwin

Abraham Joshua Heschel, Abraham Lincoln, Adrian Desmond, Africa, Allison Hopper, anti-racism, Charles Darwin, Culture & Ethics, Darwin’s Sacred Cause, Descent of Man, Edinburgh, Emma Darwin, Erasmus Darwin, Evolution, Great Emancipator, Harriet Martineau, Human Origins, James Moore, N-word, Racism, slavery, slaves, Victorian England
It is certainly startling to see the N-word cropping up in Darwin’s letters, but this is not the only place. Source
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Darwinism, Storytelling, and the Futurist ET Myth

2001: A Space Odyssey, Africa, Bible, Charles Darwin, Christianity, Culture & Ethics, Darwinian materialism, domino, English literature, Flannery O’Connor, futurist ET myth, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, H.G. Wells, human brain, Human Origins, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Jacques Derrida, John Milton, John Updike, Michael Keas, monolith, quantum leap, Robert Ardrey, Roland Barthes, science fiction, Stanley Kubrick, Texas, The Territorial Imperative, The Time Machine, Unbelievable?, weapons
The implication is clear: the alien monolith has somehow bequeathed to him and his little tribe a sudden quantum leap in brain power. Source
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Reflections on Our Ancient Past

Africa, ancient past, BIO-Complexity, bottleneck, coalescence, de novo creation, Denisovans, DNA, genetic diversity, Homo erectus, Human Origins, methodological naturalism, Neanderthals, Ola Hössjer, population genetics
This past October, Ola Hössjer and I published a paper, “A Single-Couple Human Origin Is Possible.” Writing in the journal BIO-Complexity, we described a model that used standard population genetics methods but refined in a new way to permit calculation of larger data arrays deeper in time. Using this model we were able to demonstrate that an initial couple could indeed give rise to the modern human population. That paper discussed the possibility of a first couple, but it did not distinguish between two alternatives. The single couple could have had a de novo origin, meaning to start from the beginning. This alternative is one most scientists choose to ignore since it does not fit with methodological naturalism (MN), the philosophical position that only “natural” explanations are allowed in science.…
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