Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Crafty Attacks on Evolution
The New York Slimes ^ | 23 January 2005 | EDITORIAL

Posted on 01/23/2005 1:11:01 AM PST by rdb3

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 741-756 next last
To: shubi
Find a human skeleton in the same strata as dino bones and you would falsify evolution.

No you wouldn't. The faithful would cry out, that it is just an anomaly. Look at all the other evidence. Just ignore the skeleton as something curious and unexplainable for the moment. We essentially found a similar situation when some "junk" DNA of humans and mice were identical(humans, mice, and the common ancestor lie in the same strata). There is no reason for that situation to have occurred according to Darwin's theory.

41 posted on 01/23/2005 7:31:22 AM PST by AndrewC (Darwinian logic -- It is just-so if it is just-so)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: AndrewC

That's because it would probably be proven to be an anomaly. But my point was if you could find a legimate human fossil in with dinos it would falsify.

I didn't mean a faked up piece of trash like the creationist museum in Kentucky or the nonsense of human footprints faked in Texas by those epitomies of Christian behavior in the creationist con game.


42 posted on 01/23/2005 7:47:08 AM PST by shubi (Peace through superior firepower.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: AndrewC

"No you wouldn't. The faithful would cry out, that it is just an anomaly. Look at all the other evidence. Just ignore the skeleton as something curious and unexplainable for the moment"

It would, there would be so many problems with a human skeleton with dinosaurs evolution would be in dire peril.

"We essentially found a similar situation when some "junk" DNA of humans and mice were identical(humans, mice, and the common ancestor lie in the same strata). There is no reason for that situation to have occurred according to Darwin's theory."

This is NOTHING like finding a human skeleton beside a t-rex my friend! Genetics is a very new, and very complicated field of study, new, unanticipated discoveries happen all the time. Assuming what you say is even true.

When the first test pilots tried to break the sound barrier, the intense vibrations from traversing the phenomena locked the controls and destroyed the planes. They've since corrected the problem. According to your logic, sicne the theory of flight didn't warn them about it before hand, planes can't fly?


43 posted on 01/23/2005 8:28:33 AM PST by Alacarte (There is no knowledge that is not power)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: sauron

"In fact, the Bible clearly states that it is the Seas that brought forth the life, and the Earth. (In that actual order, too, btw!) "

It also says the earth was created before the stars, get a grip man.


44 posted on 01/23/2005 8:30:56 AM PST by Alacarte (There is no knowledge that is not power)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: Smartaleck
Some are able to grasp both notions at the same time and be quite comfortable in their understanding of both. Others struggle...it has to be one or the other and the notions are mutually exclusive?

In fact they ARE mutually exclusive.

Sir Arthur Keith (Evolution and Ethics) said it best:

Chapter 3

The Behavior of Germany Considered from an Evolutionary Point of View in 1942

VISITORS TO GERMANY IN 1934 FOUND AN emotional storm sweeping through masses of the people, particularly the more educated. The movement had much in common with a religious revival. The preacher in this case was Adolf Hitler; his doctrine was, and is, tribalism; he had stirred in the emotional depths of the German people those long-dormant tribal feelings which find release and relief in mutual service; men and women who had been leading selfish lives or were drifting aimlessly were given a new purpose in life: service to their country the Third Reich. It is worth noting that Hitler uses a double designation for his tribal doctrine National Socialism: Socialism standing for the good side of the tribal spirit (that which works within the Reich); aud Nationalism for the ethically vicious part, which dominates policy at and outside the German frontiers.

The leader of Germany is an evolutionist not only in theory, but, as millions know to their cost, in the rigor of its practice. For him the national "front" of Europe is also the evolutionary "front"; he regards himself, and is regarded, as the incarnation of the will of Germany, the purpose of that will being to guide the evolutionary destiny of its people. He has brought into

10.

modern life the tribal and evolutionary mentality of prehistoric times. Hitler has confronted the statesmen of the world with an evolutionary problem of an unprecedented magnitude. What is the world to do with a united aggressive tribe numbering eighty millions!

We must not lose sight of the purpose of our visit to Germany; it was to see how far modern evolutionary practice can provide us with a scientific basis for ethical or moral behavior. As a source of information concerning Hitler's evolutionary and ethical doctrines I have before me Mein Kampf, extracts from The Times covering German affairs during the last twenty years, and the monthly journal R.F.C. (Racio Political Foreign Correspondenee), published by the German Bureau for Human Betterment and Eugenics and circulated by that bureau for the enlightenment of anthropologists living abroad. In the number of that journal for July 1937, there appears in English the text of a speech given by the German Fuhrer on January 30, 1937, in reply to a statement made by Mr. Anthony Eden that "the German race theory" stood in the way of a common discussion of European problems. Hitler maintained his theory would have an opposite effect; "it will bring about a real understanding for the first time." "It is not for men," said the Fuhrer, "to discuss the question of why Providence created different races, but rather to recognize that it punishes those who disregard its work of creation." I may remark incidentally that in this passage, as in many others, the German Fuhrer, like Bishop Barnes and many of our more intellectual clergy, regards evolution as God's mode of creation. God having created races, it is therefore "the noblest and most sacred duty for each racial species of mankind to preserve the purity of the blood which God has given it." Here we have expounded the perfectly sound doctrine of evolutionary isolation; even as an ethical doctrine it should not be condemned. No German must be guilty of the "greatest racial sin" that of bringing the fruits of hybridity into the world. The reproductive "genes" which circulate within the frontiers of Germany must be kept uncontaminated, so that they may work out the racial destiny of the German people without impediment. Hitler is also a eugenist. Germans who suffer from

11.

hereditable imperfections of mind or of body must be rendered infertile, so that "the strong may not be plagued by the weak." Sir Francis Galton, the founder of eugenics, taught a somewhat similar evolutionary doctrine namely, that if our nation was to prosper we must give encouragement to the strong rather than to the weak; a saving which may be justified by evolution, but not by ethics as recognized and practiced by civilized peoples. The liberties of German women are to be sacrificed; they must devote their activities to their households, especially to the sacred duty of raising succeeding generations. The birth rate was stimulated by bounties and subsidies so that the German tribe might grow in numbers and in strength. In all these matters the Nazi doctrine is evolutionist.

Hitler has sought on every occasion and in every way to heighten the national consciousness of the German people or, what is the same thing, to make them racially conscious; to give them unity of spirit and unity of purpose. Neighborly approaches of adjacent nations are and were repelled; the German people were deliberately isolated. Cosmopolitanism, liberality of opinion, affectation of foreign manners and dress were unsparingly condemned. The old tribal bonds (love of the Fatherland, feeling of mutual kinship), the bonds of "soil and blood," became "the main plank in the National Social program." "Germany was for the Germans" was another plank. Foreign policy was "good or bad according to its beneficial or harmful effects on the German folk now or hereafter." "Charity and humility are only for home consumption" a statement in which Hitler gives an exact expression of the law which limits sympathy to its tribe. "Humanitarianism is an evil . . . a creeping poison." "The most cruel methods are humane if they give a speedy victory" is Hitler's echo of a maxim attributed to Moltke. Such are the ways of evolution when applied to human affairs.

I have said nothing about the methods employed by the Nazi leaders to secure tribal unity in Germany methods of brutal compulsion, bloody force, and the concentration camp. Such methods cannot be brought within even a Machiavellian system of ethics, and yet may be justified by their evolutionary result.

12.

Even in that result we may harbor a doubt: can unity obtained by such methods be relied on to endure?

There are other aspects of Nazi policy which raise points which may be legitimate subjects of ethical debate. In recent years British men of science have debated this ethical problem: an important discovery having been made a new poison gas, for example is it not the duty of the discoverer to suppress it if there is a possibility of its being used for an evil purpose? My personal conviction is that science is concerned wholly with truth, not with ethics. A man of science is responsible for the accuracy of his observations and of his inferences, not for the results which may follow therefrom. Under no circumstances should the truth be suppressed; yet suppression and distortion of the truth is a deliberate part of Nazi policy. Every anthropologist in Germany, be he German or Jew, was and is silenced in Nazi Germany unless the Hitlerian racial doctrine is accepted without any reservation whatsoever. Authors, artists, preachers, and editors are undone if they stray beyond the limits of the National Socialist tether. Individual liberty of thought and of its expression is completely suppressed. An effective tribal unity is thus attained at the expense of truth. And yet has not the Church in past times persecuted science just in this Hitlerian way? There was a time, and not so long ago, when it was dangerous for a biologist to harbor a thought that clashed in any way with the Mosaic theory of creation.

No aspect of Hitler's policy proclaims the antagonism between evolution and ethics so forcibly as his treatment of the Jewish people in Germany. So strong are the feelings roused that it is difficult for even science to approach the issues so raised with an unclouded judgment. Ethically the Hitlerian treatment of the Jews stands condemned out of hand. Hitler is cruel, but I do not think that his policy can be explained by attributing it to a mere satisfaction of a lust, or to a search for a scapegoat on which Germany can wreak her wrath for the ills which followed her defeat of 1918. The Church in Spain subjected the Jews to the cruelty of the Inquisition, but no one ever sought to explain the Church's behavior by suggesting that she had a

13.

lust for cruelty which had to be satisfied. The Church adopted the Inquisition as a policy; it was a means of securing unity of mind in her flock. Hitler is an uncompromising evolutionist, and we must seek for an evolutionary explanation if we are to understand his actions. When the Huguenots fled to Germany they mingled their "genes" with those of their host and disappeared as an entity. The Jews are made of other stuff: for two thousand years, living amid European communities, they have maintained their identity; it is an article of their creed, as it is of Hitler's, to breed true. They, too, practice an evolutionary doctrine. Is it possible for two peoples living within the same frontiers, dwelling side by side, to work out harmoniously their separate evolutionary destinies? Apparently Hitler believes this to be impossible; we in Britain and in America believe it to be not only possible, but also profitable.

It must not be thought that in seeking to explain Hitler's actions I am seeking to justify them. The opposite is the case. I have made this brief survey of public policy in modern Germany with a definite object: to show that Dr. Waddington is in error when he seeks to place ethics on a scientific basis by a knowledge of evolutionary tendencies and practice.

Chapter 4

Human Life: Its Purpose or Ultimate End

IN THE COURSE OF GATHERING INFORMATION concerning man's morality and the part it has played and is playing in his evolution, I found it necessary to provide space for slips which were labeled "Life: Its Ultimate and Proximate Purposes." Only those who have devoted some special attention to this matter are aware of the multitude of reasons given for the appearance of man on earth. Here I shall touch on only a few of them; to deal with all would require a big book. The reader may exclaim: Why deal with any of them! What has ultimate purpose got to do with ethics and evolution! Let a man with a clearer head and a nimbler pen than mine reply. He is Edward Carpenter, who wrote Civilization: Its Cause and Cure (1889).

14.

It is from the sixteenth edition (1923) I am to quote, p. 249:

If we have decided what the final purpose or Life of Man is, then we may say that what is good for that purpose is finally "good" and what is bad for that purpose is finally "evil."

If the final purpose of our existence is that which has been and is being worked out under the discipline of evolutionary law, then, although we are quite unconscious of the end result, we ought, as Dr. Waddington has urged, to help on "that which tends to promote the ultimate course of evolution." If we do so, then we have to abandon the hope of ever attaining a universal system of ethics; for, as we have just seen, the ways of national evolution, both in the past and in the present, are cruel, brutal, ruthless, and without mercy. Dr. Waddington has not grasped the implications of Nature's method of evolution, for in his summing up (Nature, 1941, 150, p. 535) he writes "that the ethical principles formulated by Christ . . . are those which have tended towards the further evolution of mankind, and that they will continue to do so." Here a question of the highest interest is raised: the relationship which exists between evolution and Christianity; so important, it seems to me, that I shall devote to it a separate chapter. Meantime let me say that the conclusion I have come to is this: the law of Christ is incompatible with the law of evolution as far as the law of evolution has worked hitherto. Nay, the two laws are at war with each other; the law of Christ can never prevail until the law of evolution is destroyed. Clearly the form of evolution which Dr. Waddington has in mind is not that which has hitherto prevailed; what he has in mind is a man made system of evolution. In brief, instead of seeking ethical guidance from evolution, he now proposes to impose a system of ethics on evolution and so bring humanity ultimately to a safe and final anchorage in a Christian haven.

45 posted on 01/23/2005 10:23:26 AM PST by judywillow
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: judywillow
The key point and highlight:

Here a question of the highest interest is raised: the relationship which exists between evolution and Christianity; so important, it seems to me, that I shall devote to it a separate chapter. Meantime let me say that the conclusion I have come to is this: the law of Christ is incompatible with the law of evolution as far as the law of evolution has worked hitherto. Nay, the two laws are at war with each other; the law of Christ can never prevail until the law of evolution is destroyed.

Remember that: the law of Christ can never prevail until the law of evolution is destroyed.

A man can no more be a Christian and believe in evolution than he can be a Christian and believe in naziism.

46 posted on 01/23/2005 10:26:21 AM PST by judywillow
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: judywillow

A woman who believes in paganism believes in magic.


47 posted on 01/23/2005 10:38:36 AM PST by shubi (Peace through superior firepower.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: judywillow

Social darwinism has nothing to do with biological science.


48 posted on 01/23/2005 10:39:46 AM PST by shubi (Peace through superior firepower.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: judywillow
Goebbels use the big lie of blaming Jews to promote Nazism the same way the creationist con men promote the big lie that science contradicts Christianity.
49 posted on 01/23/2005 10:45:05 AM PST by shubi (Peace through superior firepower.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: judywillow
Clearly the form of evolution which Dr. Waddington has in mind is not that which has hitherto prevailed; what he has in mind is a man made system of evolution.

Darn right what he says has absolutely nothing to do with evolutionary science! Which begs the question.. what was all that about?

In brief, instead of seeking ethical guidance from evolution,

Who seeks 'ethical' guidance from evolution? WHat does that even mean? Using the word 'evolve' does not presuppose biological evolution?!?! Science and ethics are completely seperate issues.

he now proposes to impose a system of ethics on evolution and so bring humanity ultimately to a safe and final anchorage in a Christian haven.

Uhhh, you mean like a christian version of iran? *cough* dark ages *cough*

Evolution is science, it cares nothing for ethics or democracy, it is interested only in defining our natural world. You can't falsify something scientific by pronouncing it is unethical!!!

Gravity is directly responsible for thousands of deaths each year, very unethical! When does the trial start? Down with gravity!
50 posted on 01/23/2005 10:46:59 AM PST by Alacarte (There is no knowledge that is not power)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: Outraged
What does moral relativity have to do with evolution?
51 posted on 01/23/2005 11:05:26 AM PST by curiosity
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Alacarte
The point is, an evolutionist has no rational or logical basis for morality. Then of course, people with certain kinds of, "proclivities", shall we say, don't have any real USE for morality either...


52 posted on 01/23/2005 11:06:42 AM PST by judywillow
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: rdb3
No, advocates of junk science are sneaky.

Most Christians accept both the Bible and the scientific FACT of evolution.

53 posted on 01/23/2005 11:09:30 AM PST by curiosity
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NutCrackerBoy
There is an underlying physical reality in which first there was no life, then there was life, and different plants and animals, including humans, appeared

Yes, but you neglect one thing: the first life forms were primitive and had little diversity. Initially, there was only bacteria and viruses. More complex life forms did not appear on earth for about a billion years after the first germs appeared.

54 posted on 01/23/2005 11:15:17 AM PST by curiosity
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: curiosity
Most Christians accept both the Bible and the scientific FACT of evolution.


Not this Christian.


55 posted on 01/23/2005 11:16:01 AM PST by rdb3 (The wife asked how I slept last night. I said, "How do I know? I was asleep!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: judywillow
Remember that: the law of Christ can never prevail until the law of evolution is destroyed.

Funny, I don't remember reading this in the Bible.

56 posted on 01/23/2005 11:16:39 AM PST by curiosity
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: shubi
That's because it would probably be proven to be an anomaly. But my point was if you could find a legimate human fossil in with dinos it would falsify.

See, I stated the situation correctly.

57 posted on 01/23/2005 12:00:24 PM PST by AndrewC (Darwinian logic -- It is just-so if it is just-so)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: Alacarte
According to your logic, sicne the theory of flight didn't warn them about it before hand, planes can't fly?

Please, show how my logic performs as you state.

58 posted on 01/23/2005 12:03:30 PM PST by AndrewC (Darwinian logic -- It is just-so if it is just-so)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: sauron

"Considering that Genesis wasn't written to be an explanation of how/why of everything,"

Who did write that..BTW?


59 posted on 01/23/2005 12:43:28 PM PST by Smartaleck
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: judywillow

"In fact they ARE mutually exclusive."

Not for everyone though. ;-)


60 posted on 01/23/2005 12:47:05 PM PST by Smartaleck
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 741-756 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson