Evolution Encyclopedia Vol. 3
CHAPTER 33
EVOLUTION AND SOCIETY Part 1
"Biologists have indeed built their advances in evolutionary theory on the Darwinian foundation, not realizing that the foundation is about to topple because of Darwin's three mistakes.
"George Bernard Shaw wisecracked once that Darwin had the luck to please everybody who had an axe to grind. Well, I also have an axe to grind, but I am not pleased. We have suffered through two world wars and are threatened by an Armageddon. We have had enough of the Darwinian fallacy." -*Kenneth Hsu, ..Reply, Geology 15 (1987), p. 177.
"The next great task for science is to create a religion for humanity." -*John Morley (18381923), quoted in *Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations, p. 277.
"Most enlightened persons now accept as a fact that everything in the cosmos-from heavenly bodies to human beings-has developed and continues to develop through evolutionary processes. The great religions of the West have come to accept a historical view of creation. Evolutionary concepts are applied also to social institutions and to the arts. Indeed, most political parties, as well as schools of theology, sociology, history, or arts, teach these concepts and make them the basis of their doctrines. Thus, theoretical biology now pervades all of Western culture indirectly through the concept of progressive historical change." -*R. Dubos, "Humanistic Biology, " in American Scientist, (March, 1965), Vol. 53, p. 6.
Darwinism has had a devastating impact on society. Its ramifications reach into the deepest aspects of social life and culture. In this chapter we will but provide you with a brief overview of some of the effects of evolutionary thinking on our modern world.
A significant reason for this tremendous impact is the fact that evolution is nihilistic in regard to morals. The clear implication is that people are just animals, so there is no right or wrong. It teaches that all evolutionary progress has been made by some at the expense of others. Highest success comes to those who will step on, grind down and, if necessary, destroy others. This brings about "fitness" and "survival qualities."
Another devastating quality of evolutionary theory is the fact that it is but a variant form of atheism. Its advocates militantly attack religion in general and Christianity in particular. Christianity is declared to be superstition and the Bible a book of myths. Evolutionary teaching and Christianity are total opposites. They are entirely incompatible. No one can believe both teachings or try to combine parts of the two. For anyone to attempt to do so is but to fool oneself. Among professed Christians there are church leaders, religion teachers, science teachers, and scientists who attempt to combine part of evolutionary theory with Biblical beliefs. But they just do not mix. For example, some will claim to believe the Bible, yet will maintain that there were long ages of developing life forms into human beings before the Six Day Creation of Genesis 1. If such be true, then the Fall of Man, as given in Genesis 3 is incorrect. And if man did not fall into sin, then the promise of Genesis 3:15 is not needed, Christ is not needed, Calvary is not needed, no atonement for sin is needed, salvation from sin is not needed.
1 - IMPACT ON WESTERN CIVILIZATION
EVOLUTION AND WESTERN CULTURE-Evolutionary theory has had a most terrible impact on Western Civilization in the 20th century. Facts outlined in this chapter will seem hard to believe, so we will back them as fully as possible with quotations.
"The twentieth century would be incomprehensible without the Darwinian revolution. The social and political currents which have swept the world in the past eighty years would have been impossible without its intellectual sanction. It is ironic to recall that it was the increasingly secular outlook in the nineteenth century which initially eased the way for the acceptance of evolution, while today it is perhaps the Darwinian view of nature more than any other that is responsible for the agnostic and skeptical outlook of the twentieth century. What was once a deduction from materialism has today become its foundation." -*Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (1988), p. 358.
Gradually, an attempt was made to extend evolutionary theory into every other field of study. It is remarkable that a theory founded on confused speculations and non-existent scientific facts would be made the basis of a single, unified structure of knowledge.
"The concept of evolution was soon extended into other than biological fields. Inorganic subjects such as the life-histories of stars and the formation of chemical elements on the one hand, and on the other hand subjects like linguistics, social anthropology, and comparative law and religion, began to be studied from an evolutionary angle, until today we are enabled to see evolution as a universal, all-pervading process." -*Julian Huxley, "Evolution and Genetics," in V. R. Newman (ad.), What is Science? (1955), p. 272.
We have now come to a time when the man who resists the barrage of atheistic ideas thrown at him under the name of "evolution" is treated as an outcast--or worse.
"[He who does not honor Darwin] inevitably attracts the speculative psychiatric eye to himself."- *Garret Hardin, Nature and Man's Fate (1961).
*Littel briefly summarizes the sinister teaching underlying this theory:
"He [Darwin] proposed that natural selection governs the evolution of forms of life; with the fittest surviving. The latter proposition became the basis of several schools of politics and social philosophy, including both laissez-faire economics and Nazism. The former displaced the view of man as a fallen angel, and replaced it with man conceived as risen animal." -*F.H. Littel, The Macmillan Atlas History of Christianity (1976), p. 104.
EARLY WARNINGS-Over a century and a half ago, *Goethe made an profound statement:
"Science has been seriously retarded by the study of what is not worth knowing." -*Johann von Goethe (1749-1832), quoted in Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations, p. 257.
It would have been well if *Charles Darwin and his disciples had heeded such counsel. All humanity in the 20th century has been seriously injured by the theoretical devisings of Darwin and his followers.
Shortly after the 1859 publication of *Charles Darwin's book, Origin of the Species, men of integrity sought to warn the world-and Darwin himself-against the terrible consequences that would result if such a theory were to become widely accepted.
"Never in the history of man has so terrific a calamity befallen the race as that which all who look may now behold advancing as a deluge, black with destruction, resistless in might, uprooting our most cherished hopes, engulfing our most
precious creed, and burying our highest life in mindless desolation . . The flood-gates of infidelity are open, and Atheism overwhelming is upon us." -*George Romanes, A Candid Examination of Theism (1878). [A personal friend of Charles Darwin.].
Soon after Darwin's book came off the press, Sedgwick, a contemporary biologist, wrote him. Noting the ridiculous non-scientific "facts" and hypotheses in the book, Sedgewick warned Darwin that his book was about to open Pandora's box:
"Adam Sedgwick, author of the famous Student's Text Book of Zoology, after reading the book, The Origin of Species, expressed his opinion to Darwin in the following words: 'I have read your book with more pain than pleasure. Parts of it I admired greatly, parts I laughed till my sides were almost sore: other parts I read with absolute sorrow because I think them utterly false and grievously mischievous.'
"As feared by this great man of science, the evolutionary idea of civilization, has grown into a practical method of thought and code of conduct, affecting the reasoning and actions of every part of the human race. Human conduct is modeled on the philosophy that finds current acceptance." -H. Enoch, Evolution or Creation, (1986), pp. 144-145.
"Our own generation has lived to see the inevitable result of evolutionary teaching-the result that Sedgwick foresaw as soon as he had read the Origin. Mussolini's attitude was completely dominated by evolution. In public utterances, he repeatedly used the Darwinian catchwords while he mocked at perpetual peace, lest it hinder the evolutionary process. In Germany, it was the same. Adolf Hitler's mind was captivated by evolutionary teaching-probably since the time he was a boy. Evolutionary ideas-quite undisguised-lie at the basis of all that is worst in Mein Kampf-and in his public speeches." -R.E.D. Clark, Darwin: Before and After (1948), p. 115.
INFLUENTIAL STATUS OF SCIENCE-The Impact of science on society, morals, and culture in the 20th century has been immense. The words of scientists are treated as though infallible, when, in reality, human error exists in all scientific endeavor. A veritable blizzard of scientific papers, meetings, and pronouncements continually pours forth from the halls of scientific endeavor. So much so that few, even among the scientists, can grasp what is taking place.
"The Library of Congress receives 55,000 scientific periodicals, and it estimates that there are at least 15,000 more. Each year there are over one million different science articles published worldwide. One must read an article every three seconds, non-stop, to keep up!" -Don Deyoung, Creation Research Society Quarterly, September 1989, p. 41.
In the 20th century, "science" has become the font of knowledge instructing the populace on how to do almost everything.
"'Science says,' will generally be found to settle any argument in a social gathering or sell any article from tooth-paste to refrigerators." -*The Nation magazine (1928).
Yet it is a two-way street: scientific concepts are influenced by personal views, just as personal views are influenced by scientific beliefs. Because of this, a few influential science spokesmen mold the thinking of large masses of people.
"A concept of nature must be compatible with the way people behave within a given cultural milieu if it is to be acceptable. When we penetrate to the core of our scientific beliefs . . , we find they are as much influenced by the culture as our other belief systems." -*Jeremy Rifkin, Algeny (1984), p. 32.
As a result, scientific theory can change the cultural mores of civilization.
"Who can doubt that the leaven of science, working in the individual, leavens in some slight degree the whole social fabric?" -Sir William Osler (1849-1919), quoted in Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations, p. 282
In order to gain the vaunted power that scientific progress offers, men are willing to submit their way of life and even their belief systems to scientific theorists.
"Science promises man power. . But, as so often happens when people are seduced by promises of power, the price is servitude and impotence." -*D. Joseph Weizenbaum, Statement made 1976, quoted in Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations, p. 283.
Even *Khrushchev recognized the inherent danger in placing scientists in the lead of Western Civilization.
"What the scientists have in their briefcases is terrifying." -*Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, Statement made c. 1960, quoted in Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations, p. 283.
*Jastrow, referring to many scientists of our time, says they are too much aware of their power over men's lives.
"Their materialism is so deeply imbued.. and scientists like to think they have a unique handle on reality. And they're very arrogant about that." -*Robert Jastrow, quoted in B. Durbin, "A Scientist Caught between Two Faiths: An Interview with Robert Jastrow, " in Christianity Today 26(13):15 (1982).
This lock-grip over human thinking has the power to transform science into something of an organized religious system, complete with a set of beliefs, priests, and ritual. Because of its terrific impact on morality, Darwinism automatically gains the central seat of worship in what becomes a great atheistic temple.
"It is a religion of science that Darwinism chiefly held, and holds over men's minds [today]." -*Encounter, November 1959, p. 48.
The new system sets standards, dispenses gifts to the populace, and becomes the great source of guidance and truth.
"The scientist is regarded as a genuine authority, an expert in esoteric matters that are quite unintelligible to the lay person. Further, the scientist is regarded as expert in matters of 'hard fact.' To the scientists knowledge is seen as demonstrably correct, else how could polio have been eliminated and men have been landed on the moon? Thus, the scientist, speaking as a scientist, can be a powerful authority on any topic." -*David Conway, "Jastrow and Genesis," in Free Inquiry, 2(1):32.
Yet we need to realize that scientists are only men; frail, fallible men just like the rest of us.
"There are also some cases, not too many though increasing in number, which show scientists cheating with their data. The pressure to come up with novel results, the pressure of having another paper published, is too great; to yield to that pressure, the pressure of opportunity, is all too human.
"Some prominent medical schools and research institutes indeed suffered very bad publicity in recent years because they failed to prevent such misdeeds, or to detect them soon enough. Science can indeed become very much man's science in a very bad sense." -*Stanley L Jaki, "God and Man's Science: A View of Creation, "in Lynne Morris (ed.), The Christian Vision: Man in Society (1984), pp. 36-37.
Not only at their entrance into the halls of science, but in those halls as well, scientists are like any other tradesmen: skilled mechanics who personally and professionally continually err and jostle for high positions.
"Science is a very human enterprise. Among other things, science is mercilessly competitive. Science does have its tough entrepreneurs no less than does any branch of business. Stories, such as the story of the [discovery of the DNA] double helix, have amply revealed the fierce pursuit of prizes which go only to the very first and never to the best second, let alone to the second best.
"Enough is also reported through the newspapers about the keen competition for research grants, for the funding of new equipment, for new laboratories and institutions-a competition which at times mobilizes the public opinion of entire states and even wider regions. Teams of anthropologists take out claims for [hominid bones in] elusive distant valleys with no less rush and jealousy than was the case a hundred years ago with homesteaders and somewhat earlier with gold diggers in California." -*Stanley L Jaki, "God and Man's Science: A View of Creation," in Lynne Morris (ed.), The Christian Vision: Man in Society (1984), pp. 36.
ETHICS AND MORALITY-It becomes extremely dangerous when materialistic men are set in positions of power to dictate that which the masses will believe in regard to human morality. Hardened evolutionists are determined not to merely let men choose for themselves the type of morality they will follow. Evolution is foisted upon people, from kindergarten to the grave. Evolutionary zealots are dedicated to wiping out every religion but their own. Atheism and only atheism is their creed and their objective. Darwinism inherently teaches the most vicious set of moral principles. Declaring that man is but an animal, instruction is then given that the most successful animals are those that are the first to attack and destroy. The collected views men are taught, determine their system of morals and their way of life.
"Every ethic is founded in a philosophy of man, and every philosophy of man points toward ethical behavior." -*J. Drane, "A Philosophy of Man and Higher Education, " in Main Currents in Modern Thought, 29, (1927) p. 98.
Darwinism declares that man is no better than an animal.
"In the world of Darwin man has no special status other than his definition as a distinct species of animal. He is in the fullest sense a part of nature and not apart from it. He is akin, not figuratively but literally, to every living thing, be it an ameba, a tapeworm, a flea, a seaweed, an oak tree, or a monkey-even though the degrees of relationship are different and we may feel less empathy for forty-second cousins like the tapeworms than for, comparatively speaking, brothers like the monkeys." -*George Gaylord Simpson, "The World into Which Darwin Led Us," Science 131 (1960), p. 970.
Darwinism unleashed a moral holocaust upon the world, one which deepens with each passing decade.
"It was because Darwinian theory broke man's link with God and set him adrift in a cosmos without purpose or end that its impact was so fundamental. No other intellectual revolution in modern times . . so profoundly affected the way men viewed themselves and their place in the universe." -*Michael Demon, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (1985), p. 67. [Australian molecular biologist.]
We are taught to accept ourselves as merely vicious animals. Tell the people often enough that they are only animals, and they will begin believing it.
"The first point is that selfishness and violence are inherent in us, inherited from our remotest animal ancestors. . Violence is, then, natural to man; a product of evolution." -*P.J. Darlington, Evolution for Naturalists (1980), pp. 243-244.
Evolutionary theory presents humanity with no uplifting standards, codes, norms, or values.
"Evolution favors reproductive strategies that produce the most offspring, without regard for human values of justice or fair play." "Nature provides no moral guide to human behavior."
"We don't even know what is 'natural' for our own species. every few years a new theory emerges on what is our 'natural' diet, our 'natural' life span, our 'natural' sexual practices, our 'natural' social system or our 'natural' relationship with nature. Nature is endlessly fascinating, but offers no 'natural' way of life for humans to copy. Even in evolution, there is no 'natural' tendency toward 'progress, perfection,' or 'ascent.' Most of the time, we don't even know what is going on in nature." -*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), pp. 79, 124, 317.
*Darlington says, "Violence is. . a product of evolution." It is Darwinism that is brutalizing mankind today.
"Darwinism helped to further brutalize mankind through providing scientific sanction for bloodthirsty and selfish desires." -Robert T. Clark and James D. Bales, Why Scientists Accept Evolution (1966), p. 64.
Evolutionary theory has entered every sphere of behavior, business, science, and government. Animalize the people was the goal.
"[Darwinism] has quite certainly molded the thought of our political and biological elite.. this manner of thought. . was adopted and applied to politics and to morals." -A. E. Wilder-Smith, The Natural Sciences Know Nothing of Evolution (1981), p. 148.
A leading scientist of our century well described our great danger:
"I am haunted by a conviction that the nihilistic philosophy which so-called educated opinion chose to adopt following the publication of the Origin of Species committed mankind to a course of automatic self destruction. A doomsday was then set ticking." -*Sir Fred Hoyle, The Intelligent Universe (1983), p. 9. [Hoyle is a renowned British Astrophysicist.]
The man who helped produce Piltdown Man, declared that even the most terrible wars of mankind only constitutes normal living, and cannot be avoided. (We shall learn later in this chapter that the worst wars of our century came about as a result of accepting Darwinian theory, not because of the savagery of inherent evolutionary "advancement.")
"The law of evolution, as formulated by Darwin, provides an explanation of war between nations, the only reasonable explanation known to us." -*Arthur Keith, Evolution and Ethics (1947), p. 149.
According to evolutionary theory, whatever you are is good and whatever you do is right; there are no norms, no absolutes, no standards you must live up to.
"Thus, human 'goodness' and behavior considered ethical by human societies probably are evolutionary acquisitions of man and require fostering-[because] an ethical system that bases its premises on absolute pronouncements will not usually be acceptable to those who view human nature by evolutionary criteria." -*Arno G. Motulaky, "Brave New World?" Science, Vol. 185, August 23, 1974, p. 654.
In the 19th century they called themselves the American Association of Atheists. In the 20th, they now call themselves "humanists. " Here is their battle cry:
"No deity will save us; we must save ourselves." *1974 Manifesto of American Humanist Association.
The objective of the humanists goes beyond that of merely letting you live your own life; they are determined to reshape your morals, your body, and your descendents. And it is to be done according to their set of standards. They intend to do it by "science:"
"Man's unique characteristic among animals is his ability to direct and control his own evolution, and science is his most powerful tool for doing this." -*Hudson Hoagland, "Science and the New Humanism, " Silence, Vol. 143, January 10, 1984, p. 111
They intend to do it by "manipulating genes."
"We no longer need be subject to blind external forces but can manipulate the environment and eventually may be able to manipulate our genes." -*Arno G. Motulaky, "Brave New World?" Science, Vol. 185, August 23, 1974, p. 853.
They intend to do it by "naturalistic, scientific ethics."
"The foregoing conclusions represent, I believe, an outgrowth of the thesis of modern humanism, as well as of the study of evolution, that the primary job for man is to promote his own welfare and advancement. Both that of his members considered individually and that of the all-inclusive group is due awareness of the world as it is, and [especially) on the basis of a naturalistic, scientific ethics." -*H.J. Miler, "Human Values in Relation to Evolution," Science, Vol. 127, March 21, 1958, p. 829.
Always the teaching is that our ultimate goals and highest success will be achieved when we realize that we are only animals, and need only act like animals.
"While many details remain unknown, the grand design of biologic structure and function in plants and animals, including man, admits to no other explanation than that of evolution. Man therefore is another link in a chain which unites all life on this planet." -*A.G. Motulaky, "Brave New World?" Science, Vol. 185, August 23, 1974, p. 853.
The problem stems from different views of life and the world.
"An atheist believes that evolution is the result of chance. Theistic evolutionism believe God, having created the universe, let purposeless chance evolve life. A creationist, dismissing this hybrid view as absurd, contends that an intelligent creator creates complex machinery, such as a living body, deliberately." -Michael Pitman, Adam and Evolution (1984), p. 22.
*Muller, a leading mid-century evolutionist, predicted that the new scientific outlook-keyed to evolutionary theory-could become the basis for "enhancing our own values." Shall we place our lives in the hands of atheists, in the vain hope that they will improve our values?
"Through the unprecedented faculty of long-range foresight, jointly serviced and exercised by us, we can, in securing and advancing our position, increasingly avoid the missteps of blind nature, circumvent its cruelties, reform our own natures, and enhance our own values." -*H.J. Muller, "Human Values in Relation to Evolution, " in Science, March 21, 1958, p. 829.
*Hoagland says that thinking we are but animals will now help us improve ourselves socially.
"Man's unique characteristic among animals is his ability to direct and control his own evolution, and science is his most powerful tool for doing this. We are a product of two kinds of evolution, biological and cultural. We are here as a result of the same processes of natural selection that have produced all the other plants and animals. A second kind of evolution is psychosocial or cultural evolution. This is unique to man. Its history is very rent; it started roughly a million years ago with our hominid tool-making ancestors." -*Hudson Hoagland, "Science and the New Humanism," in Science, January 10, 1984, p. 111.
Education is seen as the key to the changeover. In order to make atheists of everyone, the schools must be controlled by evolutionists.
"It is essential for evolution to become the central core of any educational system, because it is evolution, in the broad sense, that links inorganic nature with life, and the stars with the earth, and matter with mind, and animals with man. Human history is a continuation of biological evolution in a different form." -*Sir Julian Huxley, quoted in *Sol Tax and *Charles Callender (eds.), Evolution After Darwin, 3 vols. (1980).
(See chapter 34, Evolution and Education, for much more on this.)
Happily for the Darwinists, they feel they are winning out in the churches and in church beliefs also. (More on this later in this chapter.)
"Beyond its impact on traditional science, Darwinism was devastating to conventional theology." -*D. Nelkin, Science Textbook Controversies and the Politics of Equal Time (1977), p. 11.
In one of his books, Asimov quotes this quaint little poem, so reflective of the heart of Darwinian morality:
"When you were a tadpole and "I was a fish in Palaeozoic time
"And side by side in the sluggish tide, "we sprawled in the ooze and slime." -*Langdon Smith, American journalist (1858-1908)
But the fact remains that evolutionary theory is one of the most insidious, most dangerous theories ever unleashed upon mankind.
"Anything that has evolved by natural selection should be selfish." -*Life: How Did it Get Here? (1985), p. 177.
In a chapter entitled, "Evolution," in one of his books, *Asimov quotes the following statement describing so well the inner thinking of Darwinism. What evolutionists do not realize is that the mutual destruction, which they believe is the basis of evolutionary progress in the past-is doomed to fall upon all mankind in the future if that theory be permitted to control men's minds and dictate their actions.
"Mankind's struggle upwards, in which millions are trampled to death, that thousands may mount on their bodies." -*Clara Lucas Balfour (1808-1878), quoted in Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations, p. 88 [chapter on "Evolution"].
Even the light of that terrible truth penetrated the gloom of *Darwin's mind at times.
"With me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man's mind, which has been developed from the minds of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would anyone trust in the convictions of a monkey's mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?" -*Charles Darwin, quoted in Francis Darwin (ed.), Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1903; 1971 reprint), Volume 1, p. 285.
According to evolution, neither mankind nor any other creature or substance in the universe was planned; it was all only an "accident" of random motions of atoms.
"An atheist is a man who believes himself an accident." -*Francis Thompson, quoted in Peter's Book of Quotations (1977), p. 449.
But the "accident theory" will destroy us if we adhere to it. And prior to that mutual destruction will come ever-increasing hopelessness and aimless confusion.
"We do not solve social problems but rather create social monsters, when man is treated first as an accident and then the particular man is denied his participation in his own being on the grounds that he is only an unfortunate accident of nature.
"It takes no doctor of logic to conclude that if man is such a random being, it can be only a random force that man himself uses upon his fellows, even if the user is dignified by degree as a sociologist or psychiatrist. If the determinist's premise is correct, then social or psychic manipulations may establish only a random order. Thus determinism entangles mind hopelessly in contradiction." -*Marion Montgomery, "Imagination and the Violent Assault upon Virtue, Modern Age: A Quarterly Review, 27.124-125.
Holmes, a science teacher agrees.
"Few people who accept the Darwinian theory of evolution realize its far-reaching import especially in Social Science. . Of the many evils that have resulted from the teaching of evolution, we mention only a few. ." -Professor Holmes, Science (August 14, 1939), p. 117.
Darwinism is the law of the jungle.
"Darwinism consistently applied would measure goodness in terms of survival value. This is the law of the jungle where 'might is right' and the fittest survive. Whether cunning or cruelty, cowardice or deceit, whatever will enable the individual to survive is good and right for that individual or that society." -H. Enoch, Evolution or Creation, (1968), p. 145.
As we shall learn later in this chapter, Darwin's biological evolution theory quickly became the basis for a social theory which brought on intensified war and immorality.
"In turn, biological evolutionism exerted ever-widening influences on the natural and social sciences, and its repercussions were neither sound or commendable. Suffice it to mention the so-called Social Darwinism, which often sought to justify the inhumanity of man to man, and the biological racism which furnished a fraudulent scientific sanction for the atrocities committed in Hitler's Germany and elsewhere." -*Theodosius Dobzhansky, "Evolution at Work " Science, Vol. 127, May 9, 1958, p. 1091.
The teaching that man is but a beast, and not accountable for any of his actions-is the heart of Darwin's teaching, and it unleashes the worst in man.
"No wonder that Brig. General F.D. Frost stated in the Fundamentalist, January, 1950, p. 21:'There is no doubt about it that the doctrine of evolution is the greatest curse in our educational system.' 'Whether we read Ward's Dynamic Sociology, or Russell's Code of Morals, or Briffalt's Immoralism or some other book written by the Behaviorist School-they all seem to endeavour to justify and base their conclusions on the bestial nature of man. This philosophy seeks to determine the morale, the principles and practice of virtuous conduct and to reduce man to the level of animal nature. The surging unrest, the broken homes, the frustrated lives, the increasing divorce cases, the multiplied number of criminals are but the inevitable outcome of the acceptance and practice of this evolutionary doctrine." -H. Enoch, Evolution or Creation, (1966) p. 1146-147.
*Darwin had started something that was to spread throughout the world and bring anguish to millions.
"Darwin's books were quickly translated into all the earth's main languages, and the political leaders of the various nations began using the Darwinian catchwords to justify their expansionist ambitions. The influence in Germany was especially profound. There, the atheistic biologist Ernst Haeckel embarked on a popularization campaign fully comparable to that of Huxley in England. The philosopher Nietzsche, with his doctrine of the 'super-man,' was also greatly influenced by Darwin, though he thought Darwin did not go far enough in promoting the militaristic and racist implications of his theories. Darwinistic imperialism had great impact on the policies of Bismarck and even more so on those of Adolph Hitler." -H.M. Morris, History of Modern Christianity (1984), p. 47.
2 - LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS
20th CENTURY CORNERSTONE-A brief history of the flaws of evolutionary theory, and the disputes of its advocates and antagonists, will be found in chapter 29, History of Evolutionary Theory. But in this present chapter you will survey part of the history of some principle effects that that theory has had on Western Civilization from Darwin's time onward.
The impact of modern evolutionary thought on our modern culture has been terrific: *Marx and *Keynes in economics and social studies; *Dewey in modern education; *Fosdick and 'higher' biblical critics in modern theology; *Nietzsche, *James, and *Positivists in modern philosophy; *Beard in American history; *Frankfurter in modern law; *London and *Shaw in novels; *Camus, *Sartre, and *Heidegger in existential thought; *White in sociology; *Simpson and *Dobzhansky in paleontology and modern genetics; * Huxley and *P. Teilhard de Chardin in humanism.
In 1960, a Hollywood film was released lauding the "victory" of evolution in a movie about the Scopes Trial (see chapter 30 for a detailed analysis of that trial). The motion picture was entitled Inherit the Wind. That would be an excellent title for a documentary, not on the Scopes Trial, but on what Social Darwinism has done to our modern world!
KARL MARX- *Charles Darwin, *Karl Marx, *Sigmund Freud, *Ernst Haeckel, and *Friedrich Nietzche laid the foundations for 20th century culture. We will view the lives of four of those men, and some others that followed. Millions of lives have been lostmorally and physicallybecause of the insidious views of Charles Darwin.
"Darwin, Marx, and Freud helped shape the modern mind into conformity with the world view of Mechanistic Materialism." -*E.A. Opitz, "The Use of Reason in Religion, " in Imprimis 7(2):4 (1978).
That which *Darwin did to biology, *Marx, with the help of others, did to society.
"Just as Darwin discovered the law of evolution in organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of evolution in human history." -*Otto Ruhle, Karl Marx, (1948), p. 366. Marxism is closely linked to Darwinism.
"The idea that evolution is a history of competitive strife fit well with his [Marx's] ideology of 'class struggle.' " -*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 412.
"Darwin's mechanistic approach found an immediate response in Karl Marx (1818-83), the German-Jewish philosopher-in-exile, whose self-appointed task in London was to rewrite history in communist terms and prepare the world for revolution. Marx had already designed a political and economic system for an atheist world before Darwin's major work made its mark. He was not slow to recognize that Darwinism contained much that was pertinent to his own philosophy:
"'This is the book,' he wrote to his disciple Engles in 1866, 'which contains the basis in natural history for our view', and he would gladly have dedicated his own major work, Das Kapital, to the author of The Origin of Species if Darwin had let him.
"At Marx's funeral Engels declaimed that, as Darwin had discovered the law of organic evolution in natural history, so Marx had discovered the law of evolution in human history. With its denigration of non-material aspects of human life, and its mission to uproot tradition and destroy creationist concepts in men's minds, communism remains one of Darwin's strongest adherents . . After 1949 when the communists took control of China, the first new text introduced to all schools was neither Marxist nor Leninist, but Darwinian." -Michael Pitman, Adam and Evolution (1984), p. 24.
All of the worst political philosophies of the 20th century emerged from the dark cave of Darwinism.
"Marxism, socialism, and communism, no less than Nazism, are squarely based on evolutionism. Relatively speaking, there is more emphasis on the effect of environment and culture than on genetics and heredity, and the competing evolutionary units are social classes (at least in human and cultural evolution) rather than individuals." -Henry Morris, Long War Against God (1989), pp. 82-83.
Not only animals must savagely fight in order to survive, but society must do the same, according to the Darwin/Marx viewpoint.
"Like Darwin, Marx thought he had discovered the law of development. He saw history in stages, as the Darwinists saw geological strata and successive forms of life . . But there are even finer points of comparison. In keeping with the feelings of the age, both Marx and Darwin made struggle the means of development. Again, the measure of value in Darwin is survival with reproduction-an absolute fact occurring in time and which wholly disregards the moral or ethetic quality of the product. In Marx the measure of value is expended labor-an absolute fact occurring in time, which also disregards the utility of the product [and also the workman]" -*J. Barzun, Darwin, Marx, Wagner, (1958), p. 8.
Marx considered his ideas to have sprung directly from Darwin's writings.
"Marx recommended rather different methods, which he believed to be somehow deducible from Darwin's discoveries. He proposed to acknowledge his indebtedness by dedicating Das Capital to Darwin-an honor which Darwin politely
declined." -*Theodosius Dobzhansky, "Evolution at Work," in Science, Vol. 127, May 9, 1958, p.1091.
*Engels, Marx's disciple, was the first to discover Darwin's book.
Fredrich Engels, one of the founders of Communism, wrote to Karl Marx, December 12,1859, "Darwin, whom I am just now reading, is splendid." -*C. Zirkle, Evolution, Marxian Biology, and the Social Scene, (1959), p. 85.
*Marx read it and wrote back:
Karl Marx wrote to Friedrich Engels, December 19, 1860, "Although it is developed in the crude English style, this is the book which contains the basis in natural history for our views." -*C. Zirkle, Evolution, Marxian Biology, and the Social Scene, (1959), p. 88.
Within a month, *Marx knew he had found what he was searching for: a "scientific" basis for his theory of "social progress."
"Again, Marx wrote to Engels, January 16, 1861, "Darwin's book is very important and serves me as a basis in natural selection for the class struggle in history. . not only is a death blow dealt here for the first time to 'teleology' in the natural sciences but their rational meaning is emphatically explained." -*C. Zirkle, Evolution, Marxan Biology, and the Social Science (1959), p. 88.
It is well-known among socialists, historians, and many scientists that Marxism is but an offshoot of Darwinism.
"Defending Darwin is nothing new for socialists. The socialist movement recognized Darwinism as an important element in its general world outlook right from the start. When Darwin published his Origin of the Species in 1859, Karl Marx wrote a letter to Frederick Engels in which he said: '. . this is the book which contains the basis in natural history for our view . .' By defending Darwinism, working people strengthen their defenses against the attacks of thee reactionary outfits, and prepare the way for the transformation of the social order." -*Cliff Conner, "Evolution vs. Creationism: In Defense of Scientific Thinking," International Socialist Review, November 1980.
By "reactionary outfits," this communist magazine was referring to creation-science and religious organizations.
"It is a commonplace fact that Marx felt his own work to be the exact parallel of Darwin's. He even wished to dedicate a portion of Das Kapital to the author of The Origin of Species." -*J. Barzun, Darwin, Marx and Wagner, (1958), p. 348.
For this reason, evolutionary theory became a foundation principle undergirding all modern communism.
"Marx and Engels were doctrinaire evolutionists, and so have all Communists been ever since. Since atheism is a basic tenet of Marxism in general, and Soviet Communism in particular, it is obvious that evolution must be the number one tenet of communism. Lenin and Trotsky and Stalin were all atheistic evolutionists, and so are today's Communist leaders. In fact, they have to be in order ever to get to be Communist leaders!" -Henry Morris, Long War Against God (1989), pp. 85.
Evolution's "most successful" offspring is said to have been communism. (But we shall learn in this chapter that it has sired a variety of other "successful" children also.)
"In spite of its scientific deficiencies, evolution's alleged scientific character has been used, as we have seen, to justify all kinds of ungodly systems and practices. The most successful of all of these, thus far, seems to be communism, and its adherents all over the world have been deluded into thinking that communism must be true because it is based on the science of evolution.
"An historian can hardly fail to agree that Marx's claim to give scientific guidance to those who would transform society has been one of the chief reasons for his doctrine's enormous influence." David Jorafsky, Soviet Marxism and Natural Science (1981), p. 4.
JOSEPH STALIN-*Lenin was an ardent evolutionist and so was *Stalin. In fact, it was the message he read in *Darwin's book that turned Stalin into the beastial creature he became.
"At a very early age, while still a pupil in the ecclesiastical school, Comrade Stalin developed a critical mind and revolutionary sentiments. He began to read Darwin and became an atheist." -*E. Yaroslavsky, Landmarks in the Life of Stalin (1940), pp. 8-9. [Written and published in Moscow by a close associate of Stalin, while Stalin was alive.]
We will return to Marxism later In this chapter. But first, we must consider another offshoot of Darwinism: Intensified militancy and warfare.
ERNST HAECKEL-*Ernst Haeckel, professor at the University in Jena, was the pioneer promoter of Darwinism on the European continent, just as *Thomas Huxley was Darwin's "bulldog" in England. In chapter 22 (Vestiges and Recapitulation) and chapter 29 (History of Evolutionary Theory) we detail * Haeckel's fraudulent activities to promote Darwinism by dishonest methods.
Along with *Nietzsche, *Haeckel also helped lay the foundations for the German militarism which produced World War I and II.
"Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) was an avid, self-appointed spokesman for Darwinism in Germany . . Haeckel professed a mystical belief in the forces of nature and a literal transfer of the laws of biology to the social realm. The movement he founded in Germany was proto-Nazi in character; romantic Volkism and the Monist League (established 1906), along with evolution and science, laid the ideological foundations of [German] National Socialism.
" . . English Darwinism interlinked two main themes, natural selection and the struggle for existence. Social Darwinism is an attempt to explain human society in terms of evolution, but Haeckel's [proto-Nazi] interpretation was quite different from that of capitalist Herbert Spencer or of communist Marx. For him a major component was the ethic of inherent struggle between higher and lower cultures,-between races of men." -Michael Pitman, Adam and Evolution (1984), p. 48.
Inspired by the writings of *Darwin, *Haeckel became the great forerunner of Nazi violence, which killed millions and littered Europe with its wreckage.
"Along with his social Darwinist followers, [Haeckel] set about to demonstrate the 'aristocratic' and non-democratic aspect of the laws of nature. . Up to his death in 1919, Haeckel contributed to that special variety of German thought which served as the seed-bed for National Socialism. He became one of Germany's main ideologists for racism, nationalism, and imperialism." -*Daniel Gasman, Scientific Origins of National Socialism: Social Darwinism in Ernst Haeckel and the German Monist League (1971), p. xvi.
Darwinism was taken to its logical extreme: kill the gentle and the unfortunate.
"German Darwinism was shaped by Ernst Haeckel, who combined it with anticlericalism, militaristic patriotism and visions of German racial purity. He encouraged the destruction of the established church in Germany, with its sermons about 'the meek shall inherit the earth' and compassion for unfortunates. Such a 'superstitious' doctrine would lead to 'racial suicide.' " -*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (199o), p. 119. ("Monism" is the theory that all reality consists only of matter, and this teaching is an important basis of atheism.)
"Of all the forerunners of Hitler in Germany-Hegel, Comte, Nietzsche, Bernhardt and others-the most significant was certainly Ernest Haeckel, the atheistic founder of the Monist League and the most vigorous promoter of both biological Darwinism and social Darwinism in continental Europe in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries." -H. M. Morris, Long War Against God (1989), pp. 78-77.
"Only the fittest should survive."
"He convinced masses of his countrymen they must accept their evolutionary destiny as a 'master race' and 'out-compete' inferior peoples, since it was right and natural that only the 'fittest' should survive. His version of Darwinism was incorporated in Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf (1925), which means 'My Struggle,' taken from Haeckel's translation of Darwin's phrase, 'the struggle for existence.' " -*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 207 (also 312, 312-313).
"In 1918, Darwin apostle Ernst Haeckel became a member of the Thule Gesellschaft, a secret, radically right-wing Organization that played a key role in the establishment of the Nazi movement. Rudolf Hess and Hitler attended the meeting as guests (Phelps. 1963)" -Ian Taylor, In the Minds of Men (1987), p.466.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE-Another despicable lover of Darwinian theory was * Friedrich Nietzsche. Darwin's teachings had a way of corrupting the beliefs of all who submitted to it.
"Despite the optimistic spirit inherent in the thought of the English utilitarians; certain philosophers on the continent, had a decidedly pessimistic outlook on life. One of these was Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). This neurotic thinker, whose attacks on Christianity were made with savage scorn, had extraordinary influence upon contemporary thought. He advanced the concept of the will to power. To Nietzsche the only type of person fit to exist is he who has the power to attain authority, no matter how ruthless the means. The man who could rule is the superman, whose virtues consist, of bravery, strength, egoism, arrogance, ruthlessness.
"War is praised as the theater where such virtues manifest themselves, Nietzsche challenged the world with 'You say, "A good cause sanctifies even war," but I say,', "A good war sanctifies every cause." ' Nietzsche thought of Christianity with contempt, because he looked upon gentleness as a weakness and humanitarianism as the protection of the unfit and spineless. Democracy and socialism were likewise considered to be weak and hindering the strong from succeeding.
" . . It is significant to note that Nietzsche profoundly influenced Wagner and that his views became a cornerstone in National Socialism of Hitlerian Germany." -*Walter Wallbank and *Alastair M. Taylor, Civilization Past and Present, Vol. 2 (1949 ed.), p. 27
Darwinism transformed *Nietzsche into a maniacal lover of war and bloodshed. Declaring that his theory was "scientific" because it was but a social aspect of Darwin's theory, he urged his ideas on the German nation.
"The great German exponent of Militarism, Nietzsche, extended the Darwinian principle of the survival of the fittest in order to inspire his countrymen to fight. According to him, 'The supreme standard of life is purely materialistic vitality and power to survive.' The 1914-18 war was thus the calculated climax of a policy nourished on the diabolical ideas of Nietzsche for the subjugation of the world. General von Bernhardi in his book, The Next War, shows the connection between war and biology. According to him, 'War is a biological necessity the first importance, a regulative element in the life of mankind that cannot be dispensed with. War increases vitality, and promotes human progress.' The summuim bonum of life according to Nietzsche's own words is Man shall be trained for war and woman for the recreation of the warrior; all else is folly.' (Oscar Levy, Complete Works of Nietzsche, 1930, Vol. 2, p. 75). Adolph Hitler reiterated the same philosophy of life derived from the theory of evolution when he said, 'The whole of nature is a continuous struggle between strength and weakness, and eternal victory of the strong over the weak.' " -H. Enoch, Evolution or Creation, (1966) p. 147-148.
It is of the greatest irony that *Clarence Darrow, defender of John Scopes at the 1925 Dayton Evolution Trial (see chapter 30)-and one year prior to that trial-declared in court that the murderous thinking of two young men was caused by their having learned *Nietzsche's vicious Darwinism in the public schools!
"In defending two young men, Loeb and Leopold, for cruelly murdering a fourteen year old boy, by name of Bobby Franks, the celebrated criminal lawyer of the day, Clarence Darrow, traced their crime back to what they had learned in the university. He argued, 'is there any blame attached because somebody took Nietzsche's philosophy seriously?' His appeal to the judge was, 'Your honour, it is hardly fair to hang a nineteen year old boy for the philosophy that was taught him at the university.' " -W Brigans (ed.), Classified Speeches, quoted in H. Enoch, Evolution or Creation, (1966) p. 146.
3 - WARFARE
WARFARE-Darwinism led to class struggle and warfare through Communism; It also led to extreme nationalism, racism, and warfare through Nazism and Fascism. The "second point" in the next quotation provided the justification for both class and national aggression.
"There are three main points in the Darwinian hypothesis of evolution. First, all existing vegetable and animal species are descended from earlier and, generally speaking, more rudimentary types. [Progressive change of one species into another.]
"Secondly, evolution involves 'natural selection.' Every species produces more young than will grow to maturity. In the struggle to survive, the fittest will win out at the expense of their rivals. They will be the most capable of adapting themselves to their environment. This fitness will be transmitted to subsequent generations. Here we see the influence of Malthus' population theory and Lamarck's theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics.
"Thirdly, the Darwinian hypothesis contended that differentiation among the species was also brought about by sexual selection. But this point was soon discarded by scientists as of little or no worth." -*T. W. Wallbank and *A.M. Taylor, Civilization Past and Present (1949), p. 271.
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 was the first large conflict in which both sides used Darwinism as an excuse for their attempts to murder one another in organized warfare.
*Nordau says it well:
"The greatest authority of all the advocates of war is Darwin. Since the theory of evolution has been promulgated, they can cover their natural barbarism with the name of Darwin and proclaim the sanguinary instincts of their inmost hearts as the last word of science." -*Max Nordau, "The Philosophy and Morals of War, " in North American Review 169 (1889), p. 794.
Barzun, a history teacher at Columbia University, wrote an epic book, Darwin, Marx, Wagner, in which he clearly showed that Darwinism inflamed militarism and warfare wherever it went.
"War became the symbol, the image, the inducement, the reason, and the language of all human doings on the planet. No one who has not waded through some sizable part of the literature of the period 1870-1914 has any conception of the extent to which it is one long call for blood, nor of the variety of parties, classes, nations, and races whose blood was separately and contradictorily clamored for by the enlightened citizens of the ancient civilization of Europe.
" . . The militarists of the second half of the century poeticized war and luxuriated in the prospect of it. With relative impunity for themselves, they took it for granted that all struggles in life must be struggles for life, and the death of the loser its 'natural' goal . .
"In every European country between 1870 and 1914 there was a war party demanding armaments, an individualist party demanding ruthless competition, an imperialist party demanding a free hand over backward peoples, a socialist party demanding the conquest of power, and a racialist party demanding internal purges against aliens-all of them, when appeals to greed and glory failed, or even before, invoked Spencer and Darwin, which was to say, science incarnate. . Race was biological, it was sociological; it was Darwinian." -*Jacques Barzun, Darwin, Marx, Wagner (1958), pp. 92-95.
"It must be admitted that evolution is the basic principle on which Militarism is founded." -H. Enoch, Evolution or Creation, (1966), pp. 146147.
WORLD WAR I-The first World War (at that time called the "Great War") was, according to both analysts and historians, the inevitable result of Darwinist teachings.
"Darwin, Nietzsche, and Haeckel laid the foundations for the intense German militarism that eventually led to the Great War of 1914-18. There were others who participated in the development, of course, including many of the German generals and political leaders, all very much under the spell of the German variety of social Darwinism. General Friedrich won Bernhardi said: 'War gives biologically just decisions, since its decisions rest on the very nature of things . . It is not only a biological law, but a moral obligation, and, as such, an indispensable factor in civilization!'" -H.M. Morris, Long War Against God (1989), p. 74 x.
Frederich won Bernhardi was a German military officer who, upon retiring in 1909, wrote a book based on evolutionary theory, extolling war and appealing to Germany to start another one! His book was entitled Germany and the Next War. His statement, quoted above, was on page 197 of that book.
"'War,' declared Bernhardi,' is a biological necessity'; it 'is as necessary as the struggle of the elements of nature'; it 'gives a biologically just decision, since its decisions rest on the very nature of things. The whole idea of arbitration represents a presumptuous encroachment on the natural laws of development,' for 'what is right is decided by the arbitration of war.'
"In proof thereof such notions of Darwin's as The Struggle for Existence. Natural Selection,' and the 'Survival of the Fittest' are invoked with sententiousness quite military both in logic and in sense. According to Bernhardi, it is plainly evident to anyone who makes a study of plant and animal life that 'war is a universal law of nature.' This declaration and fortification of Germany's will to war-had the highest official sanction and approval-and was published in 1911. Three years later the greatest holocaust the world had ever known was launched." -*M.F. Ashley-Montagu, Man in Process (1981), pp. 88-87.
"This widely quoted assertion [of von Bernhardi] was used to help stimulate America's entry into the war against Germany. In all directions, the Germans saw proof that they were the Chosen People. They interpreted the doctrine of evolution so as to draw from it a warrant for their aspirations. Evolution taught that the 'fittest survived.' The champions of super-mania lean heavily on biology to support their creed." -*William Roscoe Thayer, Germany versus Civilization (1918), pp. 197-198.
*Heinrich von Treitsche was a Prussian militarist who loudly called for war by Germany, in order to fulfill is "evolutionary destiny." von Treitsche translated Darwinian thinking into such statements as this one:
"The grandeur of war lies in the utter annihilation of puny man in the great conception of the State, and it brings out the full significance of the sacrifice of fellow-countrymen for one another. In war the chaff is winnowed from the wheat." -*Heinrich G. von Treitsche, Politics, Vol. 1, pp. 88-87. (from the Dugdale and de Bille English translation.]
Natural selection was the all-powerful law impelling them to bloody struggle.
"During World War I, German intellectuals believed natural selection was irresistibly all-powerful (Allmacht), a law of nature impelling them to bloody struggle for domination. Their political and military textbooks promoted Darwin's theories as the 'scientific' basis of a quest for world conquest, with the full backing of German scientists and professors of biology." -*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 59.
*Walbank and *Taylor were masters of historical perspective. In their well-known two-volume textbook, they explained the underlying cause of World War 1.
"The latter part of the nineteenth century saw Europe being transformed into an armed camp. From 1870 to 1910 about one billion dollars was spent yearly on arms. In 1913 the figure reached nearly two billion dollars.
"With the growth of these huge national armies, augmented by the most scientific equipment, war became a science. Trained specialists were needed by the thousands, a complex system of mobilization had be worked out, and intricate plans had to be laid for conquest or against invasion. This condition gave rise, more than ever before, to a powerful class of professional soldiers or militarists. Some thinkers in Europe, influenced by the concept of the survival of the fittest, developed a kind of neo-Darwinian theory in which they saw war as the instrument for weeding out the decadent and exalting the strong nations." -*T.W. Walbank and -*A.M. Taylor, Civilization Past and Present Vol. 2 (1949), p. 389.
HITLER AND MUSSOLINI -*Nietzsches Influence reached down to Hitler and Mussolini. Both carefully studied Nietzsche's writings as well as * Darwin's.
"He [Nietzsche] ridiculed democracy and socialism for protecting the worthless and weak and hindering the strong. Social Darwinism and the antidemocratic cult of naked power, as preached by advocates like Nietzsche, were laying the foundations of fascism which would one day plunge the world into the most terrible convulsion in its history." -*T. Walbank and *A.M. Taylor, Civilization Past and Present, (198 1), Vol. 2, p. 383
*Adolf Hitler's famous Mein Kampf was based on evolutionary theory. The very title of his book was copied from a Darwin expression; it means "My Struggle" [to survive and overcome].
"One need not read far in Hitler's Mein Kampf to find that evolution likewise influenced him and his views on the master race, genocide, human breeding experiments, etc." -Robert Clark, Darwin: Before and After (1 048), p. 115
"[The position in Germany was that] Man must 'conform' to nature's processes, no matter how ruthless. The 'fittest' must never stand in the way of the law of evolutionary progress. In its extreme form, that social view was used in Nazi Germany to justify sterilization and mass murder of the 'unfit,' 'incompetent' and 'inferior races.' " -*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 412.
* Keith-a Britisher was no friend of Hitler's, but as an avid evolutionist (who earlier helped bring forth the Piltdown Man fraud) he admired Hitler for fulfilling Darwinian aspirations:
"To see evolutionary measures and tribal morality being applied rigorously to the affairs of a great modern nation, we must turn again to Germany of 1942. We see Hitler devoutly convinced that evolution produces the only real basis for a national policy.
"The German Fuhrer, as I have consistently maintained, is an evolutionist; he has consciously sought to make the practices of Germany conform to the theory of evolution." -*Sir Arthur Keith, Evolution And Ethics (1947), p. 28,
The undesirables had to be eliminated.
"During the 1930s, Adolf Hitler believed he was carrying Darwinism forward with his doctrine that undesirable individuals (and inferior races) must be eliminated in the creation of the New Order dominated by Germany's 'Master Race.' " -*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 119.
Several writers have noted that historians of Hitler and World War II have been careful to avoid identifying Hitler's preoccupation with Darwinism, or *Nietzsche's Darwinian background.
"Likewise, Adolph Hitler in Germany based his fascism on evolutionary theory. This is evident from his speeches and his book Mein Kampf. R.E.D. Clark has pointed out that in the larger number of books, which have appeared describing every phase of the Hitler regime, there is hardly a mention of the evolution of Charles Darwin. He interprets this to mean that the authors refrain from mentioning evolution in this context because they fear they might be considered to be anti-evolutionary." -Bolton Davidheiser, in W.E. Lammerts (Ed.), Scientific Studies in Special Creation (1971), p. 341 (referring to R. E. D. Clark, Darwin Before and After, (1958), p.117).
Specialists in Hitlerian studies note that *Hitler hated Christianity as fiercely as he loved Darwin's theory. But that is understandable, for the two are as different as day and night.
"[Hitler] stressed and singled out the idea of biological evolution as the most forceful weapon against traditional religion and he repeatedly condemned Christianity for its opposition to the teaching of evolution . . For Hitler, evolution was the hallmark of modern science and culture, and he defended its veracity as tenaciously as Haeckel." -*Daniel Gasmar, Scientific Origins of Modern Socialism: Social Darwinism in Ernst Haeckel and the German Monist League (1971), p. 188.
*Hitler said this:
"I regard Christianity as the most fatal, seductive lie that has ever existed." -*Adolf Hitler, quoted in Larry Azar, Twentieth Century in Crisis (1990), p. 155.
You have completed
CHAPTER 33 - EVOLUTION AND SOCIETY Part 1
NEXT
CHAPTER 33 - EVOLUTION AND SOCIETY Part 2