Category Archives: Evolution and Scientific Method
Fireside Trance and the Boob Tube
When I was in my early 20s & wanted to be the next Charles Bukowski, I used to hang out at a bar called Coney Island High on St. Mark’s Place in NYC after work. Consistent with the Bukowski schtick, I … Continue reading
Wrangham’s “Catching Fire” and Selection for Calmness
Several years back sociologist James McClenon speculated in a 1997 article in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion that selection for prosocial calmness took place in Homo erectus when they started manipulating fire. I took issue with this, … Continue reading
The Evolution Paradox in Higher Education (Or how I had to buck up and teach myself this evolution stuff!)
As I’ve written in several of my publications, evolution is under attack. But not only by religious fundamentalists, who may reject evolution outright due to conflicts regarding the origins of life. This particular rejection is sort of the high-profile rejection … Continue reading
Is you is, or is you ain’t a cuddler?
People tend to assume that psychologists, as scientists, are bias free in their research – however, if you go a little deeper you can see the biases each researcher holds, and how that affects what s/he studies. Continue reading
Darwin’s Lessons for the Graduates
Hear that robin singing in the morning? Smell the white blossoms on the natural rose bushes near the woods? See the turkey vultures soaring high – in communicative harmony with one another? Note this: The same forces accounting for these examples account for everything you see when you look in a mirror. Your are part of this magnificent natural world. This insight is, for my money, what makes Darwinism a truly spiritual approach to the world.
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Challenges To and Hope for Evolutionary Theory: The 4th Annual Conference of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society
NEEPS 2010, Return to New Paltz. What a whirlwind weekend! How amazing to return to where it all started, just four years ago, and see how far we’ve come. We topped the previous conferences in total numbers of attendees, the … Continue reading
The Importance of Ethology for Evolution
This July I attended the International Society for Human Ethology Summer Institute in Orono, ME. Besides meeting some extraordinary people (and having an amazing time!), I also discovered how important ethology is for evolution. At the heart of ethology is … Continue reading
The Giraffe’s … tale.
“The great tragedy of Science – the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.“ Thomas H. Huxley (1825 – 1895) English biologist; supporter of Darwin; father of Aldous & Julian Huxley. Missed Opportunities In the lead up to … Continue reading
