25Nov 2025 by Post

Destroyer or Nurturer? Darwin’s Divinized Conception of Nature

Alan of, Alfred Russel Wallace, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Bernard Silvestris, Charles Darwin, Charlotte Brontë, cosmology, Darwinism, Edward Pusey, Evolution, Faith & Science, Geoffrey Chaucer, George Levine, historical sciences, Jane Eyre, Jean de Meun, Lamarckism, maternal figure, Mother Nature, Natura, Natura creatrix, natural preservation, natural selection, natural theology, Ovid, Physis, Queens of the Wild, Robert J. Richards, Romance of the Rose, Ronald Hutton, teleology, world spirit
The powers of natural selection transcend human intelligence to such a degree that Darwin came close to imputing to it the capacity for intelligent design. Source
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05Oct 2025 by Post

A Neglected Dissenter from Darwinism: St. George Mivart

Alfred Russel Wallace, Asa Gray, atomism, barnacles, Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, Darwin and His Critics, David L. Hull, Duke of Argyll, Epicureanism, Evolution, Fleeming Jenkin, Inkwell Press, ipse dixit, Jacob Gruber, James Barham, Lucretianism, odium antitheologicum, On the Genesis of Species, Origin of Species, Richard Owen, Roman Catholics, Samuel Haughton, scientific reasoning, Sir Charles Lyell, St. George Jackson Mivart, Stephen Jay Gould, The Descent of Man, theists, vera causa
Mivart’s objection to Darwinism has not gone away (although it is often studiously ignored). Source
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29May 2024 by Post

Darwin’s Racism of the Gaps 

aborigines, Africans, Alfred Russel Wallace, Australians, baboons, Caucasians, Charles Darwin, Europeans, Evolution, fossil record, Fuegians, gorillas, history, HMS Beagle, Human Origins, humans, intelligence, John Stuart Mill, Origin of Species, races, Racism, Reasoning, Richard Weikart, species, stem, Texas, The Descent of Man, Tierra del Fuego, United Nations
A defender of Darwinism might object that it’s silly to ding Darwin for his racism, since just about every white person in Victorian England was racist. Source
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01Dec 2023 by Post

Alfred Russel Wallace’s Bicentennial Year: A Cause for Celebration and for Sadness

Alfred Russel Wallace, Andrew Berry, Arthur Conan Doyle, bicentennial, Charles Smith, Chemistry, Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection, cosmology, Darwinism (book), Elusive Victorian, Evolution, George Beccaloni, Heretic in Darwin’s Court, In Darwin’s Shadow, intelligent cause, Intelligent Design, intelligent evolution, James T. Costa, Lord Rayleigh, Man’s Place in the Universe, Martin Fichman, Michael Shermer, Nature's Prophet, Origin of Species, Peter Raby, Radical by Nature, Revolt of Democracy, Richard Dawkins, Ross A. Slotten, Social Environment and Moral Progress, spiritualism, that biology, The Geographical Distribution of Animals, The Greatest Show on Earth, The Wonderful Century, The World of Life, Tropical Nature, Usk, Wales, William Crookes, William Fletcher Barrett, William James, William Paley
All the hyperbole shows the fix is in — Wallace has been made safe for scientism and Darwinian reductionism. The academy can breathe easy. Source
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25Nov 2023 by Post

Alfred Russel Wallace: A Life in Science, Rediscovered

A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro, Alfred Russel Wallace, botany, Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, Evolution, H.M.S. Beagle, Intelligent Design, Island Life, Joseph Conrad, Joseph Hooker, Linnean Society, Malay Archipelago, Michael Flannery, Nature's Prophet, Palms of the Amazon and Rio Negro, Robert Chambers, Samuel Stevens, Sarawak Law, Somerset Maugham, South America, The Malay Archipelago, Use, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, Walter Henry Bates
Despite the notoriety of Wallace in his own day, he remains a comparatively obscure figure in the history of biology. Source
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07Oct 2023 by Post

A “Prepared Mind” for Alfred Russel Wallace

"survival of the fittest", A. P. Mead, Alfred Russel Wallace, At the Edge of History, Charles Darwin, Darwinian evolution, Evolution, Intelligent Design, intelligent evolution, liberals, Loren Eiseley, Louis Pasteur, M. R. A. Chance, Meaning, natural selection, Pithecanthropus, purpose, The World of Life, William Irwin Thompson
Although Wallace receded into the deep recesses of my memory, I had what Pasteur called “the prepared mind.” Source
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30Sep 2023 by Post

Alfred Russel Wallace’s Case for an “Overruling Intelligence”

abstract thought, Alfred Russel Wallace, Alfred Russel Wallace: A Rediscovered Life, biology, Charles Darwin, Chemistry, cosmology, dance, Evolution, gaps, human beings, human uniqueness, Intelligent Design, mathematics, Michael Flannery, music, natural selection, Nature's Prophet, Overruling Intelligence, principle of utility, survival advantage
When Wallace broke with Charles Darwin in 1869, it was over the nature of human beings. Source
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