Category Archives: Evolution

Extreme vs. Necessary Solutions

Posted on 28 November 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

To the imminent destruction of the planet. Allow the human race to go extinct? Cut back on capitalist consumption? (Which would be worse?)

Posted in Culture, Evolution, Human Progress | Leave a comment

Ari Wallach, LONGPATH: Becoming the Great Ancestors Our Future Needs

Posted on 5 November 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

This is a modest little book with great ambitions to change the way people think. And more power to it if it does. But for anyone who reads science fiction, for example, or is familiar with big issues and long-term … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Evolution, science fiction | Leave a comment

Intuitive Justice

Posted on 3 November 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Reading: Salon, Daniel Sznycer (and Carlton Patrick), 2 Nov 2022: Intuitions about justice are a consistent part of human nature across cultures and millennia Subtitled: “Two professors explain that a moral compass — which appraises right and wrong — is … Continue reading →

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Prognostic Myopia: More about Justin Gregg

Posted on 22 September 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Picking up from where I left off yesterday. My basic summary of this book is: humans are not “stupid”; the issue is that human intelligence has both good and bad consequences, and apparently we can’t have the good without the … Continue reading →

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

Justin Gregg: IF NIETZSCHE WERE A NARWHAL (2022)

Posted on 21 September 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a recent nonfiction book with a provocative thesis and some interesting points which nevertheless I give a mixed review of. Perhaps helpful to consider scoring the book along several independent parameters, like on some of those cooking shows, e.g. … Continue reading →

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Abortion Votes and Republicans on Parenting

Posted on 3 August 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

When I opened Facebook this morning the first 10 items were all about the election results in Kansas (from news sources or friends citing them), in which an attempt to remove protections for abortion *failed* rather dramatically — by 60% … Continue reading →

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Played by Evolution

Posted on 20 July 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

The motivations of those who think most harshly of abortion, homosexuality, transsexuals, and so on, are enacting the harshest strategies for species survival and growth of a process they don’t believe in: evolution. Happiness and well-being of actual living individual … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Evolution, Musings | Leave a comment

Ensoulment and Miscarriages

Posted on 8 July 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a nice essay that observes how the prevelance of spontaneous abortions — miscarriages — doesn’t seem consistent with the theological position of “ensoulment,” the notion that God inserts the just-feritilized embryo with a soul.

Posted in Evolution, Religion | Leave a comment

Evolution, Culture Wars, and Science Fiction

Posted on 30 June 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Jerry Coyne, 29 Jun 2022: Once again: A misguided article on why the theory of evolution is obsolete This discusses an article in the UK newspaper Guardian, Do we need a new theory of evolution?, by Stephen Buranyi, which uses … Continue reading →

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LQCs: Anti-Evolutionists’ Failures at Math

Posted on 2 June 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Skeptical Inquirer, Jason Rosenhouse, May/June 2022 issue: The Failures of Mathematical Anti-Evolutionism And commenting on it, Jerry Coyne, Why Evolution is True, 2 June 2022: The intellectual vacuity of mathematical arguments against evolution

Posted in Evolution, Mathematics | Leave a comment