Adolf Hitler is long dead. Nevertheless, his name is still invoked every day as a rhetorical smear. By drawing usually dubious connections to Hitler and the Holocaust, partisans charge their opponents with guilt by association. This unfortunate cultural twitch has even been canonized as Godwin's … » Go
Is human life valuable, or are we just a cosmic accident? Does human life have any overarching purpose or meaning, or are we a meaningless blob of chemicals? Drawing on extensive historical and contemporary sources, CSC Senior Fellow Dr. Richard Weikart argues that, since the Enlightenment in the … » Go
Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Richard Weikart is a featured speaker at this year’s National Conference on Christian Apologetics, hosted in Charlotte, NC, on October 13-15. Come hear Dr. Weikart cover topics addressed in his new book, The Death of Humanity: Are Humans Intrinsically Valuable … » Go
Almost 500 Emory University faculty and students have expressed their dismay that their commencement speaker on Monday does not toe the ideological line when it comes to evolutionary biology. Yes — gasp — the renowned Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon Ben Carson does not believe in evolutionary … » Go
The Darwin celebrations this year have reinforced my concern that Darwinism is not merely a scientific theory. For many Darwinists, it is much more than that. For some it is the basis for a secular worldview that not only rejects theism, but also promotes moral relativism. Those who doubt this … » Go
In his thought-provoking review essay of "Expelled" Jeff Schloss repeatedly criticizes the film for oversimplifying complex issues.1 Concerning the claim in the movie that Darwinism had something to do with Nazism, he sensibly states, "This is far too serious an issue to be settled by film clips or … » Go
Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor who endured the horrors of Auschwitz, astutely commented on the way that modern European thought had helped prepare the way for Nazi atrocities (and his own misery). He stated, "If we present a man with a concept of man which is not true, we may well corrupt him. … » Go
Arthur Caplan recently blasted the movie "Expelled" as immoral, ridiculously calling the Jewish celebrity Ben Stein a Holocaust denier. Scientific American called "Expelled" shameful. Why such ire? Stein in his movie had the temerity to suggest that there was a historical connection between … » Go
In the late nineteenth century, a movement emerged among scientists and physicians that advocated the improvement of human heredity. Francis Galton, a respected British scientist who founded this movement, named this new field of endeavor eugenics. Galton claimed that this field was founded on … » Go
In his farewell article this month in Scientific American, long-time columnist Michael Shermer once again confuses science with atheism, and inexplicably claims that science can support humanism. He even uses the term “scientific humanism” to describe his position. Shermer tries to … » Go
To an outsider, evolutionary psychology seems like a field riddled with fabrications of clever stories — some of them rather far-fetched — that try to explain human behavior as the product of evolutionary processes. According to evolutionary psychologists many human behaviors are hard-wired … » Go
When I published my book From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany (2004), I had no idea that white nationalism and neo-Nazism would become more fashionable in the coming years. At that time white nationalism was a fringe movement that one heard very little … » Go
In an article for Nautilus, Cristine Legare explains “Why Social Science Needs Evolutionary Theory.” An associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas, Austin, she laments that the social sciences are missing out, because they ignore the findings of evolutionary theory. She … » Go
Wesley Smith has already noted emeritus psychology professor David Barash’s outrageous proposal in a new article for Nautilus, “It’s Time to Make Human-Chimp Hybrids,” based on a forthcoming book by Barash from Oxford University Press. As shocking as this proposal may be to many … » Go
Editor’s note: See also, “Is Science Objective? Steven Pinker’s Counterattack Against the ‘War on Science,’” by Professor Weikart. In his zeal to defend science from the onslaught of those allegedly waging a “war on science” Steven Pinker (in an article in the Chronicle of … » Go
In a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, which was taken from his new book, Enlightenment Now, Harvard University psychology professor Steven Pinker challenges the “war on science,” which he blames on religious fundamentalists, right-wing politicians, and postmodernists. … » Go
Two hundred years ago this month Mary Shelley published her famous novel, Frankenstein. It warned against the possible horrors that could come about through our scientific hubris. In the novel the scientist Victor Frankenstein worked diligently two years to bring life to a dead body. He … » Go
Fascism and Nazism are often construed as ultra-right-wing political movements, and certainly there are some strong affinities between fascism and the political right. However, when the historian Zeev Sternhell published his important study about early 20th-century French fascism, he entitled … » Go
In a recent blog post, already noted by Michael Egnor and Wesley Smith, University of Chicago evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne not only argued that infanticide and assisted suicide should be permitted, but he insisted that our increasing acceptance of these deeds is a sign of moral … » Go
