Page 86 - Paradise: The Believers' Real Home

84 PARADISE

Here, we shall consider the relationship between

Darwinism and materialist philosophy. Materialist philosophy,
or "materialism," is a system of thought going as far back as an-
cient Greece. Materialism rests on the assumption that matter
is the only thing that exists. According to materialist philoso-
phy, matter has always existed, and will continue to do so for
all time. Again according to this philosophy, nothing exists be-
yond matter.
Naturally, materialism is also reflected in the political
arena, with communism indisputably taking pride of place in
this regard. Karl Marx (1818-83) and Friedrich Engels (1820-
95), regarded as the founders of communism, were also the
founders of dialectical materialism. In any case, communism is
nothing more than materialist philosophy adapted to the so-
cial sciences by Marx and Engels.
Communism is today regarded as an ideology consigned to
the wastes of history, whereas the fact is that it is still exceed-
ingly influential. The destructive effects of this ideology can
still be felt in many countries.

This is where Darwinism assumes great importance. Since
Darwinism, or the theory of evolution, maintains that living
things were not created but came into being by chance, it has
received a wide acceptance among materialist ideologies, and
has been adopted as the "basic foundation" of communism in
particular. All the main communist ideologues have accepted
the theory word for word, and have based their ideologies
upon it.
In a letter to Friedrich Engels in 1860, for instance, Karl