In this multi-part study of Darwin’s natural selection what have we learned so far? First, Charles Darwin wanted to find a way to explain organic (animal and plant) adaptation that was natural and driven by external factors. He wanted to do this primarily because his Unitarian worldview did not allow him to trust that God could or would do it. Convinced that Lyell’s concept of deep time was true, Darwin decided that Nature (with a capital ‘N’) could have the power needed over much time to slowly cause this adaptation in organisms. Thus he was able to begin to form in his mind the rudimentary parts of his theory of natural selection even though he knew there were great difficulties with the idea, one being the total lack of transitions in the fossils.
Second, combining his experience with breeding (especially) pigeons with the ideas about population growth advanced by Malthus, Darwin developed his “metaphor” that Nature could act as human breeders do to select. We learned that this metaphor required a blind, deaf, and brainless Nature to be able to think and act just like human breeders. Wallace’s “Survival of the Fittest” and the concept of an ongoing “struggle’ of all of life rounded out his thinking to the point where in 1859 he was confident he had a viable theory and was able to print the first edition of his book, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
In Part 9 of this series on natural selection we will look at Darwin’s application of his natural selection theory to humans. The primary book that he wrote on the subject was published in 1874 and had the title, The Descent of Man. He was joined by hordes of elitists who began pushing the idea of superior and inferior human races being the result of natural selection. By the start of the 20th century academia was vigorously promoting the idea that evolutionary process (struggle) had made mankind come to a place of evolutionary advancement over other lifeforms. As time moved on the idea that man should act similarly to Nature to select regarding his own breeding became very popular. This new “science” was given the name “Eugenics.” Notice how ironic it is that the idea of breeding selection was first noticed by human breeders as applied to animals and plants, personified in Nature by Darwin, and then retooled by men to apply to themselves (eventually mostly to those other than themselves).
Here is a quote from a renowned biostatistician from 1927 that expresses the points I just made: “That is, I think, the ever-present fear which the scientific mind recognizes: civilized man has largely destroyed crude Natural Selection…In my own mind and in a growing number of other minds…[civilization will end] unless civilization can find a method of doing itself what Natural Selection did for man during his ascent—insuring that he shall breed only from his best. The study of how it is possible forms the subject matter of what we now term the Science of Eugenics. We have to replace the ruthless action of Natural Selection by reasoned conduct in civilized man.” [Pearson, Karl, “The Right of the Unborn Child,” Eugenics Laboratory Lecture Series, 1927.]
Notice in the title of Pearson’s talk that at the outset not only were these people promoting the idea of birth control, but also sterilization and abortion. There were many well-known names in Europe and America who prior to WWII promoted Eugenics in addition to Darwin. Some that come to mind are Darwin’s cousin Francis Galton and German evolutionary scientist Ernst Haeckel. In America such notables as President Woodrow Wilson, the Rockefeller Foundation, Margaret Sanger (Planned Parenthood), and influential Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes were promoters of Eugenics.
In my study of the John Day Fossil Beds that I published in 2013, [Discovering the Animals of Ancient Oregon., Pages 48-53.], I discuss how eugenics had even infected the Pacific Northwest by the early 1900s. John Day fossil expert and evolutionist John C. Merriam was deeply into eugenics, mainly with regard to the idea that people should not have too many kids and that they should be very careful to mate only with “good stock.” Merriam had been influenced by Charles B. Davenport (1866-1944) a member of the Galton Society, a group that had been formed to promote eugenics throughout Western society. Davenport’s emphasis was first that the elites should take care to only mate with other elites, but the eugenics idea was quickly and disastrously expanded to everyone.
“Almost every high school student knows that one of Hitler’s primary goals was producing a superior race based on the Darwinian idea of ever-advancing progression of life, upward from molecules to humans, caused by natural selection.” [Bergman, Jerry, Hitler and the Nazi Darwinian Worldview, Joshua Press, 2012, Page 01.]
While secular society is slow to admit the fact, Adolph Hitler was greatly influenced and guided by Darwin’s ideas in The Descent of Man where “the present variety of species was [explained] as the result of a process of natural selection. The struggle for existence allows only the best-adapted individuals to survive and reproduce, while the others are ‘culled out.’ In the biologistic worldview of National Socialism, the Theory of Descent became the model for human society, peoples, and races as well. Fantasies of master races and theories of racial value have their origins here.” [Zentner and Bedurftig, editors, The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, Page 192.]
Jerry Bergman summarizes his in-depth study of the subject this way: “In formulating his racial ideas, Hitler relied heavily on Darwinism, especially the elaborations by Darwin’s German disciples such as Professors Fritz Lenz and Ernst Haeckel. The ‘superior race’ belief was based on the theory of racial inequality within each species, a major presumption and requirement of Darwin’s original ‘survival of the fittest’ theory.” [Bergman, ibid, Page 37.]
So the Darwin-to-Hitler connection is clear. The Nazis quickly expanded their sterilizations to more and more of the ‘unfit’ and then moved on to the final solution, the murder of millions of Jews and others throughout and until the end of WWII. Eugenics was also strongly promoted in America during all this time. At the end of the war with the uncovering of the terrible deeds of Hitler and his followers, most proponents of eugenics slunk into the shadows, only to reappear in the 21st century as brazen as ever. The idea that abortion was a good societal benefit never did really die out, and was made immensely more acceptable in America due to the work of Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood. Today abortion is touted as essential to women’s healthcare with no concern for the health of millions of aborted babies.
With the passing of each year scientific evidence amasses that there is only one race—the human race. This conclusion also precisely matches God’s Word that tells us we are all descendants of Adam (Acts 17: 26). Yet this is not politically correct here in America as politicians work overtime to force people into warring “superior” and “inferior” groups to the advantage of only the politicians. In the meantime, Darwin’s racial ideas continue to be taught in schools and universities throughout America. So I end this Part 9 on natural selection having shown, I think, that natural selection was dead at its inception and continues to be just another worthless figment of the imaginations of men. In the final Part 10 of this series we will look at new scientific research that seems to explain adaptability in life in a way that matches God’s Word. Not only that, but it is an internally driven mechanism unlike Darwin’s dead external mechanism. This creationist-developed hypothesis has the name Continuous Environmental Tracking.
J.D. Mitchell
From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. (Acts 17:26 NIV.)
