[Stultis]

So should Gavrilo Princip be exonerated and Charles Darwin be blamed for WWI? Interesting topic for debate.

I'm not familiar with that name, and don't know a lot about WWI. My understanding, however, from various secondary sources, is that the Germans consciously pursued a policy of brutality early in the war, on the theory that it would make the war shorter. Apparently the military class seized on a superficial Darwinism as at least part of their rationalization of this policy.

[Thatcherite]

I'm not familiar with that name, and don't know a lot about WWI. My understanding, however, from various secondary sources, is that the Germans consciously pursued a policy of brutality early in the war, on the theory that it would make the war shorter. Apparently the military class seized on a superficial Darwinism as at least part of their rationalization of this policy.

Which just goes to show that brutes will appropriate anything, often dishonestly, to justify their brutality. There is not the slightest evidence that they would have behaved any differently if evolution had never been discovered. I also suspect that despite their aggressive responsibility for the war (and I speak as someone whose grandfather died at 3rd Ypres) stories of German brutality in WW1 were probably largely allied propaganda.