Friday, August 27, 2010

Darwanism and the Modern World

Evolution and It's Discontents: Darwin, Darwinism and the Modern World (Portable Professor)
The delivery of these lectures has something to be desired. Even at double speed it is still very sloooow. The content is fairly basic. It starts with a little of Darwin's biography and the days that he lived. (Then, most scientists were non-professional "lay-people". It then proceeds to give a basic explanation of the theory of natural selection. The most intriguing part was the section on the responses to Darwin's theories. Genetics, though now seen to go hand-in-hand with evolution was seen to disprove Darwinism. Religion at first got on fine with evolutionary theory, while science seemed to voice the most objections.

The lectures close with some of the contemporary issues in evolution, from internal challenges (such as "selfish gene") to external challenges (such as creationism). In all, its a decent, simple, non-technical introduction to evolutionary thought.

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