DARKSIDE OF DARWINISM

The Origin of Darwinism :From Theory to Scientifuc Dogma

Darwinism is "the biological theory of Charles Darwin concerning the evolution of species.etc., setforth esp. in 'The Origin of Species..."(1859) and 'The Descent of Man...'(1871)".(Oxford International Dictionaryof the English Language, 1957: 454). Darwinism today is synonymous with evolutionism.

From a scientific theory , evolutionism metamorphized into a scientific dogma akin to religion:
The religious believer believes in an intelligent Creator while the evolutionist believes in evolution as the origin of life ;the believer in a revealer of truth like prophets (Moses,Jesus ,Mohammed etc.) while the evolutionist on Charles Darwin, and his commentarors like Thomas Huxley ,Richard Dawkins etc.; the believer have sacred texts as basis of his beliefs;
The TaNakh and Talmud(Judaism), The Holy Bible (Christianity) , The Holy Quran (Islam) etc,:

If the believers quoted their scriptures ,the evolutionist quoted Darwin's " Origin" ; just look at the pages of Richard Dawkins "The GOD Dellusion" , we haver a clear example of a FUNDAMENTALIST ATHEISTIC DOGMATIC SCIENTISM in action.

Darwinist Dawkins, Harris et al,. accused religious believers of intolerance that they can't stand the presence of other different belief systems ( calling it heretical) ;but Dawkins call believers as suffering from "dellusion", reminds us of atheistic socialists utopias of modern times putting their political and religious dissidents in mental institiutions and gulags /concentration camps ,an example of atheistic "tolerance".

The Development of the Theory of Evolution

Evolution is not a modern concept,it dated back to antiquity. The Greek philosopher Anaximander (ca. 610-545 B.C ) "contibuted a theoryof evolution strikingly close to Darwinian hypothesis, for he attributed organic life to the action of fluid in drying up sufficiently to form fish-like creatures which developed into animals through a process of adopting themselves to life on land.The human species was the end result of this process of adoption."( Sahakian.1968 :3)

The idea of unbounded human progress to an ultimate perfection, expounded by the thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment was in the air during England's Victorian Age. Pierre-Louis de Maupertuis( 'Systeme de la nature ',1751) "proposed the spontaneous generation and extinction of organisms as part of his theory of origin,but he advanced no theory of evolution. Jean Bpatiste de Monet,Chevalier de Lamarck (1778),"recognized the role of isolation in species formation...concieved the idea of the evolutionary tree and the idea that acquired traits are inheritable". Charles Darwin's grandfather Erasmus "offered in his 'Zoomania or The Laws of Organic Life (1794-6) some evolutionary speculations.concluding that species descended from common ancestors and that there is struggle for existence among animals , but they were not further developed and no real influence on subsequent theories ."( ?!---D) ...The complete Theory of evolution was not announced until the publication in 1859 of Charles Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species...."( The Britanica Guide... 2008 : 78-81;89-92)

CHARLES DARWIN:THE FATHER OF "SCIENTIFIC" EVOLUTIONISM

Charles Robert Darwin was born on February 12 ,1809 . He was the second of six siblings of Dr.Robert Waring Darwin, a successful physician and Susannah Wedgewood,the daughter of Josiah Wedgewood , a well known pottery manufacturer.

Charles' grandfather ,Erasmus Darwin, was an intellectual, poet,physician and naturalist. he wrote a long poem"The Botanic Garden ",which brought out his interests in poetry and the science of Botany".he wrote "Zoomania:The Laws of Organic Life" which he intended principally to be a medical textbook. In this last mentioned book, he propounded a developmental theory which later on provided the germinal idea to be expounded and to be developed by his grandson Charles,to be known in the scientific world as the Theory of Evolution.(Brent 1981 :14)


The Making of a Naturalist

Since his early age, while he studied at a day school in Shrewsbury(1817) ,Darwin's "taste for natural history,and more specially for collecting,was well developed".He "very fond of collecting (birds---D) eggs"...and "a strong taste of angling".

In 1818 at Dr.Butler's school , Darwin recieved a strictly classical education. There He gained "a strong taste for long solitary walk" and "verse making,and this I could never do well."
He was fond of reading books:Homer,Vergil,Horace,Euclid,Shakespeare, Byron annd Scott.
He spent his spare times collecting minerals, shooting and watching birds.

In 1825 to 1827 Darwin studied Medicine at the University of Edinburg considered then as "amongst the powerful and intellectual centres of Europe".There he "enjoyed his self selected studies ' by attending lectures in Medicine ,Chemistry, Law,Literature and Philosophy. Hs experiences in the operating theatre-witnessing the agony of patients before the days of the chroloform and the bloody operations performed,made his abandoned a future medical career.
( Brent 1981 : 35-37)

In 1828 to 1831 He studied at Cambridge University.Darwin wrote:"I did not like the thought of being a physician. so he (Darwin's father---D)proposed that I should become a clergyman."
(p.17)

Darwin took a private tutor to brush up his classics and read Paley's books:
"Evidences of Christianity","Moral Philosophy" and "Natural
Theology" to pass his Bachelor of Arts .(F.Darwin :18)

At Cambridge, Darwin attended Prof. John S.Henslow"s lectures on Botany(see pp. 19,20-22) .c
collected beetles,and read von Humbolt's "Personal Marrative" and Sir J. Herschel'Introduction to the Study of Natural Philosophy."(pp.18,23)

The Naturalist of H.M.S Beagle

Through the suggestion of Professor John S.Wenslow and through the recommendation of Lord Londonderry ,Darwin was accepted as the volunteer naturalist of the H.M Beagle (Dec.12,1831- Oct.2 ,1836) on its survey voyage that it would under take "to Tierra del Fuego and returning to England by way of South Sea Islands and the Indian archipelagos." ( L.Engle , "Darwin and the Beagle ",in Darwin.1962: x ;F.Darwin 25-30 ).

From his diaries and notebooks containing his observations, Darwin wrote the book now known as the "Voyage of the Beagle" published in 1839 and a new edition was published in 1845 and the "main product of Darwin's voyage ,was of course the theory of evolution " which he expounded in his major work"The Origin if Species".

"THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES": THE "SACRED TEXT " OF DARWINISM

On Nov.1859 , Darwin's " The Origin of the Species By means of Natural Selection of the
Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life",published :"The first small edition of 1250 copies was sold on the day of publication". ( F.Darwin P.41)

Stephen Cook ( 1990: 32) summarized the essence of Darwin's Theory of Evolution as expounded by Darwin's 2oth century desciple, the biologist Julian Huxley:

"FACT #1 -As Thomas Robert Malthus noted in his1798 'Essay on Population,plant and animal populations tend to increase in geometric manner-- 1,2,4,8,16.32rather than in an arithmetic matter--1,2,3,4,5.

FACT#2- Population of particular species are observed to remain more or less constant over long periods of time.

On the bass of these two facts one can deduce the following:

DEDUCTION # 1 - There must be a struggle for existence since not all members of a species that are produced can survive to become reproducing adults.

Combining this with another observation,

FACT # 3 -Every species of plants annd animals tend to show variations among the individual members,

one can conclude,

DEDUCTION # 2-In the struggle for existence, trhose individuals possessing advantageous adoptins or characteristics win out in a 'survival of the fittest'.They thus leave behind more offspring than less favored individuals.

In this way , Darwin postulated ,plants and animals gradually evolved with better adopted ,more complex organisms slowly replacing simpler organisms as time passed. "

Sounds like a harmless theory on the origin of life , but a contemporary of Darwin warned the naturalist about the dangers that evolution will bring in the future.



A PROPHETIC LETTER:

One of those who recieved a copy of "The Origin of Species" from Darwin is Adam Sedwick.
On Nov.24,18, Adam Sedwick wrote a letter of thanks to Darwin where he expressed his fear on the detrimental future effect Darwin's book:

"You writeof 'natural selection 'as if it were done consciously by the selecting agent.Tis but a consequence of the pre-supposed development,and the subsequent battle for life. This view of nature you have stated admirably,though admitted by all naturalistsand denied by no one with common-sense.We all admit development as a fact of history:but how it came it abot?Here,inlanguage,and still more inlogic,we are point-blank in issue.There is moral or metaphysical part of nature as well as physical...A man who denies this is deep in the mire of folly.tis the
crown and glory of organic science that it does,tho' final cause,link material with moral... You have ignored the link...humanity,in my mind,would suffer a damage that might brutalize it,and sink the human race into a lower grade of degregation (not higher level of evolution---D) than any into which it has fallen since its written records tell us of its history". ( see full letter in F.Darwin 1902/1995 :216-217 ; quoted by Weikart 2004: 1)


DARWIN OPENED PANDORA' S BOX

The Birth of "Social Darwinism"

After Darwin's death on April 19,1892, his "concept of evolution was applied to the historical development of human societies which lays particular emphasis on the 'struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest'. this mixture of social science and Darwinism gave birth to Social Darwinism. ( Bullock and Stallybrass.eds. 1977: 578-579 )


1907-1913
HITLER DISCOVERED DARWINISM IN VIENA:


Joachim C.Fest ,Hitler's foremost German biographer(1974: 55-58),wrote:"His experiences and circumstances during this phase of his life helped Hitler arrived at that philosophy of struggle that became the central core of his view of the world, its 'granite foundation', as he stressed,which he had no need of ever again changing...(He) professed is belief in brutal struggle,in harshness,destruction,the rights of the stronger - as he did in countless speeches and discussions,in the pages of his book (Mein Kampf---D),and in his table talk at the Fuehrer's headquarters during the war... "

( Hitler 's Social Darwinism reflected the "tendency of the age" where lived):

"Nevertheless, the component of Social Darwinism in Hitler's thought can not be attributed solely to his personal experiences in the home for men (and the "school for meaness in Viena"--D).He was really reflecting the tendency of the age. Science had becamethe one and only unchalleged authority.As the laws of evolution and selection put forth by Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer were popularized in numerous pseudoscientific publications,the average man soon came to know that the "struggle for existence" was the fundamental principle of life,the 'survival for the fittest" the basic law governingthe societal conductof individuals and nations...
( Fest 1974 :55-56)

Social Darwinist writers were popolarized by lesser journalist and advocated racial program that was implimented in Hitler's Third Reich :

"The initial concept what was that was just a in untrammeled nature,social process,and the destinies of nations are determined by biological premises. Only on a rigorous process of selection,involving both extermination and deliberate breeding can prevent faulty lines of evolution and assure one nation's superiority over others.Writers like Vacher de Lapouge,* Madison Grant**,Ludwig Gunplowicz ***and Otto Amman**** took up the theme that were popularized in turn by lesser journalists. They had already hit on the whole sinister program:the annihilation of unworthy organisms,the technique of deliberate population policy,the forcible institutionalization and stirilization of the unfit,the determination of genetic supremacy by the size of the head,the shape of the ears or the length of the nose."(Fest 1974:57)