In this blog post, we explore the true meaning of sin and atonement through the two protagonists of The Scarlet Letter, Hester and Dimmesdale, examining their suffering and journey of growth. Hester’s Shameful Yet Proud ‘A’ In 17th-century Boston, Hester Prynne violated the Seventh Commandment: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” As punishment for her sin, she was sentenced to wear the...
In this blog post, we’ll look at Richard Dawkins’ theory of the selfish gene and discuss whether evolution is driven by gradual selection or has a stochastic equilibrium nature. In his perhaps most famous book, The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins argued that natural selection takes place in units called “selfish genes.” In his other book, The Blind Watchman, Dawkins states that...
This blog post draws on Yuval Harari’s Homo Deus to discuss the subjective needs of plants, microbes, and inanimate objects and whether they deserve respect. In Homo Deus, author Yuval Harari takes a critical view of animal husbandry, arguing that it is an act of providing animals with what they need to survive and reproduce, while failing to fulfill their subjective needs. He argues...
In this blog post, we’ll compare Dawkins’ and Gould’s arguments for evolution, and explore whether evolution happens gradually or abruptly. Darwin’s Table is a fierce debate between two of the biggest names in evolutionary theory, Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould. After a half-century of being criticized by creationism, evolutionary theory has become the...
In this blog post, we explore the impact of scientific and technological advances on the future of the human species and the possibility of extinction, based on the book Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. In the movie The Matrix (1999), humans in the future are grown like commercial crops by machines and artificial intelligence. As soon as they are born, they are placed in tiny tanks where they...
In this blog post, we explore how human behavior and psychology evolved through evolutionary psychology, and how it still influences modern society. The theory of evolution has been at the center of scientific inquiry and debate since it was first proposed by Darwin, and has played an important role in discussions about human origins and nature. Attempts to explain human behavior...
In this blog post, we explore the debate over whether rape is an evolutionary adaptation and delve into why it should be treated as an ethical issue. As evolutionary theory has evolved, there have been various discussions about what can be subject to natural selection. One controversial topic is the question “Is rape an adaptation?” This question was first addressed in Thornhill’s...
In this blog post, we’ll discuss the claim of human superiority in Sapiens and explore whether it’s a privilege or a result of our interactions with other organisms in the ecosystem. In chapters 1 and 2 of Homo sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari argues that a variety of unique human traits have played a large role in our current position of dominance. While he notes that the brain and...
In this blog post, we explore a future where non-organic algorithms dominate humanity and discuss the positive changes that could result. In his book Homo Deus, Yuval Noah Harari concludes with a discussion of data religion. According to data science, as technology advances, the performance of non-organic algorithms will surpass that of organic algorithms. The argument is that non-organic...
This blog post explores the literary legacy and significance of Josef Kajetan Tyl, a central figure in Czech Romantic literature. Romanticism In the 18th century, the major European nations were dominated by the Enlightenment, a movement that inherited the classicism established in France in the 17th century, while at the same time making reason the sole means of perception. Classicism was...