Category Archives: Evolution

Last Questions and Possible Answers, 3

Posted on Monday 20 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

This is my third post, following this one in March and this one in June, in which I consider the John Brockman book The Last Unknowns, in which he gathers deep unanswered questions about “the universe, the mind, the future … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Evolution, Human Progress, Mathematics, Philosophy, Physics, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Last Questions and Possible Answers, 3

Misapprehensions of Reality

Posted on Wednesday 25 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

The new House Speaker is an election denier who would criminalize homosexuality; How Christian conservatives are flatly wrong about homosexuality being “unnatural” or that “creed” is part of “what you are”; and the evolutionary reason why they resist homosexuality, cross-dressing, … Continue reading →

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Science and Art and Predictions and Immortality

Posted on Monday 23 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Carlo Rovelli on science and art; Big Think on failed predictions; Immortality as a philosophical paradox; Michio Kaku on the four types of planetary civilizations. —— NY Times, guest essay by Carlo Rovelli, 16 Oct 2023: The Secret to Unlocking … Continue reading →

Posted in Cosmology, Evolution, Science | Comments Off on Science and Art and Predictions and Immortality

Sagan & Druyan: Propensities and Predispositions

Posted on Friday 4 August 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

A couple hours ago I finished that Carl Sagan/Ann Druyan book I mentioned a couple days ago, and it’s remarkable how its conclusions resemble my own recent observations about how certain forms of human morality align to conservative politics, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Conservative Resistance, Evolution, Human Progress, Quote at Length, Science | Comments Off on Sagan & Druyan: Propensities and Predispositions

Tenth Anniversary

Posted on Wednesday 12 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Today is the tenth anniversary of this blog. It was originally called “Views from Medina Road,” from where we lived in Woodland Hills (a suburb of Los Angeles) at the time, with the view of the San Fernando Valley, and … Continue reading →

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Some Sciency Bits

Posted on Tuesday 11 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Richard Dawkins on the ancestral language of DNA; How humans have interpreted fossils throughout history; Recalling the scientifically inaccurate and intellectually hostile movie Armageddon, from 1998; How an article about a refinement to our understanding of human evolution overstates its … Continue reading →

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Ideology vs. Reality, Endlessly

Posted on Monday 3 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Is this the core issue to rule them all? Since the survival of humanity seems to be in the balance? Item’s today: How the Supreme Court’s anti-LGBTQ case should never have been brought; How the rise of the religious far … Continue reading →

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Primitive Priorities of Survival: The Conservative Mindset

Posted on Wednesday 21 June 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

There’s something going on with the conservative mindset that isn’t what they say it is. Salon, Amanda Marcotte, 21 Jun 2023: “Too stupid to know better”: MAGA eats up Trump’s idiot president defense, subtitled “Evangelicals, in particular, feel a flock … Continue reading →

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Tribalism and Cooperation

Posted on Thursday 1 June 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Today’s topics: How tribalism, evolutionary evolved, solved some problems and created others, especially in the modern world; The counter idea of “coöperism”; Current events about Chick-fil-A and Republican condemnation of anti-racism. I talk of politics as manifesting ‘tribalism’ a lot; … Continue reading →

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False Ideas of Human Nature

Posted on Friday 12 May 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Just one topic for today. Salon, Chauncey DeVega, 12 May 2023: It’s bigger than guns: Why the right does little to stop violence, subtitled “Conservatives have cultivated a negative and hyper-individualistic view of human nature”

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Evolution | Comments Off on False Ideas of Human Nature