Daylight Atheism » Human Evolution

The Language of God: From Atheism to Belief

Ebonmuse — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 17:50:06 +0000

The Language of God, Chapter 1

By B.J. Marshall

The chapter begins with a description of Collins' experiences growing up. His parents shrugged off the business world and lived an agrarian life on huge tracts of land in the Shenandoah Valley. His father went on to teach at a women's college. Collins was homeschooled, and faith did not play a part in his upbringing. He went to an Episcopal church, but it was more for music appreciation than theology. OK, so we have a picture ... [visit site to read more]

Under Green Leaves

Ebonmuse — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 10:52:56 +0000

In an old essay on Ebon Musings, "Finding Beauty in the Mundane", I wrote in a contemplative mood:

Have you ever considered the trees? Though their kind of life is far grander, slower and more patient than ours, they are each individuals, as different as human beings are. They add beauty to the world, give peace in their dappled shade, freshen the air and enrich the earth, and turn even the most hard-edged ... [visit site to read more]

The Contributions of Freethinkers: Richard Leakey

Ebonmuse — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 01:06:45 +0000

Atheists have a great number of famous names to our credit. We can justly claim renowned composers, scientists, musicians, civil rights leaders - and conservationists, as we'll see in today's post on the contributions of freethinkers.

Richard Leakey was born in Nairobi in 1944, son of the famous archaeologist Louis Leakey. The elder Leakey was a strong supporter of racial equality, and Richard's upbringing reflected that belief. He started school soon after the Mau Mau rebellion had been ... [visit site to read more]

Another Branch on the Human Family Tree

Ebonmuse — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 19:18:18 +0000

I haven't written about any new transitional fossils in a while, so it's a great pleasure for me to mention this one: a hominid skeleton nicknamed "Ardi", a specimen of Ardipithecus ramidus. This species was known from other fossil fragments, but Ardi is one of the oldest and most complete hominids found so far, and may give us the most insight yet into what the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees looked ... [visit site to read more]

The Case for a Creator: Meet Your Ancestors

Ebonmuse — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:55:15 +0000

The Case for a Creator, Chapter 3

In the final section of chapter 3, Strobel and Wells turn to the evidence that creationists loathe above all else: the fossil hominids that make up the human family tree. Human ancestors are not only a clear, obvious transition that even a layperson can understand, they directly demonstrate that we ourselves are a product of evolution, thus striking at the desire to be separate, special creations that almost certainly motivates nearly all ... [visit site to read more]

Noble Africa

Ebonmuse — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:55:38 +0000

To those who are following the continuing genocide in Darfur, every day brings grim headlines:

Fighting has prompted thousands of people in the southern part of Sudan's Darfur region to seek security and shelter at a refugee camp in the northern part of the war-torn area, according to the United Nations.

...An estimated 300,000 people in the western Sudanese region have been killed through combat, ... [visit site to read more]

The Story of Atheism

Ebonmuse — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:47:44 +0000

In my previous post, I wrote some thoughts on the power of storytelling and how atheists can use it to our benefit. In this post, I intend to apply those principles to tell a story: the story of atheism.

Because gods are fundamentally human creations, this is also a story of humanity. It opens in the time when the human race was newborn, when we had first come of age as conscious beings who could look around and ... [visit site to read more]

The Scars of Evolution

Ebonmuse — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:31:24 +0000

Human beings, like all other species on this planet, have a history. We came into existence through a process of slow, grinding trial-and-error, occurring over geological time via the sieve of differential survival. And like all species, our bodies and our genes reflect and bear witness to that history. Far from being perfect, one-time creations, we still bear the scars of the evolutionary process that made us.

This post will discuss some of the lines of evidence which hint at humanity's ... [visit site to read more]

Book Review: The God Part of the Brain

Ebonmuse — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 15:30:14 +0000

(Author's Note: The following review was solicited and is written in accordance with this site's policy for such reviews.)

Summary: Contains many interesting ideas, but the informed reader will find much to take issue with.

Atheist Matthew Alper's The God Part of the Brain seeks to explain the religiosity of humankind in terms of human evolution and the biology of conscious experience. Alper's hypothesis is that the ... [visit site to read more]

Are Evolved Minds Reliable Truth-Finders?

Ebonmuse — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 17:44:06 +0000

In recent years, Christian apologists such as Alvin Plantinga have advanced arguments purporting to prove that evolutionary naturalism is a self-refuting worldview. According to these people, if evolution is true and there is no intelligent creator-god, then humans' sensory and rational faculties were created by a blind process that is not concerned with truth or falsity, and therefore those faculties ... [visit site to read more]