Page 566 - Atlas of Creation Volume 3

SOCIAL DARWINISM

acial inequality, and ethnic discrimination, unfair competition, the oppression of the poor, the

exploitation of the weak by the strong, and the idea that might is right, are evils that societies
R have experienced throughout history. Thousands of years ago, for example, at the time of
Prophet Moses (pbuh), Pharaoh regarded himself as superior to everyone else on account of his wealth
and powerful army. He rejected Prophets Moses and Aaron (peace be upon them) and even sought to

kill them, though they were clearly speaking the truth. Pharaoh also implemented discriminatory poli-
cies, divided his people into classes, describing some as "inferior," inflicted numerous tortures on the
Israelites under his rule, killed their men aiming to bring their race to extinction. The Qur'an describes
Pharaoh's perversions:

Pharaoh exalted himself arrogantly in the land and divided its people into camps, oppressing one group
of them by slaughtering their sons and letting their women live. He was one of the corrupters. (Surat al-
Qasas, 4)

"Am not I better than this man who is contemptible and can scarcely make anything clear?" (Surat az-
Zukhruf, 52)

In that way he [Pharaoh] swayed his people and they succumbed to him... (Surat az- Zukhruf, 54)

And We bequeathed to the people who had been oppressed the easternmost part of the land We had
blessed, and its westernmost part as well… (Surat al-A'raf, 137)

Ancient Egypt was by no means the only extremist society where only might was regarded as right,
humans were divided into classes, those regarded as "inferior" were oppressed and subjected to inhu-
man treatment. There are numerous examples of other such regimes, right up to the present day.

In the 19th century, however, these evil practices acquired a whole new dimension. Up until then,
measures and policies that had been regarded as cruel, suddenly began to be defended with the false-
hood that they were "scientific practices based on facts of nature." What was it that suddenly justified
all these forms of ruthlessness?
Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was put forward in his book The Origin of Species. Published in

1859, it contained a number of conjectures about the origin of life that led to a most deceptive world
view, devoid of any scientific evidence, and a perverted philosophy that denies the existence of God and
regards "chance" as a creative force (surely God is beyond that). Views that man was a kind of animal,

and life was a sphere of struggle and fierce competition were accepted as scientific truth.
Darwin did not develop this theory, which was advanced as a result of the 19th century's primitive
understanding of science, on his own. Some 50 years earlier, in 1798, Thomas Malthus proposed a num-

564 Atlas of Creation Vol. 3