Tag: human exceptionalism | Page 2

An old man shakes hands with an opponent in a game of chess, he lost and acknowledges it.

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Author
Michael Flannery

Date
October 21, 2020

Tagged
Alfred Russel Wallace, Charles Darwin, Darwinism, Evolution, fine-tuning, human exceptionalism, methodological materialism, methodological naturalism, Natural Selection, Natural Theology, Privileged Planet, science and religion, teleology, Theism, Theory of Evolution, Tom Wolfe, World of Life}

Alfred Russel Wallace and His Friendly Battle with Darwin

_{Michael Flannery

October 21, 2020

Uncategorized}

On this ID the Future, science historian Michael Flannery continues discussing his newly updated Intelligent Evolution: How Alfred Russel Wallace’s World of Life Challenged Darwin. Wallace was co-founder with Charles Darwin of the theory of evolution by random variation and natural selection, but unlike Darwin he saw teleology or purpose as essential to life’s history, and a teleological view as essential to the life sciences. According to Flannery, Wallace’s views on the nature of the cell, the special attributes of humans, the irreducible nature of life, and the fine tuning of the universe hold up well today. He and Darwin disagreed on much of this, yet they maintained mutual respect. In this, Flannery says, the two are a great model for scientists who disagree today.

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Author
Michael Flannery

Date
October 14, 2020

Tagged
Alfred Russel Wallace, anthropocentrism, BioLogos, Charles Darwin, Darwin Devolves, Darwinian theism, Darwinian theists, Darwinism, Deborah Haarsma, Edinburgh University, Edmund Grant, Evolution, evolutionary theory, Francis Collins, freethinkers, HMS Beagle, human exceptionalism, Intelligent Design, intelligent evolution, Janet Brown, Karl Giberson, Kenneth Miller, Michael Behe, mind/body, philosophical materialism, Plinian Society, Theism, theistic evolution, Theory of Evolution, Tom Wolfe, William Dembski, World of Life}

Michael Flannery on the Origin of Darwin’s Worldview

_{Michael Flannery

October 14, 2020

Uncategorized}

On this episode of ID the Future, science historian and host Michael Keas talks with fellow science historian Michael Flannery about the newly updated book Intelligent Evolution: How Alfred Russell Wallace’s World of Life Challenged Darwin. Flannery tells of Darwin’s involvement in the Plinian Society, a “freethinkers” group at Edinburgh University where he studied medicine as a teenager. It was there that he first encountered radical philosophical materialism, the worldview that laid the philosophical foundation for his work in evolution. Flannery also speaks of Alfred Russel Wallace’s “intelligent evolution” and how it differs from Darwinism and from today’s theistic evolution — what Flannery prefers to call “Darwinian theism.”

Face made of shiny metal cubes with clouds in background.3d render

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Author
John Lennox

Date
July 29, 2020

Tagged
__edited, artificial intelligence (AI), augmentation, C.S. Lewis, Dan Brown, Frankenstein, genetic modification, human exceptionalism, image of God, imago dei, Jordan Peterson, Mary Shelley, Max Tegmark, Prometheus, science fiction, superintelligence, The Abolition of Man, transhumanism}

John Lennox Talks AI, SciFi, Transhumanism and the Image of God

_{John Lennox

July 29, 2020

Uncategorized}

On this episode of ID the Future, host Robert Marks continues his conversation with Oxford University mathematician John Lennox about Lennox’s new book 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity. Lennox reviews mythology and science fiction writing stretching from the ancient poet Hesiod to the novelist Dan Brown and MIT physicist Max Tegmark. He says that artificial intelligence (AI) predictions down through the ages are all heavily dependent on theological and philosophical presuppositions. He and Marks also discuss AI’s cousin, transhumanism, its surprising history, and its potentially very dark future, including the risk of what C.S. Lewis called “the abolition of man.”

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Author
Michael Newton Keas

Date
March 25, 2020

Tagged
__edited, Alfred Russell Wallace, Charles Darwin, Christopher Cousins, craniotomy, Descent of Man, Eugenics, functionalist evolution, human exceptionalism, Joseph Bernard Davis, Materialism, morphology, Paul Brokaw, race, Richard Owen, scientific racism, Structural evolution, teleology, Thomas Henry Huxley, transcendental evolution}

Charles Darwin vs. Richard Owen on Race

_{Michael Newton Keas

March 25, 2020

Uncategorized}

On this episode of ID the Future, Mike Keas interviews science historian and bioethicist Michael Flannery about his recent article on Charles Darwin and archrival Richard Owen. Owen was an evolutionist, too, but of a different stripe. Unlike Darwin, he believed that evolution was guided by teleology or purpose, and he saw humans as different from animals not only in degree but in kind. This led him to reject Darwin’s conclusion of a “hierarchy of races,” as well as Darwin’s expectation that the supposedly “less fit” races of humankind ultimately would be exterminated by the so-called “superior” white race. Most Darwinists today aren’t racist, but Darwinism did grease the skids into a dubious scientific racism that became widespread, encouraging racist eugenics campaigns in both Europe and the United States.

AI head, robotic artificial intelligence machine face. Glowing lights, yellow LEDs. Front view. 3d render

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Author
Wesley J. Smith

Date
April 10, 2019

Tagged
aging, Elon Musk, Eugenics, human exceptionalism, immortality, Materialism, Ray Kurzweil, singularity, transhumanism, utopianism, Zoltan Istvan}

Wesley J. Smith on the Transhumanist Wasteland

_{Wesley J. Smith

April 10, 2019

Uncategorized}

On this episode of ID the Future, Emily Kurlinski interviews bioethicist, author, and Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Wesley J. Smith on transhumanism. It’s a technology-driven anti-aging effort to create a post-human species with advanced intelligence, brain-computer interfaces, and even immortality. Built on zeal and desperation to defeat death, it’s a quasi religion, except with no plan or apparent interest in cultivating a more wise and loving human species — which, Smith argues, makes it more dangerous than it might at first appear.

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Author
Wesley J. Smith

Date
November 7, 2018

Tagged
__edited, equal rights, human cloning, human equality, human exceptionalism, human rights, moral agency, moral duties, moral worth, slavery, stem cells}

Wesley J. Smith: Human Cloning, Human Exceptionalism, Human Rights (and Wrongs)

_{Wesley J. Smith

November 7, 2018

Uncategorized}

On this episode of ID the Future, Dean Abbott hosts Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Wesley J. Smith in a conversation about human cloning, human exceptionalism, and human rights. Smith explains some of the reasons behind the drive toward human cloning, and places the error of that thinking in historic context of some of the worst ethical mistakes humans have made down through history. It’s all about forgetting who we are as human beings.

Bill Dembski on the AI Boogeyman, and the Real AI Danger

_{William A. Dembski

August 29, 2018

Uncategorized}

On this episode of ID the Future, Andrew McDiarmid reads an excerpt from a speech prepared by philosopher, mathematician, and trailblazing design theorist William Dembski for the launch of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence. Dr. Dembski asks whether we need worry about an AI takeover, and says no, there’s no evidence that artificial intelligence (AI) could reach that level, or achieve consciousness, and there’s mounting evidence from both philosophy and the field of artificial intelligence technology that it cannot and will not. “The real worry,” Dembski says, “isn’t that we’ll raise machines to our level, but that we’ll lower humanity to the level of machines.”

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Author
Jay Richards

Date
August 1, 2018

Tagged
__edited, artificial intelligence (AI), entrepreneurship, Evolution, human exceptionalism, Intelligent Design, machine economy, Materialism, philosophy of humanness, physicalism}

Jay Richards’ The Human Advantage: Machines Aren’t Us, and They Aren’t Replacing Us, Either

_{Jay Richards

August 1, 2018

Uncategorized}

On this episode of ID the Future, Robert Crowther talks with author Jay Richards about Richards’ new book The Human Advantage: The Future of American Work in an Age of Smart Machines. Science fiction tantalizes us — and pundits terrorize us — with images of intelligent machines taking over for humans. Really taking over, as in replacing us. Some thinkers even say that’s just the next phase, since we’re machines ourselves. Jay Richards explains how that’s wrong, and there’s a lot more to hope for than to fear in our future with our new smart machines.

Infinity War, Human Exceptionalism, and the Ultimate Resource

_{Rachel Adams

June 11, 2018

Uncategorized}

On this episode of ID the Future, host Robert Crowther talks with Rachel Adams, special projects coordinator at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, about Thanos, the arch-villain from the Marvel blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War, and a couple of real-life thinkers, Eric Pianka and Paul Ehrlich, who share the villain’s view that the world would be a better place with far fewer humans. Thanos, Pianka, and Ehrlich appear to share a materialistic view of the human person, one that ignores the inherent dignity and worth of every person as well as humanity’s capacity to create solutions and new resources, growing the resource pie. Thanks to this, life is not a zero-sum game. The human species is, as Julian Simon put it, the ultimate resource.