[sitetest]

Another perspective on what Ben Stein was communicating in his recent effort. One should go to the original article on-line as well, and follow a couple of his links where the author further explicates how Hitler actually did draw on Darwin's work, and how Darwin, how shall we say? - provided the rhetorical "hooks" to get there.

[sitetest]

If this is a double-post, my apologies. I searched for the title but didn’t find it.

[mnehring]

How about, don’t blame anyone for Hitler but Hitler.

[allmendream]

Can anyone supply a single quote where any Nazi leader (extra credit for Hitler) ever mentioned the word “evolution” in the context of Biological evolution, or ever used evolutionary rhetoric to whip up Jew hatred?

I have posted this challenge numerous times and have yet to see a single example.

The quotes of Nazi leaders, and Hitler, talking about “avenging the blood upon the cross”, “doing the Lord's work”, “internationalist bankers”, “and mongrel races” are quite easy to find.

If we are talking about what motivated Nazi's to hate and kill Jews, is not the language that the leadership used upon the masses to whip up Jew hatred of primary importance? How could Evolution through natural selection possibly be a motivation for the Holocaust if it was never sold to the German people under that banner?

Hasn't there been enough historic revisionism about Hitler to gag a maggot? Must “cdesign proponentists” wallow in their lack of credibility by engaging in Historic revisionism as well as shoddy theology masquerading as Science?

[william clark]

How can you call yourself a religious Jew and still believe in such Fundamentalist Protestant Christian nonsense like Intelligent Design?"

Yes, because as we all know, Genesis was a revisionist text drafted by the apostle Paul.

[Guenevere]

Good mercy, some of you folks twist yourselves into pretzels about this movie.

Just go see it.

It's a well made, profound movie....fast paced.

The message is not convoluted....it's clear as a bell.

[dan1123]

How can you call yourself a religious Jew and still believe in such Fundamentalist Protestant Christian nonsense like Intelligent Design?

Wow, ID is Fundamentalist Protestant Christian. I guess that's why it's part of Calvinist doctrine, "TULIPID" right?

Galileo got in trouble from the elites for pointing the microscope at the sky, and now researchers like Behe get in trouble from the elites by applying information theory to microbiology. Just remember, tools are domain specific. You can't go out and just use them on anything or it might rattle some elitist cage.

[steve-b]

Expelled doesn't equate Darwinism and Hitler.

No reason to read past the first blatant lie.

[Soliton]

Hitler never mentioned Darwin, but he mentioned Christianity and Catholocism frequently as sources of his beliefs.

[steve-b]

Yet when Hitler successfully sold his ideology of hate to the German people in his bestselling tract Mein Kampf, he phrased his argument not in Christian terms

[ex-snook]

" Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, director of interfaith affairs wrote: "The anti-Judaism that begins in the New Testament was transformed through the admixture of political, economic and sociological prejudice into the anti-Semitism of modernity. This reached its ugly and inhuman nadir during World War II with Hitler's Final Solution for the Jewish people." "

I wonder if he read the NT account of Stephen.

[goldstategop]

The point is Nazism was post-Christian. It was the first post-modern ideology that drew upon the central scientific theory of the 19th century for its legitimation. Changing the subject does not in anyway refute the Darwinian inspiration behind Nazi thought. After all, Hitler made the argument that human nature should be driven not by morality or by religious scruples but by the iron law of Nature: the survival of the fittest. There was and is nothing Christian about Nazi dogma.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[SeeSharp]

One big source of Nazi hatred for the Jews which never seems to get mentioned is that the Nazi’s were anti-capitalist.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

The NAZI’s made regular use of Newton's Laws of Motion and his calculus to figure rocket and artillery trajectories, machine design, and military and concentration camp structurctures. They owe more debt to Newton than Darwin. Are we now supposed to equate Newton with NAZI’s? ID’ers are simply nuts.

[fkabuckeyesrule]

Now of course we learned from the liberals during the Michael Moore 911 documentary that one should not judge or criticize a documentary without first seeing it. So I look forward to liberals applying that same standard to Expelled. We also know coutesy of the Jerimiah Wright school of thought that unless someone has seen an entire DVD one does not haave to right to comment on it...unless of course your taking the liberal side.

[VOA]

"Don't Blame Darwinism for Hitler! Blame Christianity!"

I'll go as far as to say we could blame some Germans that worked
under the Christian banner as helping out Hitler.
My general understanding is that many Protestant clergy-men went along
with Hitler's program, either for matters of personal safety and/or
career enhancement.

Conversely, some German Christians kept up the good fight and
paid the price, e.g., Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

[MGBGUN]

It takes far more faith to believe in the theory of evolution that it does to believe in intelligent design.
There, I said my piece. I can leave this thread.

[Ragnell]

The Missing Theory Link Between Darwinism and Nazism is a theory called Social Darwinism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_darwinism

A typical European History course includes readings and discussion on the connection between the theory of Darwinism and Herbert Spensor’s theory of Social Darwinism; published in the 19th-century. The Eugenics movement was also inspired by Darwinism.

Social Darwinism is described in text books as an idea incorporated into Europe’s 19th-century claim to racial superiority and the right to colonize much of the world.

Note that not only Germans but much of Western Europe promoted the idea of racial superiority in relation to Africa, Asia and so forth. So, this concept was ALREADY embedded in German culture BEFORE Nazism. Nevertheless, the Nazis definitely absorbed this cultural myth, and promoted this belief as part of their Aryan superman myth. In other words, they were able to capitalize on an existing belief.

Does that mean that Hitler was inspired by Darwin? That depends on whether you think that Darwin is responsible for Spensor’s twist on his theory, and any other applications of the natural selection theory.

My main point is that this argument is an ongoing legitimate discussion in history departments. Why else would it be addressed in major textbooks? I’ve never heard it connected to some form of anti-semitism but rather to “European jingoism”. If historians trash anyone for racism or the Holocaust; it’s the Europeans. (blame the white guys, right?)
rags

I also have some university links on Spensor if you want to read something other than wikipedia.

[avenir]

Science is a lesser thing than Faith, but it brags alot.

[avenir]

Science is a lesser thing than Faith, but it brags alot.

[rosenfan]

Rather than blame Darwinism or Christianity for Hitler, why don’t we blame Hitler for Hitler?