150 Years Later: Darwin’s ‘Descent of Man:’ True or False?

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How Darwin’s ‘Descent of Man’ Holds Up 150 Years After Publication

by Dan Folk/Smithsonianmag.com

Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species rattled Victorian readers in 1859, even though it said almost nothing about how the idea of evolution applied to human beings. A dozen years later, in 1871, he tackled that subject head-on. In The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, published 150 years ago this month, Darwin argued forcefully that all creatures were subject to the same natural laws, and that humans had evolved over countless eons, just as other animals had. “Man,” he wrote, “still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.”

In Descent, Darwin details a theory that he calls “sexual selection”—the idea that, in many species, males battle other males for access to females, while in other species females choose the biggest or most attractive males to bond with. The male-combat theory would explain, for example, the development of a bull’s horns, or a moose’s antlers, while the quintessential example of “female choice” is seen in peahens, which, Darwin argued, prefer to mate with peacocks having the biggest, most colorful tails. For Darwin, sexual selection was just as important as natural selection, which he had outlined in Origin—the idea that organisms with favorable traits are ….read more:



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2 COMMENTS

  1. The problem is not with Darwinism, but neo Darwinism, which hijacked the discussion in favour of Atheism/Emanation (the Unfolding/Enfolding Principle). Evolution is not a Problem (God’s Hand moves in Mysterious Ways) and the Basic Dichotomy is Creation (First Cause Extant) versus Emanation (Pantheism, Gnosis et al., Good Spark trapped in Evil matter, to be eliminated, The Death Cult).

    So is it to be a “Dog Eat Dog World” as promoted by the President of Business International, Obama’s First Employer out of Uni. (“there is no basis for morality in ‘rational’ thought”), to Fortune 100 Corporations a la the Sabbatian Frankists “no Chris, not love your neighbour, love your friend” (Social Contract, British Empirical Philosophy and Talmudic Thought) , or alternatively a Natural Law System of Universal (Catholic by Definition) Love and Respect for All, Family and not just “Competition” and “Free Enterprise”, concepts promoted by the Lies from The Marked Deck Fed, owned by YOU KNOW WHO? Symbiosis versus Parasitism.

    • Free Enterprise (Money Printed for Free out of thin air) for The Fed/Aristos (if One can call THEM that) and Competition for The Plebs.

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