Page 569 - Atlas of Creation Volume 3

Harun Yahya

ety downwards and favors all its worst members. 4

The most savage adherents of Social Darwinism were racists, the most dangerous, of course, being
the Nazi ideologists and their leader, Adolf Hitler. The heaviest cost of Social Darwinism came at the
hands of the Nazis, who implemented eugenics, the claim put forward by Darwin's cousin, Francis
Galton, to the effect that communities can consist of higher-quality individuals by the elimination of

poor genes. They also engaged in genocide using Darwinist statements as a screen, as if these in some
way justified their actions. At the advice of Darwinist scientists they exterminated Jews, Gypsies and
East Europeans, whom they regarded as inferior races. They slaughtered the mentally ill, the handi-

capped, and the elderly in gas chambers. In the 20th century, millions were killed by the most ruthless
methods in the name of Social Darwinism before the eyes of the world.
The eugenics movement, led by Francis Galton, emerged as another disastrous product of Social
Darwinism. Its supporters maintained that human selection was needed to accelerate natural selection,
believing that human development itself could thus be speeded up. They inflicted compulsory steril-

ization on "unnecessary" people in a great many countries, from America to Sweden. Regarded as less
than human, hundreds of thousands were operated on against their will, without their families' knowl-
edge or permission. The cruelest implementation of eugenics occurred in Germany, where the Nazis first

sterilized the crippled, mentally defective or those with inherited diseases. Unsatisfied, they then began
slaughtering these people en masse. Hundreds of thousands were put to death, just for being old or lack-
ing fingers or limbs.
Such cruel savagery has absolutely no place in religious morality. God has commanded people to
protect and nurture the needy. Meeting the needs of the poor, treating the handicapped with affection

and compassion and observing their rights, and ensuring cooperation and solidarity in society are all re-
quired by religious ethics. Those who ignore the moral values commanded by God, however, propel to-
wards catastrophe both themselves and the societies they live in.

Another catastrophe for which Social Darwinism provided alleged justification is colonialism. A
number of administrators of colonial states tried to justify their ruthless exploitation of native popula-
tions with Darwinist theses lacking any scientific validity or logical consistency. They claimed that "in-
ferior races" needed to be kept under the control of "superior races" because
this was a law of nature, and founded their policies on this so-called scien-

tific basis.
By using the twisted logic of Social Darwinism, combatants in the 20th
century's two world wars sought to depict war as inevitable. They at-

tempted to depict the killing of the innocent and the poor; the
destruction of their homes, businesses, and livestock;
the forcing of millions from their homes and lands;
and the uncaring slaughter of babies and children
as ways of ensuring human progress.

In conclusion, Social Darwinism was the
motive force that cost the lives of millions in
the 19th and 20th centuries. With it, many

evils that had persisted for centuries acquired
an alleged scientific justification. In his book
The Mismeasure of Man, the late evolutionist The Nazis first sterilized
paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould reveals this children with mental or in-
herited illnesses, and then
yet again in commenting on Darwin's Origin of
began sending them to gas
Species:
chambers. Even children
lacking just a thumb be-
Subsequent arguments for slavery, colonialism, racial
came the targets of eugeni-
differences, class structures, and sex roles would go forth
cist killing.
primarily under the banner of science. 5

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