Page 290 - The Social Weapon: Darwinism
P. 290
288
its guard against Darwinism and the deceptions of this scientific
forgery.
In alleging that human beings are no different from animals
in physical and biological terms, Darwinism also seeks to im-
pose the idea that human and animal behavior are no different
from one another. This lets undesirable characteristics and be-
havior, such as violence, aggression, and selfishness, ruthless
competition, rape and homosexuality, allegedly inherited from
man's animal ancestors, assume the status of "natural behavior"
for people. For instance, the evolutionist scientist Philip Jackson
Darlington writes:
The first point is that selfishness and violence are inherent in us,
inherited from our remotest animal ancestors. Violence is, then,
natural to man; a product of evolution. 172
All sorts of crimes are therefore seen as normal and justi-
fied, and it is even suggested that they should not be punished.
In Ever Since Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould says this view began
with the Italian expert on criminology professor Cesare
Lombroso:
Biological theories of criminality were scarcely new, but
Lombroso [Italian physician, Cesare Lombroso] gave the argu-
ment a novel, evolutionary twist. Born criminals are not simply
deranged or diseased; they are, literally, throwbacks to a previous
evolutionary stage. The hereditary characters of our primitive
and apish ancestors remain in our genetic repertoire. Some unfor-
tunate men are born with an unusually lage number of these an-
cestral characters. Their behavior may have been appropriate in
savage societies of the past; today, we brand it as criminal. We
may pity the born criminal, for he cannot help himself... 173
As is evident from the evolutionist Gould's description of
Lombroso's idea, the commission of crime is regarded as some-
thing beyond free will, a legacy from human beings' alleged an-
The Social Weapon: Darwinism