Re: Capuchin's show sense of justice/fair play

From: Robert Schneider (rjschn39@bellsouth.net)
Date: Mon Sep 22 2003 - 08:24:23 EDT

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    Richard writes:

    >
    > Implications are all important.
    >
    > Genocide is just an example, an implication, of your proposed evolutionary
    > development of morality. Why should some groups not destroy others if it's
    good
    > for their evolutionary advancement - survival is the game in this scheme.
    Nazis
    > used this kind of reasoning to excuse their immorality.
    >

    Bob's comment:

    The arguments used by German generals in WWI that evolution shows the
    superiority of the white (i.e., Germanic) race and justifies declaring war
    on inferior races is a perversion of a perservion. It had nothing to do
    with Darwin's theory and was a taking of Social Darwinism, for which Darwin
    was not responsible, far beyond what I believe Herbert Spencer would have
    countenanced. Whatever arguments the Nazis might have used based on this
    false concept, they did not base it on the science of evolution. Let us be
    clear that the Nazi hatred of the Jews was based on 2000 years of
    anti-Semitism, to which, sadly, Christianity contributed a great deal. To
    lay the blame on belief in evolution is to greatly distort the situation. A
    scientific theory is not responsible for the misunderstandings and
    perversions that people subject it to.

        I doubt very much that the thugs under Pol Pot who committed genocide
    against their own people in Cambodia during the 70s, or the Serbian thugs
    who massacred thousands of Bosnian Muslims and Croats in the 90s , murderers
    who were rural people of limited education, had the faintest idea of what
    evolution is, if they were even introduced to the term.

    I have heard this canard expressed frequently in recent years. After the
    Columbine massacre, Rep. Tom DeLay stood on the floor of the House, and
    without a shred of evidence to support him, accused the teaching of
    evolution for motivating the two students to commit this massacre. People
    who make such charges have an obligation to provide evidence to back up
    their claims. Otherwise they should avoid making such irresponsible
    accusations.

    Bob Schneider

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