Posted on 05/26/2005 10:30:32 AM PDT by xzins
Which kills more: ideology or religion? Andrew Kenny
The sun set on the 20th century more than four years ago but you can still see a blood-red glow on the horizon. The century that saw unprecedented technological progress also saw unprecedented slaughter. Previously, religion had served mankind’s deep needs for explanation, order, spiritual comfort and transcendental meaning. Now a new and hideous thing was summoned up to serve the same needs. The thing was ideology, and in a few decades it caused more bloodshed than millennia of religion. It was darker and more irrational, and contained within it something unknown to all the Religions of the Book: a death wish. Religious leaders, however bad they may be, however prone to hubris and hatred, are constrained by fear of God above and by ancient tradition and wisdom. Ideological leaders have no such constraints.
Recently there have been hysterical attacks on the new Pope Benedict, including the charge that he has the blood of millions of Africans on his hands because of the Church’s ban on condoms in a continent ravaged by Aids. I live in Africa, I am an atheist and I think the Church’s prohibition of contraception is wrong, but I want to defend the Pope. To do so, I must compare the good and bad of the Church in Africa with those of the ideologies.
Ideology comes in three colours: red, brown and green, representing Marxism, fascism and environmental extremism. Judged on sheer evil, the worst crime in history was brown, the Nazi genocide, although the reds slaughtered more people. The death toll (difficult to measure) is roughly, Hitler’s holocaust 6 million, Stalin’s famine and terror 8 million, and Mao’s famine 30 million. But the greens have topped them all. In a single crime they have killed about 50 million people. In purely numerical terms, it was the worst crime of the 20th century. It took place in the USA in 1972. It was the banning of DDT.
Malaria is one of the most terrible diseases mankind has ever faced. In the 16th and 17th centuries it decimated Europe (it is mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays as ‘ague’ and probably killed Cromwell). It brought death over the world on a gigantic scale. In 1939 Paul Muller, a Swiss chemist, discovered that a synthetic chemical, DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane), killed flies, mosquitoes and other invertebrates. It was used to stop a typhus epidemic in Italy in 1943. US troops in the second world war dusted themselves with it against lice. It proved spectacularly successful against malaria-bearing mosquitoes. In 1948 Muller won the Nobel Prize for his work on DDT. By 1967, thanks to DDT, malaria had been eradicated from all rich countries, and was being eradicated in Latin America, tropical Asia and three countries in Africa. In 1970 the US National Academy of Sciences stated: ‘To only a few chemicals does man owe so great a debt as to DDT.... In little more than two decades, DDT has prevented 500 million human deaths, due to malaria, that otherwise would have been inevitable.’
In 1971 DDT was poised to rid the world of malaria. In 1972 it was banned.
The ban, decided in the USA by William Ruckelshaus, an administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, was a travesty. Ruckelshaus ignored the massive evidence that DDT was not harmful to man or wildlife and refused to give reasons for the ban. It was purely ideological. This was the time of Rachel Carson’s mendacious book Silent Spring, about the horrors of pesticides, when the newly emerging green ideology was looking for a cause célèbre. Study after study has shown that DDT, even when abused, as it certainly was, did not cause cancer or serious disease in humans, did not harm bald eagles or peregrine falcons, and did not cause eggshell thinning. None of this mattered. The greens, leaning heavily on Ruckelshaus, were determined to ban it and did so, with catastrophic consequences for poor people with dark skins. Tens of millions of humans were sacrificed on the green altar.
The US extended the ban overseas by various measures, including refusing aid to countries that used DDT. Other rich countries, urged on by their greens, followed suit. Malaria, which had been in retreat, came surging back, killing multitudes. It is estimated that more than 2 million people now die every year of malaria, most of them in Africa. In 1996, under green pressure, South Africa stopped using DDT. Malaria deaths immediately shot up. South Africa went back to DDT, and deaths fell away. The South African government, which talks nonsense about Aids, is sensible on malaria, allowing DDT to be sprayed on the inside of dwellings, its best use. To some extent the rich countries have relaxed their ban on DDT but prohibitions remain, including from the EU, and nothing is done by them to encourage this cheap, safe, highly effective method of eradicating malaria.
I have heard not one word of pity or regret from any green organisation about the vast loss of human life caused by the ban on DDT. On the contrary, they seem to regard it as a glorious triumph. The likely reason was spelled out with chilling clarity by Charles Wurster of the Environmental Defence Fund in the USA in 1971 when it was pointed out to him that DDT saved the lives of poor people in poor countries. He said: ‘So what? People are the main cause of our problems. We have too many of them. We need to get rid of some of them and this is as good a way as anything.’
Here is the key difference between ideology and religion. Here is the fundamental reason why so many ideologues hate the Catholic Church. It was best articulated by Savitri Devi, sometimes called ‘Hitler’s Priestess’, the green mystic, pagan and worshipper of Hitler, who said that Christianity was ‘centred on man’ whereas her green and fascist creed was ‘centred on life’. She is right. The Bible tells men to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ and ‘have dominion’ over other living things. This is anathema to the greens. (Greens are closer to browns than they are to reds. The red ideal is progress via central committees, steel works and tons of concrete. The brown ideal is a static idyll of forests, Alsatian dogs and flaxen-haired maidens tripping through the wheatfields.) Of course when the Bible speaks of ‘man’, it means all of mankind, whereas when Devi speaks of ‘life’, she means only selected types of life, such as Aryans and tigers. Some other forms of life are best exterminated.
I have mentioned only one of the crimes of the ideologues, although the worst. In Africa they have also caused dreadful misery by promoting destructive policies such as command economies and by financing and encouraging calamitous leaders such as Julius Nyerere, who drove the economy of Tanzania to destitution.
The Pope in Africa follows the Biblical injunction. He is for human life. His guides are the enduring truths of his faith and the Word of God. These, and not the latest political fashion or trend in sociology departments, are what direct him. However, the Catholic prohibition on contraception does not seem to have any Biblical foundation, apart from the story of Onan spilling his seed on the ground, which is a special case. It seems more likely to have come from Aristotle, the source of much bad doctrine. It is illogical to allow contraception by the rhythm method while banning other methods. Why is it more natural to study a calendar before engaging in sexual congress than to put a bit of rubber over your winky? However, this is the teaching. What harm has it done?
Aids is devastating Africa, even if the exact scale of the devastation is not well known. Condoms are an effective barrier against the HIV virus (despite silly attempts to pretend otherwise). However, in South Africa it is believed that a high proportion of infection comes from ‘non-consensual sex’, where the man is never going to use a condom, even if the Pope orders him to do so. African women tell us that their husbands and lovers would beat them up if they asked them to use them. The breakdown of the black family and the high incidence of married middle-aged men copulating with young girls hugely exacerbate the spread of HIV infection. The Pope’s message of abstinence outside married life and faithfulness within it would be effective if it were followed — more so than a message of free love and condoms. In Uganda President Museveni seems to be very successful in reducing HIV incidence by calling publicly for abstinence, faithfulness and condoms, which seems to me the best possible advice. (The ideologues are furious with anyone who promotes family life and seem actually frightened of the concept of abstinence.) What the balance of effects is between the Church’s promotion of faithful family life and its ban on condoms is impossible to calculate, but my guess is that it has prevented more infections than it has caused. To say that the Pope is a mass murderer is ridiculous.
The Catholic Church has been an immeasurable force for good in Africa. It has educated, treated, fed and brought hope to a multitude of Africans. It has quietly worked against evil systems, such as apartheid and African tyranny, in just the same way that the great John Paul II worked against communism. While rich young things from international aid agencies flit briefly through Africa in designer safari jackets and air-conditioned 4x4s before settling down to cosy careers in the rich countries, humble priests and nuns spend heroic lives in little villages in the hills and bushes of Africa spreading a gospel of learning, medicine, nutrition and decency, and preaching the equal worth of all men and the promise of redemption for everybody.
As for the other charge against Pope Benedict, I found myself chatting to a most genial man in a Cape Town pub shortly after his election. I said to him that Ratzinger was in the Hitler Youth. He said cheerfully, ‘So was I!’ In 1942, at the age of 12, he was co-opted. He said it was like compulsory Boy Scouts. While Jews were being transported to the death camps elsewhere in the Reich, adolescent Germans in the Hitler Youth, like Ratzinger and my affable drinking companion, were picking up litter, making Christmas presents for poor children and helping old ladies across the street. Hardly the mark of Cain.
Pope John Paul II was the most consistent moral authority of the 20th century. Benedict seems likely to continue in his path. (Strangely enough, he looks to me rather like Richard Dawkins, the great evolutionist, atheist and Pope-basher, both having fine, handsome, intelligent faces.) I wish the Catholic Church would change its stance on contraception, but its prohibition is a small cost compared with the enormous benefit the Church brings to Africa.
"This raises another question. Is Islam both a religion and a political ideology?"
Philosophers organize their quest for knowlege into four areas, or sub-disciplines. (1) Metaphysics: the study of the nature, structure and origin of what exists, or, very simply put, what is the nature of reality? (2) epistemology: the study of the nature and limits of human knowledge, or, how do we know what we know? (3) Ethics: the study of right and wrong actions and attitudes, or, how should be live? (4) Logic: the study of principles for distinguishing correct reasoning from uncorrect reasoning, or how do we think correctly? (Thanks to Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen for the definitions.)
Every 'ideology', or 'system of thought', aims to provide answers to these particular questions. Christianity, Communism, Islam, Judaism, etc. They each use there own private vocabulary to discuss these questions and their answers to these questions. The problem with this is that it makes communication between the various 'thought systems' very difficult. Therefore, philosophers have created a generalized 'philosophical vocabulary' that allows those of different 'though systems' to communicate.
Using this 'philosophical vocabulary' we can talk about 'worldviews' and how a particular 'worldview' would answer life's questions. If we understand the human thought process in general philosophical terms, we won't stumble over the distinction between an ideology and a religion and a political system. We will understand that there are various competing 'worldviews' which each assert their anwsers to the basic questions of philosophy. We will also understand that each 'worldview' has logical consquences in the area of family, government, economics, education, law, sexuality, history....every possible area of life. We often focus on one particular area, for
example economics or politics, and look at how a 'worldview' works itself out in that area. But we should understand that a 'vorldview' is far more broad than just
an economic or political system. For example, we tend to think of Communism as an economic system, but Communism is really a 'worldview' which, like other 'worldviews',
works itself out in each area of life as people seek to apply the ideas of their particular 'worldview'.
You'll often hear people say that 'ideas have consequences'. That is true, but it is better to say 'worldviews have consequences'.
The Christian history and heritage of the USA has come under attack in the last several generations. Many want us to forget or deny our Christian history. Why? I submit to you that the peace, safety and prosperity we have enjoyed in our culture for so long are the logical consequences of a Christian 'worldview' lived out by several generations.
Historically, even those who rejected Christianity still 'lived' as Christians....they believe in absolutes, they held to traditional thoughts about how life should be lived, i.e. men marry women, not other men, children are a good thing, sex is for marriage. Even if they didn't live up to these ideals, few rejected them.
Today there are many who don't want us to believe that 'worldviews have consquences'. They want us to believe that peace and prosperity are intrinsic to life and aren't the conseqence of any kind of national Christianity. They want us to believe that we can throw marriage out the window and still have peace and properity. We can throw private property out the window and still have peace and prosperity. We can have men marry men and women marry women and still have peace and prosperity. We can abort babies by the millions and still have peace and properity. We can throw absolutes out the window and still have peace and prosperity. We can allow
every foul and destrucive 'worldview' to come into our culture and set up shop and STILL we will continue to have peace and prosperity. They want us to believe that we can have ANY worldview and the result will always and only be peace and prosperity. These people are fools and destroyers.
Oh wheeee.
I should probably sit this one out.
Yes, they killed a lot, it took half of the Euroasian land mass to even have 100 million. That's a lot of people.
The 5 million for Central Asia is probably about right, but keep in mind, for some reason, they really didn't like Muslims much. They were much more "civilized" around Christians and Buddhists.
After some additional research, you appear to be more or less correct. The total number is probably closer to 50M than 100M.
Still a major accomplishment, given the population they had to work with and the technology available.
See post 105.
Here's a link to a lot of historical death totals:
http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat0.htm#Mongol
Little really accurate info is available, but keep in mind people still argue how many various states killed in the 20th century.
No doubt.
Some postulate that the Russian/Soviet mentality of acceptance of mega murder dates back to the culture formed during the Mongol occupation.
Awwww....c'mon. Dive on in. You'll enjoy the swim!
Enjoy the swim?
Methinks you'd love any excuse to call me all wet! LOL.
Why? Seems pretty civil so far. And I haven't even been throwing and bombs lately!
Who are the bigger criminals? thieves or robbers?
Amd how do they compare to a puma?
Top ranking comes to a showdown betwen Mao and Rachel Carson
Perhaps because of my well trained flinching reflexes! LOL.
Islam fails to pass 1, many or all of these worldview tests depending on our own worldview(s)
It should be noted people who are struggling with worldview questions are often despairing and even suicidal, which brings us to Islam terrorists in the year 2005.
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