10 Books that Screwed Up The World

The List Universe ^ | May 14, 2008 | Jamie Frater

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

Though the author says it's not in order, it's instructive to see that Darwin's Black Box made it to #1 anyway.

Just a few comments:

John Dewey. If you want to pick up his essay The Influence of Darwinism, go to my FR homepage.

The Prince. An incredibly boring and useless book. I can't imagine anyone being influenced by Machiavelli. It must be the cool face on the cover that does it.

Margaret Mead. A complete fraud, as anyone who has travelled to lesser-trod parts of the world can know for themselves. She was awarded Unesco's Kalinga Prize. Julian Huxley, the eugenist, also got that prize. Not really surprising--Julian founded Unesco.

I can think of many books that belong on this list. Darwin's Origin and Descent. Karl Popper's Logic of Scientific Discovery, everything every written by Freud, the mendacious British histories of Hume, and, oh, so many more to choose from.

[Swiss]

Seems like the Koran should be #1

[Allegra]

Dr. Spock's "don't frustrate the child" crap deserves an honorable mention.

It could even be said that it's one of the roots of a lot of the societal problems we have here in the U.S. today.

[Varmint Al]

"Silent Spring" The book written by Rachel Carson. This book has caused the death of about 50 million Africans. It was based on "feelings" and the facts were distorted. It was the start of the Echo Freaks and they are still with us today.

Good Hunting... from Varmint Al

[newheart]

the Science community has overwhelming rejected it.

The mere fact that Behe's book is in the #1 position is evidence of the agenda behind this list. The "Science" (why is science capitalized?) community's rejection of his thesis does not answer the question of how such complex organisms could have evolved.

[Bobalu]

bump :-)

[Swordmaker]

Why isn't Silent Spring on the list? Arguably, more people have died because of Rachel Carson's pseudo science than almost any other book.

[tet68]

Seems like “Silent Spring” should be on the list somewhere.

[Selmore]

Imagine the protest. Imagine the murders. No way would the author put the Koran on the list.

[Entrepreneur]

"Silent Spring" The book written by Rachel Carson. This book has caused the death of about 50 million Africans. It was based on "feelings" and the facts were distorted. It was the start of the Echo Freaks and they are still with us today.

Agreed. This was one of the most evil books ever written.

[tcrlaf]

Machiavelli books should ALWAYS be read to an eye to what was going on in Italian Politics at the time.

Smallish city-states constantly at War with each other, for everything from each others lands, percieved slights, or even just to merely fight.

Much of this was ENCOURAGED by the Church, which saw the Unification of Italy under a single leadership as a threat to it’s own power and sway.

[El Cid]

Odd that Darwin's Black Box made this list (because I agree with most of the others on the list).
The book documents processes that seem to be inexplicable by the process of darwinian evolution. Its fair to disagree with Mr. Behe's conclusions -- but apparently the author of this article would rather the world keep silence than to question the validity of the religion of darwin. And since Darwin's Black Box question's this god, the author of this article is offended. I don't even know if he read the book. Had he, he'd have known that Mr. Behe did nothing to support the literal interpretation of Genesis - he merely pointed out a few examples of 'irreducible complexity' (e.g., blood clotting, eyesight); and how the world of microbiology has revealed even higher degrees of complexity and 'apparent design' that Darwin never dreamed of.

[rlmorel]

You beat me to it!

[HerrBlucher]

Had he, he'd have known that Mr. Behe did nothing to support the literal interpretation of Genesis - he merely pointed out a few examples of 'irreducible complexity' (e.g., blood clotting, eyesight); and how the world of microbiology has revealed even higher degrees of complexity and 'apparent design' that Darwin never dreamed of.

I have not read Behe's book so I didn't want to comment on the author's review. However, I have read other ID books (Phillip Johnson) and they do not advocate a literal interpretation of Genesis. So the author pulls out a "Straw Man" to knock down Behe's book......typical.

[Keith Brown]

Where’s the Bible and the Koran?

Lots of blood on those two.....

[acapesket]

AMEN!

The Qu’ran is apiece of shi’ite!
You Dhimmis... you!

[svcw]

#4 Baby Care

I remember that book. My mom said it was good for one thing and one thing only, it made a perfect paddle for spanking.
I hated that stupid book!

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

Odd that Darwin's Black Box made this list (because I agree with most of the others on the list).

It's both strange and ironic that Behe's book is up there with Sanger's. Sanger was a thoroughly Darwinian persona. She was the girlfriend of H.G wells and Havelock Ellis. Both were Eugenists. H.G. Wells helped Julian Huxley write the series Science of Life, which was like the Dawkins books of that era. Sanger was a member of both the american and the british Eugenics societies. Julian Huxley was president of the british Eugenics Society. Konrad Lorenz (Nazi race hygienist and life-long friend of Huxley) won the Unesco Kalinga prize - so did Huxley and Mead. Lorenz's colleague was Richard Dawkins's Ph.D supervisor. Actually, Julian was a friend of Richard Dawkins's grandfather. The inbred nature of all this is staggering.

[Sparky7450]

ping for later read