Christian Rightists say that Darwin gave rise to Nazism and the Holocaust

[ck4829]

Whether it's in Ben Stein's movie Expelled, an anti-evolution documentary by Coral Ridge Ministries, or wherever.

You know, that's kind of funny. You'd think for a guy who had so much influence on the Nazis and others in the Far Right that he'd have an honorable mention or something once in a while, right?

Darwin isn't mentioned in Mein Kampf, Hitler's book.

Darwin isn't mentioned the Turner Diaries, the bible of the neo-nazis.

Darwin's face isn't plastered up on any of the gates leading into the death camps.

Right Wing lunatics often celebrate Hitler's birthday, but I don't think I've ever heard of them celebrating Darwin's birthday.

I have a couple email traps that set up to observe right wing racist and neo-nazi activity. Guess who I have yet to see them mention?

You know guys in the Intelligent Design movement, I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure when God said something about bearing "false witness against your neighbour," it means don't lie.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Ironically, Creationists have a lot of in common with Holocaust Deniers.

They're both historical revisionists who deny the undeniable.

[baldguy]

2. This was part of the Nazi uniform

Their belt buckles said "God Is With Us"

[BOSSHOG]

3. Would that not create a conundrum for their supporters?

If Darwin gave "rise" to Hitler would he not be a favorite of Fanatical christian religious zealots in this country? Their followers could drown in their shallow puddles.

[wryter2000]

4. There is social Darwinism

Which is NOT what Darwin was writing about. In fact, what's been come to be known as social Darwinism predated Darwin in history. It was behind the idea the English had that, if they just got rid of the criminal classes by transporting them, they could make England a utopia.

Social Darwinist thinking has been behind a lot of abuses, but it's not part of Darwin's theory.

[liberalhistorian]

11. Exactly, you beat me to it!

I was just about to post the same thing. Social Darwinism has been around in one form or another since time began, it was just more "official" when Darwin's teachings were distorted and twisted to fit the sick, wrong agenda and objectives of those elitists who wanted nothing more than to rid the world of "undesirables."

Of course, I'm a liberal Christian who believes in both creation and evolution, so I guess I'm a bit different.

[wryter2000]

12. What Darwin actually said on the subject of what we call social Darwinism

20 April 2008
Hope the link works.

http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/a-complete-darwin-quote-with-a-brief-translation/

Taken from Darwin’s “Descent of Man”

"We civilised men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thousands, who from a weak constitution would formerly have succumbed to small-pox. Thus the weak members of civilised societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but excepting in the case of man itself, hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.

"The aid which we feel impelled to give to the helpless is mainly an incidental result of the instinct of sympathy, which was originally acquired as part of the social instincts, but subsequently rendered, in the manner previously indicated, more tender and more widely diffused. Nor could we check our sympathy, even at the urging of hard reason, without deterioration in the noblest part of our nature. The surgeon may harden himself whilst performing an operation, for he knows that he is acting for the good of his patient; but if we were intentionally to neglect the weak and helpless, it could only be for a contingent benefit, with an overwhelming present evil."

Of course, the social Darwnists always leave out the second paragraph.

[slackmaster]

5. Nothing new under the Sun

From the ICR Museum in beautiful Klantee, Kalifornistan:



Note juxtaposition of photos of Darwin with all kinds of bad and supposedly bad people.

http://www.icr.org/discover/index/discover_museum/

[acmavm]

8. ICR? Idiots, Crackpots, and Rogues Museum?

[slackmaster]

20. That's about the size of it

If you are ever in the San Diego area and have a couple of hours you want to totally waste, it's worth a walk-through for the laugh.

[Lerkfish]

6. I find the whole thing completely bizarre.

on so many levels.

[dkofos]

7. Just shows how truly STUPID they are.

[underpants]

9. Um I thought the right thought that Social Darwinism was a good thing

for example one of their favorite books "The Bell Curve"


http://www.pioneerfund.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_Fund

[ck4829]

10. They do, they just call it "compassionate conservatism"

[wryter2000]

17. The Bell Curve

BTW, Stephen Jay Gould wrote an amazingly wonderfully awesome must-read book on the subject of the misuses of intelligence testing. The Mismeasure of Man ought to be required reading for every college student. It ought to be revised for younger reading levels and required for everyone.

[zbdent]

13. Explains why the Pope of the time sat on his holy thumbs ...

:eyes:

[Adsos Letter]

14. People confuse Darwin ...

With Houston Stewart Chamberlain, the real father of so-called "social Darwinism" and precursor/ideological underpinner of much of the eugenics movement so popular in the US during the 1930's. I do believe Hitler simply used Chamberlain and the theories of eugenics to justify his own anti-semitic programs, and as a tie to the latent anti-semitism in Europe.


Edited to correct a misrepresentation on the timing of Chamberlain's writings. Nonetheless, HE is the guy to look to for the basis of a Nazi ideology of anti-semitism, from the 19th-20th centuries, at least, especially his influence on that demon Julius Streicher...

Here is a link to his relevance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_Stewart_Chamberlain#Impact

[madmusic]

15. Eugenics and the Nazis -- the California connection

Hitler and his henchmen victimized an entire continent and exterminated millions in his quest for a so-called Master Race.

But the concept of a white, blond-haired, blue-eyed master Nordic race didn't originate with Hitler. The idea was created in the United States, and cultivated in California, decades before Hitler came to power. California eugenicists played an important, although little-known, role in the American eugenics movement's campaign for ethnic cleansing.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/11/09/ING9C2QSKB1.DTL

[Adsos Letter]

16. You are so correct...

most Americans don't realize the popularity of the Eugenics movement in the US, in terms of its acceptance as "science"...

[wryter2000]

18. Fascinating

I didn't know any of that. I did know that Louis Terman imported Binet's well-meaning test, created the Stanford Binet, and added all the social Darwinistic crap that's made such of mess of things ever since.

Makes me glad I'm a California Golden Bear, not a graduate of Stanford. :evilgrin:

[haymakeragain]

19. Christian rightists are full of shit, and dangerous.

I do believe the whole thing is linked to controlling the masses and perpetrated by right-wing power grabbers, but dangerous non the less.