Ecology and Biodiversity Virulence and vectors 18 Mar 202018 Mar 2020 Apropos of nothing, I am reminded of Paul Ewald’s book Evolution of infectious disease (1994). Ewald begins with the question of whether parasites and pathogens evolve towards commensuality (the state of being mutually beneficial, which is what, among others, Macfarlane Burnet thought, along with many immunologists and epidemiologists. Ewald points out… Continue Reading
Ethics and Moral Philosophy Morality and Evolution 3: Apes and populations 4 May 201422 May 2014 [Morality and Evolution 1 2 3 4 5 6 7] Humans are apes, evolutionarily speaking. That is, while we are named distinctly in the vernacular usage from the rest of the apes (chimp, bonobo, gorilla, orang-utan, gibbons x 2), we fall squarely within the great ape clade. As such, we might expect that we share with… Continue Reading
Ethics and Moral Philosophy Morality and Evolution 1: The Milvian Bridge 29 Apr 201422 May 2014 [Morality and Evolution 1 2 3 4 5 6 7] A while back I gave a talk to a group of theologians on the question of Darwinian accidents. It had no ethics content. The first question I was asked was “If you are an atheist, how can you have moral rules?” Like many others who talk… Continue Reading
Biology Humans are the only animals that… 11 Jul 201311 Jul 2013 Psychologist Daniel Gilbert once wrote on the unwritten vow taken by psychologists: Few people realise that psychologists also take a vow, promising that at some point in their professional lives they will publish a book, a chapter or at least an article that contains the sentence: ‘The human being is… Continue Reading
Evolution God and evolution 6: Is Darwinism atheism? 24 May 201324 May 2013 Many Christians and Muslims, and to a lesser extent Jews, think that Darwinian evolution requires or implies atheism, a charge first brought when Darwin was still alive. The Princeton theologian Charles Hodge argued this in his What is Darwinism? (1874). But Darwin himself, and many of his followers such as… Continue Reading
Evolution God and Evolution 5: The problem of chance 23 May 201324 May 2013 Many religious thinkers hold that chance is the enemy of God. God is omniscient in many theisms, and so if chance occurs, and chance is unpredictable even for God, then the reality of chance means that God does not exist. This doesn’t apply, of course, to gods that are limited… Continue Reading
Evolution God and evolution 4: The problem of Purpose B 19 Apr 201323 Jun 2018 Providence and plans The problem for theists is that most theisms assume that God has a plan. This is sometimes called providence: God provides for goals he has, for the benefit of the organisms, and in particular for humans, and for the achievement of his purposes. As soon as Darwin… Continue Reading
Epistemology God and evolution 3: The problem of purpose A 13 Apr 201322 Jun 2018 The problem of purpose When Darwin published the Origin, he was lauded by his Christian friend and correspondent Asa Gray, who wrote: “…Darwin’s great service to Natural Science in bringing back to it Teleology: so that instead of Morphology versus Teleology, we shall have Morphology wedded to Teleology” Darwin replied… Continue Reading
Evolution God and evolution 2: The problem of creation 4 Apr 201322 Jun 2018 Objections to evolution from the particular perspective of religion come in three forms: the problem of creation, the problem of purpose and the problem of chance. All other objections are general philosophical ones, and I’ll discuss them under that heading. The problem of creation The majority of believers in the… Continue Reading
Creationism and Intelligent Design God and evolution 1 1 Apr 201322 Jun 2018 [I have decided to restart ET for a bit, but given my circumstances, it will be sporadic at best. This is the first in a series that will be tagged “Living with Evolution”, and is the first rough draft of what I hope will be a book.] The common view… Continue Reading