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The Gentle Darwinians - What Darwin’s Champions Won’t Mention
Commonweal ^ | March 9, 2007 | Peter Quinn

Posted on 03/08/2007 7:46:04 PM PST by ofwaihhbtn

The enthusiasm Nietzsche expresses in this passage is for eugenics, a theory of biological determinism invented by Francis Galton, Charles Darwin’s first cousin. However extreme Nietzsche’s recommendation might sound today, by the first part of the twentieth century eugenics came to be widely practiced. In 1933, little more than thirty years after Nietzsche’s death, the Hereditary Health Courts set up in Nazi Germany were enforcing a rigorous policy of enforced sterilization; to a lesser degree, similar policies were carried out in societies from the United States to Scandinavia.

In 1912, in his presidential address to the First International Congress of Eugenics, a landmark gathering in London of racial biologists from Germany, the United States, and other parts of the world, Major Leonard Darwin, Charles Darwin’s son, trumpeted the spread of eugenics and evolution. As described by Nicholas Wright Gillham in his A Life of Francis Galton, Major Darwin foresaw the day when “eugenics would become not only a grail, a substitute for religion, as Galton had hoped, but a ‘paramount duty’ whose tenets would presumably become enforceable.” The major repeated his father’s admonition that, though the crudest workings of natural selection must be mitigated by “the spirit of civilization,” society must encourage breeding among the best stock and prevent it among the worst “without further delay.”

Leonard Darwin’s recognition of his father’s role in the formation and promotion of eugenics was more than filial piety.

The full text of the article is here: The Gentle Darwinians - What Darwin’s Champions Won’t Mention

(Excerpt) Read more at commonwealmagazine.org ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: atheistcontrolfreaks; darwin; eugenics; evolution; moralabsolutes
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The connection between Darwin and eugenics you always knew was there is discussed in this article.
1 posted on 03/08/2007 7:46:06 PM PST by ofwaihhbtn
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To: ofwaihhbtn

If you connect the two, then it is by choice and no logical reason.


2 posted on 03/08/2007 7:49:49 PM PST by SteveMcKing
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To: ofwaihhbtn
Hatchet job alert.
3 posted on 03/08/2007 8:00:08 PM PST by Coyoteman (Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.)
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To: ofwaihhbtn
All employees failing to evolve by the Monday noon will be subjected to summary extinction.
Personnel Department.
4 posted on 03/08/2007 8:06:19 PM PST by GSlob
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To: ofwaihhbtn

What connection?


5 posted on 03/08/2007 8:06:48 PM PST by Buck W. (If you push something hard enough, it will fall over.)
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To: ofwaihhbtn

Bottom dollar says Peter Singer subscribes to evolutionary theory.


6 posted on 03/08/2007 8:07:31 PM PST by WorkingClassFilth (a.k.a. What a jackass!)
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To: ofwaihhbtn
... Darwin is adamant about the need for the civilized races to preserve in some degree the process of natural selection, which requires the adoption of eugenic principles:

This is absurd. Natural selection and eugenic principles (at least the kind of forced eugenics to which he refers) are polar opposites. With natural selection, man is not the decision-maker. With forced eugenics, he is. By practicing forced eugenics, a society does not embrace natural selection. It turns it on its head.

No matter how hard people like Quinn try, the fact will remain that Darwin was a very decent man who did not advocate forced eugenics.

7 posted on 03/08/2007 8:45:36 PM PST by freespirited (Demand perfection, get Hillary.)
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To: Coyoteman

Isn't funny how the very evolutionists who refuse to see any distinction between ID and creationism are the first to cry foul when the obvious connections between evolutionism and eugenics are pointed out. Your jig is about up.


8 posted on 03/08/2007 8:49:25 PM PST by RussP
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To: ofwaihhbtn

9 posted on 03/08/2007 8:52:35 PM PST by WestVirginiaRebel ("...Mindless pack of trained Maoist circus seals.")
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To: ofwaihhbtn

Lame logical fallacy.

How pathetic.

Yet, it represents the creationist's lack of understanding pretty well.



BTW, Hitler loved dogs, ergo dog lovers are all nazis.


10 posted on 03/08/2007 8:54:02 PM PST by Central Scrutiniser (Never Let a Theocon Near a Textbook. Teach Evolution!)
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To: RussP
Pardon me sir, but your fallacious reasoning is showing.
11 posted on 03/08/2007 8:54:22 PM PST by Boxen (Branigan's law is like Branigan's love--Hard and fast.)
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To: ofwaihhbtn

A good book to read:

The State Boys Rebellion
http://www.simonsays.com/content/content.cfm?sid=33&pid=422319

It’s interesting that Germany looked to the US for it’s ideas on eugenics.

Excerpt from link:

Though they couldn't possible know it, the children of the Fernald State School were the victims of bad science and a newly developed bureaucracy designed to save America from the so-called "menace of the feebleminded." Beginning early in the twentieth century, United States health officials used crude versions of the modern IQ tests to identify supposedly "deficient" children and lock them away. The idea was to protect society from potential criminals and to prevent so-called undesirables from having children and degrading the American gene pool......

...... It reveals the danger in misguided science, the fearsome power of unchecked bureaucracies,


12 posted on 03/08/2007 8:55:15 PM PST by quietolong
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To: WorkingClassFilth

"Bottom dollar says Peter Singer subscribes to evolutionary theory."



I heard that Piltdown Man did too, but his subscription was canceled....


13 posted on 03/08/2007 8:57:45 PM PST by The Spirit Of Allegiance (Public Employees: Honor Your Oaths! Defend the Constitution from Enemies--Foreign and Domestic!)
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To: Central Scrutiniser

"BTW, Hitler loved dogs, ergo dog lovers are all nazis."

And how many other people like dogs?

How many believe in Eugenics?

OK, let me spoon feed this to you, moron:

The fact that Hitler liked dogs did not distinguish him from the masses. The fact that he believed in eugenics did. And his belief in eugenics was based on evolutionism -- whether you like or not.

You wouldn't know a "logical fallacy" if it bit you on the ass, and you couldn't reason your way out of a wet paper bag if your life depended on it, moron.

Sorry, but I'm just sick and tired of dealing with the mental midgets here.


14 posted on 03/08/2007 9:28:44 PM PST by RussP
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To: wagglebee; metmom

FYI.


15 posted on 03/08/2007 9:32:51 PM PST by little jeremiah (Only those who thirst for truth can know truth.)
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To: ofwaihhbtn
Maybe Eugenics is 'the son of Darwin?'

As described by Nicholas Wright Gillham in his A Life of Francis Galton, Major Darwin foresaw the day when “eugenics would become not only a grail, a substitute for religion, as Galton had hoped, but a ‘paramount duty’ whose tenets would presumably become enforceable.”

The major repeated his father’s admonition that, though the crudest workings of natural selection must be mitigated by “the spirit of civilization,” society must encourage breeding among the best stock and prevent it among the worst “without further delay.”
16 posted on 03/08/2007 9:37:33 PM PST by RunningWolf (2-1 Cav 1975)
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To: Central Scrutiniser
Commonweal is not a "creationist" magazine.

Anyway, here's a Toyko dailies take on the debate (see how many characters you can recognize):


17 posted on 03/08/2007 9:42:29 PM PST by Tribune7 (A bleeding heart does nothing but ruin the carpet)
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To: The Spirit Of Allegiance
I heard that Piltdown Man did too, but his subscription was canceled....

Yes he was just a fantasy of the scientific world, his only reality the name given him and the science articles/papers written for him. Periodically he re-appears with a new name, to be declared as the as 'the missing link/s' in peer reviewed articles.
18 posted on 03/08/2007 9:45:07 PM PST by RunningWolf (2-1 Cav 1975)
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To: RussP
Hey take it easy on him, he is giving you his best shots right up front ;)
19 posted on 03/08/2007 9:47:07 PM PST by RunningWolf (2-1 Cav 1975)
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To: RussP

I was pointing out how stupid your argument was by presenting an equally stupid one.

I'd explain the concept to you, but I don't think you'd get it.

Mental Midgets? Yeah, go talk to "Dr." Hovind and his scholars.

LOL


20 posted on 03/08/2007 9:47:17 PM PST by Central Scrutiniser (Never Let a Theocon Near a Textbook. Teach Evolution!)
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