Re: Racism and YEC (WAS:Four items of possible controversy)

From: Denyse O'Leary (oleary@sympatico.ca)
Date: Tue Nov 18 2003 - 14:55:08 EST

  • Next message: Ted Davis: "Re: Racism and YEC (WAS:Four items of possible controversy)"

      Good points, Ted!

    It's also worth keeping in mind that
    evolution-based racism has been vastly more
    important historically than creation-based racism.

    Specifically, the social elite who make policy
    and law were far more influenced by Social
    Darwinism than by Henry Morris.

    Also, it seems to me that most Darwinists have
    never entirely repudiated Social Darwinism
    (rebranded as sociobiology or evolutionary
    psychology). They cannot in fact do so, because
    they need Darwinism to be a biological Theory of
    Everything.

    That puts them in a worse position than the
    creationists are.

    The creationists lose nothing by repudiating
    Henry Morris's views on race.

    By contrast, to repudiate sociobiology requires
    the Darwinist to set objective limits on what
    Darwinism can explain.

    In my view, Social Darwinism is the hidden
    factor explaining widespread rejection of
    Darwinism.

    Most people do not care whether Feathers for T.
    Rex is Jurassic Park: The Prequel! or just
    another load of horsefeathers. But they do care
    about things that concern themselves.

    cheers,

    Denyse

    Denyse

    Ted Davis wrote:
    > Actually, ted isn't trying to be irenic, as much as he is trying to be
    > accurate about what current creationists are teaching. Morris is certainly
    > still a major influence, but when the typical Christian goes to a
    > creationist website, it's likely to be answersingenesis, and when a church
    > invites a creationist speaker, it's much more likely to be Ken Ham than
    > Henry Morris here in 2003.
    >
    > I don't have any disagreements with what Michael writes, nor do I disagree
    > with the anger he expresses toward such views. But I would add, that I
    > could multiply his examples of YEC teachings on race with examples taken
    > from liberal Protestants and secular evolutionists of the late 19th and
    > early 20th centuries. It was almost entirely liberal Protestants, not
    > fundamentalists, who embraced eugenics (for example). I'll have some lovely
    > examples of this kind of virulence in my book, whenever I finally finish it.
    >
    >
    > One doesn't need to look far to locate racists--they've grown on many
    > varities of trees, ancient, modern, and otherwise.
    >
    > ted
    >
    >

    -- 
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    Denyse O'Leary 14 Latimer Avenue Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5N 2L8 Tel: 416 485-2392/Fax: 416 485-9665 oleary@sympatico.ca www.denyseoleary.com



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