Scopes Revisited: An Interview with Historian Jefrey Breshears

American Birth Control League, American Crisis, Apologetics, Bible, C.S. Lewis, Charles Darwin, Clarence Darrow, Culture, Dayton, Discovery Institute, Eugene Debs, Eugenics Education Society, Evolution, Francis Galton, fundamentalist Christianity, H. L. Mencken, history of science, Hollywood, Human Origins and Anthropology, Industrial Workers of the World, Inherit the Wind, Jefrey Breshears, John Scopes, John West, Only Yesterday, Origin of Species, religion, Roaring Twenties, scientific racism, scientism, Scopes trial, Tennessee, The Areopagus, The Descent of Man, The Magician’s Twin, trial lawyers, William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow Wilson, Young Earth Creationists
Promoted as a battle royale between science and religion — evolutionary theory versus biblical creation — in its actual content the trial was underwhelming. Source
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Darwinian Death: Euthanasia Meets Eugenics

agnostics, atheists, Culture & Ethics, disabilities, Edward Tylor, Ernst Haeckel, Essays of the Birmingham Speculative Club, eugenics, euthanasia, Evolution, F. H. Bradley, Fortnightly Review, Francis Galton, Germany, Hans-Walter Schmuhl, Ian Dowbiggin, illnesses, International Journal of Ethics, Judeo-Christian tradition, Lionel Tollemache, Natural History of Creation, Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte, Nick Kemp, Punishment, self-murder, self-redemption, The Cure for Incurables, The Wonders of Life, usefulness, World War I
One powerful influence on the early euthanasia movement was eugenics ideology, which emerged first in the 1860s under the leadership of Francis Galton. Source
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Only Thick Darwinism Served Here

André Ariew, Burger King, C.S. Lewis, capitalists, Charles Darwin, Christianity, Darwinism, David Berlinski, eugenics, Evolution, Evolution News, evolutionary biology, Francis Galton, Freudianism, Hugh Desmond, Intelligent Design, J.P. Moreland, Liliana M. Dávalos, Marxism, Marxists, Nancy Pearcey, Nazism, Neil Thomas, Philippe Huneman, Quarterly Review of Biology, Thomas Reydon, Yoda complex
Want your Darwinism thick or thin? Sorry; if these four scientists argue correctly, you only get the thick slice with some rather unsavory seasonings mixed in. Source
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Following the Science, Doctors Joined the Nazis “In Droves”

African Americans, Africans, Alfred Hoche, Allison Hopper, Ashley K. Fernandes, biocracy, bioethicists, Bruce Chapman, Charles B. Davenport, Charles Darwin, COVID-19, Darwinists, doctors, eugenics, Evolution, evolutionary theory, Francis Galton, Germans, history, Karl Binding, Karl Pearson, Medicine, Nazis, nurses, Ohio State University, physicians, Racism, Scientific American, scientific racism, social pandemic, sterilization, Tablet, white coat, white supremacy
There is a tendency to sanctify the medical profession, with the white coat serving as an icon of wisdom, compassion, and morality. 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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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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C. S. Lewis, Science, and Science Fiction

Arthur C. Clarke, Back to Methuselah, C.H. Waddington, C.S. Lewis, Childhood’s End, Culture & Ethics, Darwinism, eugenics, Evolution, Francis Galton, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, J.B.S. Haldane, Olaf Stapledon, Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, Possible Worlds, Science & Ethics, science fiction, scientism, Star Maker, Tao, Technology, That Hideous Strength, The Abolition of Man, the Flesh and the Devil, The Shape of Things to Come, The Social Function of Science, The World
Was C. S. Lewis an enemy of science? The apparent answer to this question is no. Source
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Himmelfarb and Her Haters

10 Books That Screwed Up the World, Adrian Desmond, Alfred Russel Wallace, Andrew Dickson White, Bea Kristol, Benjamin Wiker, Borneo, Bridgewater Treatises, Charles Darwin, Charles Gillispie, Charles Kingsley, City University of New York, Cornell University, Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution, Darwinists, Darwin’s Sacred Cause, Dyak headhunters, Edward T. Oakes, Encounter (journal), Ernst Mayr, Eugenics Record Office, Evolution, Francis Galton, George Will, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Harry Bruinius, history, Jacques Barzun, James D. Watson, James Moore, Jeffrey Shallit, Jewish Women, John William Draper, Julian Huxley, Leo Strauss, Mein Kampf, P.Z. Myers, Panda's Thumb, Uaupés River Valley, Victorian England
Editor’s note: Historian and Darwin skeptic Gertrude Himmelfarb died on Monday, December 30, 2019. While mourning the passing of this great scholar, we are pleased to republish Professor Flannery’s 2009 essay, below. See also Flannery’s tribute, ‘Farewell to Gertrude Himmelfarb, Brutally Honest Historian of the “Darwinian Revolution.’” “If you have no enemies, it is a sign fortune has forgot you.” — Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732  Noted physician Thomas Fuller was an expert on “eruptive fevers,” and so it seems fitting to open this essay with his wry but telling observation on enemies in public life, for perhaps no contemporary historian has spawned more “eruptive fever” over an analysis of the reigning secular creation myth demigod, Charles Darwin, than has the present subject of this essay. If Fuller is any judge,…
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