The Learning Curve/The Learning Curve (Weird Science, 1996).iso/religion/essays_on_origins/essay15

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                             ESSAYS ON ORIGINS:

                 The Religion of Nature: Social Darwinism
                       by Dr. David N. Menton, Ph.D.

                    This version copyright (c) 1994 by:
                     Missouri Association for Creation
   _____________________________________________________________________

    [No. 15 in a series]                  September 1994, Vol. 4, No. 9
   _____________________________________________________________________

     It has been said that no book, other than the Bible, has had a
  greater affect on society than Darwin's _On the Origin of Species_.
  Evolutionist Steven Jay Gould, wrote that following the publication of
  _On the Origin of Species_ in 1859, "subsequent arguments for slavery,
  colonialism, racial differences, class structures, and sex roles would
  go forth primarily under the banner of science" (_The Mismeasure of
  Man_, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 1981, p. 72).  Darwin himself
  seemed to approve of the application of his evolutionary ideas to moral
  and social issues.  In a letter to H. Thiel in 1869, Darwin said:

     "You will really believe how much interested I am in observing
     that you apply to moral and social questions analogous views to
     those which I have used in regard to the modification of species.
     It did not occur to me formerly that my views could be extended
     to such widely different and most important subjects." (_The Life
     and Letters of Charles Darwin_, Francis Darwin editor, D. Appleton
     and Co., 1896, Vol. 2, p . 294).

  The feature of Darwinism most often cited by those who attempt to
  justify their moral and social views with "science" (evolution), is the
  concept of the "survival of the fittest."  This application of Darwinian
  dogma to human society and behavior is known as _Social Darwinism_.

     One of the most insidious features of Darwin's evolutionary
  speculation was that it sought to erase the fundamental differences
  between man and animals.  This not only invited a comparison between man
  and the apes, but also between the "highest" and "lowest" humans. Blacks
  and American Indians were among the first to be singled out as being
  "lower" than Caucasians.  In his book _The Mismeasure of Man_ (Chap. 3),
  Steven Jay Gould pointed out that some anthropologists were not above
  falsifying their data to prove the "superiority" of the white race.  For
  example, assuming brain size had something to do with intelligence (it
  doesn't), many anthropologists intentionally exaggerated the size of
  Caucasian skulls and underestimated the size of skulls from Blacks and
  Indians.  Social Darwinism thus came to serve as a "scientific"
  justification for racism.

     It might be argued that Darwin would never have condoned this use of
  his "theory," but his own writings reveal profoundly racist
  implications.  In the sixth chapter of his book _The Descent of Man_,
  Darwin predicted that eventually evolution would increase the gap
  between humans and the lower apes through the extinction of such
  "evolutionary intermediates" as gorillas and Negroes!  Darwin declared
  that "the break will then be rendered wider, for it will intervene
  between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, than the
  Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as at present
  between the Negro or Australian and the Gorilla" (_The Descent of Man_,
  Charles Darwin, 1871, p. 201).

     In an effort to promote the evolution of "higher forms" of humans,
  Darwin's cousin, Sir Francis Galton, founded the _Eugenics Movement_.
  Eugenics is the "science" which seeks to improve the biological makeup
  of the human species by selective breeding.  Galton advocated the
  regulation of marriage and family size according to the genetic quality
  of the parents.  He believed that if controlled breeding was applied to
  humans, as it was to farm animals, a perfect human breed could be
  developed.  This concept of the "master race" was put into practice by
  Adolph Hitler in Germany in an effort to create a "pure Aryan race,"
  while exterminating "inferior" Jews.

     German politicians and scholars first used Social Darwinism around
  the turn of the century to justify Germany's increasingly aggressive
  militarism.  The German militarist, Friederich von Bernhardi, praised
  the virtues of war in strong evolutionary terms in his influential book
  _Germany and the Next War_.  Bernhardi declared that war, like Darwinian
  survival of the fittest, was a "_biological necessity_" and that it
  "_gives a biologically just decision, since its decisions rest on the
  very nature of things_."  Bernhardi dismissed the whole idea of peaceful
  arbitration as a "_presumptuous encroachment on the natural laws of
  development_."  According to Bernhardi, a study of plant and animal life
  clearly showed that "_war is a universal law of nature_."  (As quoted by
  Ashley Montagu in _Man in Process_, World Pub. Co., 1961, pp. 76-77).
  Bernhardi's book, published in 1911, had Germany's highest official
  sanction and approval -- three years later, Germany plunged the world
  into World War I.

     By the time of the Second World War, we find the full "flower" of
  Social Darwinism in fascism.  Hitler based his fascism on evolutionary
  theory, as is evident from both his speeches and his book _Mein Kampf_.
  Benito Mussolini, who brought fascism to Italy, was also greatly
  influenced by Darwinism, which he thought supported his belief that
  violence is essential for beneficial social transformation.  Mussolini
  repeatedly used Darwinian catchwords in his speeches and ridiculed
  efforts at peace because they interfered with natural evolutionary
  process.

     No discussion of the devastating impact of Social Darwinism on
  society would be complete without considering its strong influence on
  the development of Marxism and communism.  Frederich Engels and Karl
  Marx (co-founders of Marxist communism) were exceedingly enthusiastic
  over Darwin's book _On the Origin of Species_.  Karl Marx wrote a letter
  to Engels in December of 1860 declaring that _On the Origin of Species_
  was "the book which contains the basis in natural history for our
  views."  In another letter to Engels in January of 1861, Marx declared:

     "Darwin's book is very important and serves me as a basis of
     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." (As quoted by Conway
     Zirkle in:  _Evolution, Marxian Biology, and the Social Scene_,
     University of Pennsylvania Press, 1959, p. 86).

     The three things for which Marx was most indebted to Darwinism were:
  1) an atheistic explanation for the origin of the Cosmos (Marxism
  doesn't recognize anything as being higher than the state so it demands
  atheism);  2) the struggle for existence; and  3) the progressive
  development and improvement of man (Marxism insists that man's
  well-being is inevitably and progressively improved through a blind
  process of class struggle and revolution).  Indeed, Karl Marx was so
  deeply indebted to Darwin that he wanted to dedicate his book _Das
  Capital_ to him, but Darwin declined the "honor."

     The close affinity between Marxism and Darwinism continues to be
  evident in the currently popular evolutionary speculation called
  "punctuated equilibrium."  (This declares that evolution occurs by
  sudden lucky-leaps forward, separated by long periods of essentially no
  change.)  Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge, who first popularized
  this notion, recently pointed out that:

     "Hegel's dialectical laws, translated into a materialist context,
     have become the official 'state philosophy' of many socialist
     nations.  These laws of change are explicitly punctuational, as
     befits a theory of revolutionary transformation in human society.
     In the light of this official philosophy, it is not at all
     surprising that a punctuational view of speciation, much like our
     own, but devoid of references to synthetic evolutionary theory,
     has long been favored by many Russian paleontologists.  It may
     also not be irrelevant to our personal preferences that one of us
     learned his Marxism, literally, at his daddy's knee" (Eldredge,
     Niles and Stephen Jay Gould, _Paleobiology_ Vol. 3, Spring 1977,
     pp. 145-146.).

     When man ceases to give credit to God as Creator, he generally gives
  the credit to nature (evolution).  Not only is nature then perceived as
  "creator", but also man's guide for morality and behavior.  The "nature
  god" declares that anything which is "natural" may be considered
  "moral."  (Thus, elective abortions are moral because spontaneous
  abortions occur in nature.)  As we have seen, the fruit of this religion
  of nature (in the form of Social Darwinism) has been untold suffering
  and death.  The Bible tells us that this sad state of affairs results
  from the fact that many have "exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and
  worshipped the creature (nature) rather than the Creator" (Rom. 1:25).
  _______________________________________________________________________

  Dr. Menton received his Ph.D. in Biology from Brown University.  He has
  been involved in biomedical research and education for over 30 years.

  Dr. Menton is President of the Missouri Association for Creation, Inc.

                          Originally published in:
                            St. Louis MetroVoice
                               PO Box 220010
                            St. Louis, MO  63122
  _______________________________________________________________________

              Corrections and revisions have been made by the
                author from the original published essay.

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