Deism claims that God creates the universe and the laws of nature and then is hands-off, with everything that subsequently happens in… — Elliott Sober Copy Share Image
Deism is logically compatible with evolutionary theory for the simple reason that the theory says nothing about the origin of the universe… — Elliott Sober Copy Share Image
I think that some "interventionist theisms" are compatible with evolutionary theory. (By "intervention," I don't mean that God violates laws of nature;… — Elliott Sober Copy Share Image
From the fact that E is evidence for T and the fact that T entails M, it doesn't follow that E is evidence for… — Elliott Sober Copy Share Image
Evolutionary game theory was originally developed as an alternative to the hypothesis of group selection; now it is clear that game theory models postulate… — Elliott Sober Copy Share Image
Earlier attempts to show that simpler theories always have higher prior probabilities have failed, but there is a restricted circumstance in which the claim… — Elliott Sober Copy Share Image
"Methodological naturalism" and "metaphysical naturalism" are terms that often surface in the continuing battle between evolutionary biology and creationism/intelligent design. The methodological thesis says that scientific theories shouldn't postulate supernatural entities; the metaphysical thesis says that no such entities exist. In this debate, God is the supernatural entity at issue; the question isn't whether science gets to talk about mathematical… — Elliott Sober Copy Share
The big picture, I think, is that common ancestry is evidentially prior to natural selection in Darwin's theory and in contemporary evolutionary biology as… — Elliott Sober Copy Share Image
This is not to deny that there are versions of theism that do conflict with evolutionary biology. Young Earth Creationism is an example; it… — Elliott Sober Copy Share Image
Some philosophical arguments (e.g., in connection with the mind/body problem) look pretty good, while others (e.g., those that criticize moral realism) do not. — Elliott Sober Copy Share Image
I have spent a lot of time arguing that the theory of group selection is not the stupid, pernicious doctrine that many biologists once… — Elliott Sober Copy Share Image
Group selection and individual selection are just two of the selection processes that have played important roles in evolution. There also is selection within individual organisms (intragenomic conflict), and selection among multi-species communities (an idea that now is getting attention in work on the human microbiome). All four of these levels of selection find a place in multi-level selection theory. — Elliott Sober Copy Share
Instead of thinking of the question of race genealogically, and leaving it open whether vernacular races are genealogical units, the interest in biomedicine has… — Elliott Sober Copy Share Image
