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====[ The Christian B.B.S. Answer Conference ]==========[ Bulletin 24 ]====
THE EVOLUTION OF A MONSTER!
Adolf Hitler and Eugenics
BY ED GARRETT, B.S.
This article is taken from the magazine:
CREATION
EX NIHILO
SEPTEMBER, 1986
When Darwin proposed his theory of evolution, it was hailed by many as
the end of any scientific justification for the existence of a Creator God.
Science was now freed from having to conform to `outdated' Biblical ideas.
In the resulting vacuum of religious authority, men such as Darwin's
agnostic cousin, Francis Galton, founded a new religion based on the idea
of improving the human race according to the theory of evolution. In 1883,
Galton called this improved-race idea `eugenics.'
A group arose called the `Social Darwinists', and taking their clue
from evolutionary theory they divided humanity into the `fit' and the
`unfit'. Eugenics was seen as a way of making sure that the `fit' had
children and the `unfit' did not. Books on eugenics were written by
scientists which argued that the most humane method of preventing
reproduction of the unworthy was a `gentle, painless death.' It was
claimed `where the life of the state is threatened [by the presence of
mental defectives] extreme measures may and must be taken.'
In Germany, the leaders of the eugenics movement, using evolution as
their justification, caused sterilization laws and immigration restriction
laws to be enacted during the 1930's. Immigration should be limited, they
said, owing to the `biological inferiority' of people from southern and
eastern Europe. The racism of such leaders was founded on evolution, and
the German people were being prepared to regard themselves as the superior
race.
Many scientists came to see the promotion of eugenic programs as almost
a religious duty imposed by the theory of evolution. Leading eugenics'
became Nazi officials, and the eugenics movement in Germany became totally
interwoven into the Nazi system. Eugenics became the scientific
justification for Hitler's extermination program.
Many scientists had seen the dangers. In 1916, Franz Boas, Margaret
Mead's trusted counselor, had issued a condemnation of eugenics in the
November issue to The Scientific Monthly. This began a split in the
biological science community, with Boas as the leader of the group that
believed that social stimulus was much more of a determining factor than
genetic inheritance. He warned that the idea of eliminating the unfit was
not a panacea that would cure human ills. but a dangerous sword which might
well turn against those who relied on its strength.
In the 1920's, Ironically, eugenics as applied to humans was found to
be incorrect owing to a misunderstanding of Mendel's laws of heredity.
Humans were more complex than the peas which were the basis of Mendel's
experiments. Apparently, however, many eugenics' had made a religious
commitment to the movement sufficient to continue expansion of eugenic
ideas. Statements were still being made in 1940 by top American scientists
about the `inexcusable process of allowing the feeble-minded to reproduce
their kind.'
Modern-day apologists for evolution might say that eugenics was a
perversion of evolution. But the fact remains that this `perversion'
became very popular. It could become popular primarily because evolution
had seemed to do away with the need for a sovereign Creator with absolute
moral laws. And the `good' evolutionists had no right to say that the
`bad' eugenics were wrong, since change - not moral law - was the only
constant. There was no foundation on which to base their argument for the
immorality of `eugenic selection' - that is, sterilizing or removing those
judged to be unfit - except their own intuition. However, they could not
expect the eugenics to yield to intuition.
SUPER-RACE
After the world had seen what Hitler was actually doing, and the
lengths to which he was taking his `super-race' idea, the history of
eugenics was promptly forgotten. For instance, a 1971 book on genetic
improvement titled The Heredity Factor did not mention the word `eugenics.'
A history of genetics given in the book, beginning with Darwin, gave no
hint of the existence of anything called `eugenics', although it gave a
glowing review of the contribution of Francis Galton to genetics. The
popular encyclopedia, World Book, had and article under the heading
`eugenics' in the 1955 edition which explained how eugenics led to Hitler.
In the 1983 edition, all reference to Hitler had been deleted.
Hitler did not form his ideas in a mysterious vacuum, which is the
impression that history books give us. He was instructed by the IDEA
called `eugenics,' which was derived from the so-called `fact' of evolution
by a cousin of the originator of the scientific respectability of
evolution.
As much as they wish that the general public would forget all about
eugenics, evolutionists must accept the fact that their favorite idea,
`the fact of evolution,' was the basis for eugenics, which led directly to
Hitler's death camps. The idea of an evolutionary theory, which Darwin
timidly proposed, was seized upon by many men of great intellect and forced
on the scientific world as fact. The motivation of those men should be
clear - by excluding God and accepting themselves as members of the
evolutionary superior species, they decided they could be as God.
Media analysts sometimes use Hitler to give warnings of the dangers of
religious zeal. It is interesting that the `religious zeal' that really
contributed to the rise of Hitler - zeal for evolution as fact - is never
associated with him.
Hitler's case teaches us the danger of denying the existence of a
sovereign Creator, who judges disobedience to His law. To be sure, Hitler
believed in gods, but not the Creator God of the Bible. Even so, the basis
for his actions had been laid down before by those men of great intellect
who so eagerly promoted the idea of eugenics which had no real place for
any religion except secular humanism.
Geneticists and others in the scientific community are quite aware of
the history of eugenics, but somehow it never gets into print, especially
with the logical connection of evolution with eugenics, and eugenics with
Hitler. These men are knowingly forgetting history and dooming themselves
to repeat it.
<< End of Text >>
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