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Comment count is 5
EvilHomer - 2015-02-16

Apologies for the shite VCR quality. There's other versions of this lecture floating around online, but this one comes in a single part and includes the comic strip slides Professor Gould loved to hate.


Stopheles - 2015-02-16

I'm unable to watch this right now, so could someone tells me if he says "if people weren't created as described in the Bible, then the concept of Original Sin isn't an issue and as such the whole concept of Jesus dying to absolve humanity of it wasn't necessary"?


EvilHomer - 2015-02-16

No, he does not. Gould isn't much given towards theological arguments, although that is certainly one way to look at the conflict between evolution and it's discontents, specifically between evolution and Biblical creationists! (as Gould points out, "evolution", at least as a broader set of non-Darwinian theories, was never really in conflict with the mainstream of Christian scientific thinking; scary as it is to say, YEC and Biblical literalists were NOT the dominant force in the Victorian period that they are today)

Rather, Gould's main purpose with this lecture is to examine the problems people have with Darwin *even within those groups that purport to "accept" his theories*. Specifically, it's about the often misunderstood, profoundly anti-progressive implications of Darwin's theory of natural selection; how these implications are just as difficult for the modern popular imagination to come to grips with, as they were back in the Victorian age

Anyway, I don't want to give too much away, but it's good fun! All of the ideas presented herein can be found in his books (he even works in a shout-out to The Panda's Thumb), but you should check it out if you get the chance!


Gmork - 2015-02-16

Great lecture. Reminds me of a teacher I had.


SteamPoweredKleenex - 2015-02-16

"Hello, sir. What name is your reservation under?"
"Stephen Jay Gould."
"Hmmm. No, no Stephen J. Gould here."
"But I called it in a week ago!"
"And you are..?"
"Stephen Jay Gould!"
"I'm sorry, but Stephen J. Gould isn't in the computer."


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