Posted on 08/22/2006 2:04:20 PM PDT by js1138
ADL Blasts Christian Supremacist TV Special & Book Blaming Darwin For Hitler
New York, NY, August 22, 2006 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today blasted a television documentary produced by Christian broadcaster Dr. D. James Kennedy's Coral Ridge Ministries that attempts to link Charles Darwin's theory of evolution to Adolf Hitler and the atrocities of the Holocaust. ADL also denounced Coral Ridge Ministries for misleading Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute for the NIH, and wrongfully using him as part of its twisted documentary, "Darwin's Deadly Legacy."
After being contacted by the ADL about his name being used to promote Kennedy's project, Dr. Collins said he is "absolutely appalled by what Coral Ridge Ministries is doing. I had NO knowledge that Coral Ridge Ministries was planning a TV special on Darwin and Hitler, and I find the thesis of Dr. Kennedy's program utterly misguided and inflammatory," he told ADL.
ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman said in a statement:"This is an outrageous and shoddy attempt by D. James Kennedy to trivialize the horrors of the Holocaust. Hitler did not need Darwin to devise his heinous plan to exterminate the Jewish people. Trivializing the Holocaust comes from either ignorance at best or, at worst, a mendacious attempt to score political points in the culture war on the backs of six million Jewish victims and others who died at the hands of the Nazis.
"It must be remembered that D. James Kennedy is a leader among the distinct group of 'Christian Supremacists' who seek to "reclaim America for Christ" and turn the U.S. into a Christian nation guided by their strange notions of biblical law."
The documentary is scheduled to air this weekend along with the publication of an accompanying book "Evolution's Fatal Fruit: How Darwin's Tree of Life Brought Death to Millions."
A Coral Ridge Ministries press release promoting the documentary says the program "features 14 scholars, scientists, and authors who outline the grim consequences of Darwin's theory of evolution and show how his theory fueled Hitler's ovens."
Get out of here creep.
"I find the thesis of Dr. Kennedy's program utterly misguided and inflammatory"
A lol of huffing and puffing, but I note that Mr. Collins does not manage to squeeze the word "false" in, here. I'm also wondering how the ADL came to the conclusion that Darwin is somehow trivial?
>>>Christianity was not a foundation of Nazi ideology at all. The Nazi's thought Christianity was soft and they despised it's teachings. The Nazi's were a combination of Atheists and Pagans. Germany was well into it's post-Christian phase by the time the Nazi's came to power.<<<
In his book, "America's Real War", Rabbi Daniel Lapin (an Orthodox Jew), explains the anti-Christian ideology of Hitler (and the anti-God ideology of the left).
Because neither Darwin nor his theory had anything to do with Hitler--but the attempt is made to link them in order to advance a different agenda, and to do so by exploiting the real (but wholly unrelated) horrors of the holocaust.
It is not one jot different from liberals who claim that American conservatives, in opposing Roosevelt, were 'directly responsible for the murder of 6 million in the holocaust.'
Using a overwhelming human catastrophe like the holocaust in an attempt to score cheap publicity and advance an unrelated agenda is in fact far worse than 'trivializing.' It is obscene.
Communism and Nazism Questions and Answers
The following is long and detailed with references.
Darwinism and the Nazi race Holocaust
Part of the article is below.
Introduction
Of the many factors that produced the Nazi holocaust and World War II, one of the most important was Darwin’s notion that evolutionary progress occurs mainly as a result of the elimination of the weak in the struggle for survival. Although it is no easy task to assess the conflicting motives of Hitler and his supporters, Darwinism-inspired eugenics clearly played a critical role. Darwinism justified and encouraged the Nazi views on both race and war. If the Nazi party had fully embraced and consistently acted on the belief that all humans were descendants of Adam and Eve and equal before the creator God, as taught in both the Old Testament and New Testament Scriptures, the holocaust would never have occurred.
Expunging of the Judeo-Christian doctrine of the divine origin of humans from mainline German (liberal) theology and its schools, and replacing it with Darwinism, openly contributed to the acceptance of Social Darwinism that culminated in the tragedy of the holocaust.1 Darwin’s theory, as modified by Haeckel,2,3,4,5,6 Chamberlain7 and others, clearly contributed to the death of over nine million people in concentration camps, and about 40 million other humans in a war that cost about six trillion dollars. Furthermore, the primary reason that Nazism reached to the extent of the holocaust was the widespread acceptance of Social Darwinism by the scientific and academic community.1,8,9,10
The very heart of Darwinism is the belief that evolution proceeds by the differential survival of the fittest or superior individuals. This requires differences among a species, which in time become great enough so that those individuals that possess advantageous features—the fittest—are more apt to survive. Although the process of raciation may begin with slight differences, differential survival rates in time produce distinct races by a process called speciation, meaning the development of a new species.
The egalitarian ideal that ‘all people are created equal’, which now dominates Western ideology, has not been universal among nations and cultures.11 A major force that has argued against this view was the Social Darwinian eugenics movement, especially its crude ‘survival of the fittest’ worldview.10,12 As Ludmerer noted, the idea that the hereditary quality of the race can be improved by selective breeding is as old as Plato’s Republic but:
‘ … modern eugenics thought arose only in the nineteenth century. The emergence of interest in eugenics during that century had multiple roots. The most important was the theory of evolution, for Francis Galton’s ideas on eugenics—and it was he who created the term “eugenics”—were a direct logical outgrowth of the scientific doctrine elaborated by his cousin, Charles Darwin.’ 13
Nazi governmental policy was openly influenced by Darwinism, the Zeitgeist of both science and educated society of the time.10 This can be evaluated by an examination of extant documents, writings, and artefacts produced by Germany’s twentieth century Nazi movement and its many scientist supporters. Keith concluded the Nazi treatment of Jews and other ‘races’, then believed ‘inferior’, was largely a result of their belief that Darwinism provided profound insight that could be used to significantly improve humankind.14 Tenenbaum noted that the political philosophy of Germany was built on the belief that critical for evolutionary progress were:
‘ … struggle, selection, and survival of the fittest, all notions and observations arrived at … by Darwin … but already in luxuriant bud in the German social philosophy of the nineteenth century. … Thus developed the doctrine of Germany’s inherent right to rule the world on the basis of superior strength … [of a] “hammer and anvil” relationship between the Reich and the weaker nations.’ 14
"There is no question that Christianity had a powerful influence on Nazi thinking as well."
Oh, let's not forget "Scientific Socialism," while we're passing around the genocidal hot potato.
Thread overrun by disruptive zealots placemarker.
Well, he wasn't a 'real author', to quote certain goofballs.
In all seriousness, the credit should be given to Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles, whose theorizing provided the foundation for eugenics. In fact, early in the 20th century that concept was in vogue in the tonier circles--Nazi Germany pointed to the eugenics program in the United States as a justification for its own programs.
As a side note, a good read is the "Nazi Doctors". The Holocaust History project has his work online. This link is interesting:
Eugenics
I post this not as a 'guilt by association', but to point out that the mudslinging about 'who killed how many' is ridiculous.
Those who make the argument that the Holocaust was a consequence of Charles Darwin are implicitly rejecting the influence of centuries of Christian anti-semitism. They are, in my opinion, engaging in a mild form of Holocaust denial.
Welcome to Free Republic.
I'm not aware of any point in history where a cadre of biologists engaged in genocide. It seem like the norm under the banner of religion.
>>>I ... am surprised that the ADL and other Jewish organizations, are so paranoid about Christian fundamentalists, who usually support them, when it's the Muzzies that are working to exterminate them.<<<
The ADL is not a Jewish organization. It is a communist, anti-American, anti-Christian organization.
I wonder how "Social Darwinism" acquired such a negative connotation, if not for the Nazis?
Because the ADL, and its fellow travellers, know that the US to date is law abiding. So its safe to fling feces. One day, that could change.
Foxman and company remind me of the capos.
They don't want to admit there's any link b/c most secular Jews believe in Darwinism.
Just curious, do you deny the existence of a creator?
yes. particularly if the argument is grounded in non-fact and built of fallacy.
It seems indisputable that Hitler based his ideas on his understanding of Darwin. Whether Hitler understood Darwin correctly or not is another matter. It seems that these days, we need to re-invent Darwin in light of what we now know. We need to explain what Darwin MEANT.... or would have meant if he had the advantage of our hindsight.
As with Darwin, so Kant, Hegel, Rousseau, Freud, Marx, Alinsky and many others have produced various spinoff schools with different flavors of leftist heresy.
"You cannot lay Hitler at Darwin's feet without laying Jim Jones/Savonarola/David Koresh/the Conquistadors/molesting priests/Salem Witch Trials/the Inquisition/etc/etc/etc at Christ's."
Christian are saved by grace, repent of sin and obey the commands of Christ. True Christians show the true fruit of the spirit; love, peace, joy, gentilness, patience, selfcontrol. Your list of above groups denied Christ in word and/or deed continuously without repentence. There is a clear line between those who are Christians and those who say they are christians
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