William jennings Bryan was compelled to oppose the teaching of biological evolution in the schools because he associated it with social darwinism, which he thought justified exploitive capitalism and imperialism, and led to the catastrophe of 1914.
This is a new hypothesis to me...that WWI was caused by the Theory of Evolution. I've read about the hypothesis that the TOE caused WWII, but not this one. Sounds fascinating. Please elaborate.
QED.
Also, the 1919 Influenza outbreak, jazz music, naughty dancing, the Great Depression, juvenile delinquency, and the failure of Studebaker.
During World War I the news media carried numerous stories of the German military engaging in barbarous acts, from poisoning children to gassing soldiers. What, some people asked, could possibly have prompted the most scientifically advanced nation on earth to behave so badly. Bryan, the U. S. secretary of state at the beginning of the war, explained that "The same science that manufactured poisonous gases to suffocate soldiers is preaching that man has a brute ancestry and eliminating the miraculous and the supernatural from the Bible." A popular book by the Stanford biologist Vernon L. Kellogg, Headquarters Nights (1917), reported firsthand evidence of German officers discussing the Darwinian rationale for their declaration of war. [source]
The full title of the book is "Headquarters Nights: A Record Of Conversations And Experiences At The Headquarters Of The German Army In France And Belgium." Amazon's page has a quote from the foreword by Teddy Roosevelt:
One of the most graphic pictures of the German attitude, the attitude which has rendered this war inevitable, is contained in this book. It is a convincing, and an evidently truthful, exposition of the shocking, the unspeakably dreadful moral and intellectual perversion of character which makes Germany at present a menace to the whole civilized world.
I think this is basically correct: Germany militarism was influenced by Darwinism (at least the German misunderstanding thereof).
I've read about the hypothesis that the TOE caused WWII, but not this one.
Yeah, the case "that the TOE caused WWII" is pure bull. The case that it was something of an influence in WWI is far stronger. There were many other German justifications for militarism by WWII. Specifically the Nazis with their racist philosophy -- which by contrast to their militarism was NOT significantly influenced by evolution -- believed that militarism, or more generally a drive and destiny to conquer and enslave other races, was inherent in the Aryan "blood" or "race soul". They believed this "race soul" was "created".
I was talking about Bryan and his experience. Social Darwinism was an influencial theory developed by Herbert Spencer BEFORE Wallace or Darwin came to public attention. He used Darwin's theory to buttress his theory which found much favor among the Anglo-Saxon elites. Darwins' biological theory was widely applied to make social and political points, none of which had an NECESSARY connection with the biology. It was even used to justify
good things, like the notion of the White man's Burden. White people, as the superior race, were obliged to take care of their inferiors.