Page 99 - The Evolution Impasse 1
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was to speed up this evolutionary pro- noring fact that man is an entity created
cess. That meant that there was no scien- by God and that all human beings are
tific reason why these backward races created equal.
should not be eliminated right away! This was another factor that accele-
Darwin’s racist side revealed itself in rated the rise of racism and its worldwi-
several of his writings and analyses. For de acceptance. The American scientist
example, in 1871, in describing the nati- James Ferguson states that there is a di-
ve people of Tierra del Fuego that he had rect relation between the rejection of
seen during the course of his long voya- creation and the rise of racism:
ge on the Beagle, he made his racist pre- The new anthropology soon became a
conceptions perfectly clear. He depicted theoretical background between two op-
them as "wholly nude, submerged in posed schools of thought on the origin of
dyes, eating what they find just like wild humans. The older and more established
animals, uncontrolled, cruel to every- of these was 'monogenism,' the belief that
body out of their tribe, taking pleasure in all humankind, irrespective of colour and
torturing their enemies, offering bloody other characteristics, was directly des-
cended from Adam and from the single
sacrifices, killing their children, ill-trea-
and original act of God's creation. . . .
ting their wives, full of awkward supers-
[In the 18th century] opposition to the-
titions. 111
ological authority began to fuel the rival
Yet the researcher W. P. Snow, who
theory of 'polygenism,' (theory of evoluti-
had visited the same region ten years on) which held that different racial com-
earlier, described those same people as; munities had different origins. 114
… powerful looking, strong, fond of their The Indian anthropologist Lalita Vid-
children, having inventive handicrafts, bea-
yarthi describes how Darwin’s theory of
ring the notion of private ownership for so-
evolution imposed racism on the social
me goods and accepting the authority of sciences:
the elder women in the community. 112
His (Darwin’s) theory of the survival of
From these examples, it is clear that
the fittest was warmly welcomed by the
Darwin was a full-fledged racist. Indeed, social scientists of the day, and they be-
as Benjamin Farrington, author of the bo- lieved humanity had achieved various le-
ok What Darwin Really Said, puts it, Dar- vels of evolution culminating in the white
win made many comments about “the man’s civilization. By the second half of
evident nature of the inequality among the nineteenth century, racism was ac-
human races” in The Descent of cepted as fact by the vast majority of
Man. 113 Western scientists. 115
Moreover, Darwin’s theory denied Many Darwinists after Darwin set
the existence of God, leading to his ig- about trying to prove his racist opinions.
Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar)