Page 610 - Atlas of Creation Volume 3
P. 610
Left: King Prempeh, leader
of the African Ashanti
tribe, and the Queen
Mother, submitting to
British troops.
Below: The treatment met-
ed out to native
Australians.
ficient information on the subject in question. This is where the hidden danger of Darwinism lies. People
believing in concepts such as "the struggle for survival" and "conflict between superior and inferior races"
carried out all kinds of ruthless actions under the shelter of these claims—or at least kept silent while oth-
ers did so. As a result, racist, aggressive, and ruthless dictators such as Hitler, Mussolini and Franco
emerged, and millions applauded their words. And because of these cruel ideologies, tens of millions lived
and died in pain, fear and suffering.
Social Darwinism and War
The deceptive idea that inter-racial conflict could lead to nations' progressing also laid the foundation
for wars. Before World War I, when Social Darwinism was widespread, war was considered the "most ap-
propriate means" for the elimination of the weak and the eradication of people seen as burdens, the sur-
vival of the strong, and the development of the human race.
Throughout history, many wars have been fought, but usually they took place within limits, not aimed
directly at civilian populations, between the armies of the nations concerned. But in wars waged by Social
Darwinist means, the real target was the people, to reduce the "surplus population" of the so-called "unfit"
and the allegedly "inferior."
Before World War I, numerous writings and speeches described the Darwinist bases of war. Richard
Milner, a contributing editor to Natural History, the magazine of New York's American Museum of Natural
History, writes of the warlike Darwinist views of German intellectuals at the time:
During World War I, German intellectuals believed natural selection was irresistibly all-powerful (Allmacht), a
law of nature impelling them to bloody struggle for domination. Their political and military textbooks pro-
moted Darwin's theories as the "scientific" basis of a quest for world conquest, with the full backing of German
scientists and professors of biology. 72
608 Atlas of Creation Vol. 3