Category Archives: Evolution

Dawkins v Wilson on Group Selection

Posted on 17 June 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

A minor irritant in Dawkins’ book just discussed is that he several times describes claims by other scientists and then patiently explains why they are wrong. In one case it’s a recently published paper in a journal. In another he … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution, Science | Leave a comment

Dawkins, THE SELFISH GENE

Posted on 16 June 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Opening paragraph, of a chapter called “Why are people?” Intelligent life on a planet comes of age when it first works out the reason for its own existence. If superior creatures from space ever visit earth, the first question they … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Evolution, Science | Leave a comment

E.O. Wilson: ON HUMAN NATURE

Posted on 14 April 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

I first read this book shortly after its 1978 hardcover publication, and it was revelatory; elegantly written and insightful, it challenged conventional ideas about human nature, especially the one about the mind being a ‘blank slate’ completely molded by environment, … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Evolution, Religion | 1 Comment

Link and Comment: Adam Frank on the Earth’s Biosphere

Posted on 13 June 2018 by Mark R. Kelly

Today’s NYT has an op-ed by Adam Frank, Earth Will Survive. We May Not., which keys off the theme of his new book, LIGHT OF THE STARS: ALIEN WORLDS AND THE FATE OF THE EARTH, just released this past Tuesday. … Continue reading →

Posted in Cosmology, Evolution, Species Reset | Leave a comment

Links from NYT recently, with Comments

Posted on 12 April 2018 by Mark R. Kelly

Op-ed by Amy Sullivan in the New York Times, April 1 (posted March 31): Trump’s Christian Soldiers The recurring, amazing fact that the self-righteous evangelicals support someone like Trump. You could open a publishing press devoted to the theological and … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Evolution, Politics, Psychology | Leave a comment

Links and Comments: Evolution of Evolution Denial, and American Gullibility

Posted on 21 November 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

A ‘Retro Report’ article in the NY Times, Questioning Evolution: The Push to Change Science Class, summarizes the by-now familiar litany of how objections to Darwin’s theory of the evolution — along with the many lines of supporting evidence and … Continue reading →

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Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow: Intro and Chapter 1

Posted on 13 September 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

This is perhaps the most influential book of the past couple decades on the whole subject of human mental biases, how the ways in which we think entail errors of perception, and employ heuristics that are often but not always … Continue reading →

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Wright: Nonzero: Intro and Chapter 1

Posted on 7 September 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

I’ve decided to tackle three or four substantial nonfiction books, over the next few weeks, in the manner of reading books for college courses — that is, alternating among them over a quarter or semester-like period of 8 to 10 … Continue reading →

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Pinker: Better Angels: Passages and Outline from the Preface

Posted on 6 September 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

This is Steven Pinker’s big 2011 book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, that takes a long-range view of human history to show that the human condition, over millennia and especially in recent centuries and decades, … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Evolution, Human Progress, Humanism, Steven Pinker | Comments Off on Pinker: Better Angels: Passages and Outline from the Preface

Dan Savage on “Sex Dread” Education

Posted on 6 August 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Vox: “Sex dread” education could be on the rise under Trump. Dan Savage is ready to fight it.. Subtitle: Dan Savage on why abstinence-focused education doesn’t work. Of course. Because conservatives just *know* things to be so, despite evidence. Excerpt: … Continue reading →

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