Darwin, Hitler, and the Culture of Death

LifeSiteNews ^ | 5/6/08 | Michael Baggot

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

It's hard to say why the communist government found Lysenko's ideas so appealing

Perhaps for the same reasons that Haldane found Lysenko so appealing. He was a shill for Lysenko, you know. Haldane, Darwin Medalist and co-founder of the Modern Synthesis.

Marx said that everything about a human being is determined by his social class. Therefore, it was unwise to talk too much about chromosomes in Lysenko's time.

If you spend a lot of time running and develop strong leg muscles and lungs, then Lamarck thought that your baby would inherit these traits developed during your lifetime. This idea was in direct opposition to Darwin's theory of evolution

I'm sorry but that's complete nonsense, as Darwin was not opposed to this notion at all. Darwin was a "lamarckian" in this sense whenever it suited him to be so. It was Lamarck's other idea, entelechy or whatever he called it, that Darwin didn't like.

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

“BTW, the Soviets arrested people and worse for teaching Darwinism.” You have some examples of this?

Of course it isn't true. One of the most "eminent" darwinians, Haldane, Darwin Medalist and co-founder of the Modern Synthesis, was a shill for Lysenko. It's kind of hard to reconcile the fact that the architect of the modern theory of evolution was a useful idiot for Stalin, with the notion that the Soviets were anti-Darwinian. In fact Haldane mentions (Science Advances) that Vavilov (the guy who ended up in the Gulag) was alledged to have had anti-Darwinian views.

[count-your-change]

Thanks for backgrounder.