Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

war denunciation and alternatives, 162–3

wealth as created vs. finite, 12–13, 80

Enslow, Linn, 64

entropy, 13–19

energy capture as resisting, 23–4, 32

immortality unlikely due to, 61

indifference of the universe and, 24

living things as locally anti-entropic, 18–19, 20

See also Entropy, Law of; order

Entropy, Law of, 15, 16

and creationist arguments against evolution, 19

and death, ease of, 25, 414–15

everyday sayings illustrating, 16

harms more potent than benefits, 28

importance of, 16–17

meaning of life as fighting back against, 17, 344

progress and, 344

See also Second Law of Thermodynamics

environmentalism, humanistic. See ecomodernism

environmental movement (traditional), 32, 121–2

greenism, 32, 122, 129

misanthropy of, 122, 134, 154

opposition to genetically modified crops, 77

population bomb, fear of, 56, 73–4, 125–6, 125

resource shortages, fear of, 126–7

successes of, 121, 134, 463n35

sustainability, 127–9, 328

technological solutions, hostility to, 124–5, 151

See also environmental protection

Environmental Performance Index, 130

environmental protection, 121–2, 134–6

acid rain treaties, 134

anxiety produced by, 286–7

cooking smoke, 130–31, 463n28

deforestation, 130, 131

dematerialization and, 135

densification and, 134–5

developing countries addressing, 130–31

drinking water, 63, 130–31, 463n28

emission reductions, 129–30

government regulation and, 133–4, 136

hierarchy of needs and, 124

Kuznets curve for, 124, 463n9, 463n35

landfills and garbage, 287

nuclear weapons test ban treaty, 133–4

oil spills, 131–2, 132

ozone layer, 134

Peak Stuff and, 135–6

as right-wing movement in former days, 382

species returns vs. extinctions, 130, 133, 463n32

Trump and, 335

utilitarian motives for, 417

waterway improvements, 130

See also climate change

—POLLUTION

agriculture and, 123

as cost of gifts of industrialization, 123–4

energy and growth and, 129–30, 129

Law of Entropy and, 123

poverty and, 130–31, 463n28

Episcopalians (liberal), 412

equal rights, 214–28

of children, 228–32, 229, 231

denial of advances in, 215

education of populace and, 235

global progress in, 222–3, 223

humanism and, 417

moral arc of, 223–4

popularity of, 216–19, 216, 218, 471n13

populist backlash against, 219, 221, 225, 333, 340

and racial gap, closing of, 219

religious expression, 222

Trump’s hostility to, 336

and women’s status, 220

See also emancipative values; hate crimes; homosexuality and homophobia; racism; sexism; women: rights of

Erdogan, Recep, 201

Erwin, Douglas, 463n32

Estonia, 306

ethics. See morality

Ethiopia

child mortality and, 56

civil war (1974–91), 160

escape from poverty of, 85, 86

life expectancy at birth, 59

maternal mortality in, 57

and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 419

eudaemonia (“good spirit”), 267

eugenics, 388, 399–400

Europe

accidents and accidental deaths in, 180–81

calories available per person in, 70, 70

capital punishment abolition in, 208–9, 210

carbon emissions of, 144, 144

Civilizing Process of, 168–9

emancipative values, rise in, 225–7, 226, 227

famine in, 68–9

fertility rates falling in, 125

happiness rising with GDP, 270–71

IQ gains in, 241

life expectancy in, 53–4, 54, 55

populism in, 334, 338–9, 341–2, 342, 438, 451, 481n32

poverty in, 79–80

rule of law established in, 43

social spending in, 107

suicide rates and, 278–80, 279

wars. See peace; World War I; World War II

See also Middle Ages; individual countries and subregions

Euthyphro (Plato), 428–9, 431

Evangelical Christians

environmentalists seeking common cause, 432

religiosity of, 440

size of group, 437, 489n75

as Trump voters, 432–3

voter turnout of, 438

Evans, Dylan, 477n20

Evans, Gareth, 313

Evans, Mariah, 101

Evola, Julius, 448, 491n118

evolution, 18–19

belief in, ideology vs. scientific literacy, 356

competition and malevolence and, 25

creationism vs., 19, 30, 356

genetic individuality and, 25

idea unknown to Enlightenment thinkers, 14, 386

immortality made unlikely due to, 61

indifference of the universe and, 24–5

information accumulation in genome and, 20, 21

life and living things as anti-entropic, 18–19, 20

moral sentiments selected by, 415

plant selection and, 76

unselfish behavior and, 25

See also natural selection

evolutionary psychology, 22–4, 25–7, 353–5

consciousness and, 426

group vs. gene as beneficiary of adaptation, 448

and literary scholarship, 407–8

and nationalism, 450

reason and, 353

of religion, 431

sympathy and, 415

Ewald, Paul, 306, 307

Existentialism, 33, 40, 446, 447

existential threats, 290–321

artificial intelligence as, 296–300, 477n20

Availability and Negativity biases and, 293

civilizations, destruction of, 295–6

dangers of overemphasizing, 291–2

gravitas market and, 49, 293, 452

hackers/evil geniuses, 300–307

human species extinction, 294–5

hypothetical vs. real, 291–2

natural disasters, 294–6

resilience of humans in face of, 305–6

risk estimation of highly imaginable, 292, 305

risk estimation of highly improbable, 292–3

technology as averting, 295–6

technology as causing, 293, 294

See also nuclear war