Darwin’s Graveyards

I am reading an excellent article in Books & Culture, written by Edward T. Oakes, a professor at St. Mary’s in Mundelein. His article reviews Richard Weikart’s book, From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany. It is an excellent illustration of how Charles Darwin’s ideas about evolution were not limited to biology, but he clearly taught the social implications as well.

Darwin’s evolutionary ideas, combined with Nietzsche’s nihilistic philosophy, shaped the culture and mindset of Germany in the early 20th century. When Hitler came to power, his publicly announced goals to turn Germany into a master race by eliminating all inferior races, along with the sick, weak, homosexuals and other undesirables, met with wide acceptance by every strata of German society, including Christians. Not only had Germany’s intellectual elite bought into the idea of killing off inferior races, but the common people supported these ideas as well. Hitler was not seen as a madman but as a true prophet whose heart beat in sync with the majority of the German populace.

Darwin’s theory of evolution gave them the foundation upon which to build the most horrific society the world has ever seen. The only difference between Hitler and his contemporaries was that he was willing to put his ideas into practice. And he put them into practice with all the zeal and energy he could muster.

Ideas have consequences, and Darwin’s ideas led to the death of six million Jews under Hitler’s reign of terror. Here are some quotes from the article clearly showing what Darwin, Nietzsche and many other Germans taught that led to Hitler’s diabolical plan to rid the earth of all inferior races:


Darwin:
Letter to William Graham: “I could show fight on natural selection having done and doing more for the progress of civilization than you seem inclined to admit. Remember what risk the nations of Europe ran, not so many centuries ago, of being overwhelmed by the Turk, and how ridiculous such an idea now is! The more civilized so-called Caucasian races have beaten the Turkish hollow in the struggle for existence. Looking to the world at no very distant date, what an endless number of the lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilized races throughout the world.”

Descent of Man: “At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace throughout the world the savage races.”

Origin of Species: “Let the strongest live and the weakest die.”


Nietzsche:
The biblical prohibition "Thou shalt not kill" is a piece of naïveté compared with the seriousness of Life's own "Thou shalt not" issued to decadence: "Thou shalt not procreate!" —Life itself recognizes no solidarity, no "equal right," between the healthy and the degenerate parts of an organism… . Sympathy for the decadents, equal rights for the ill-constituted—that would be the profoundest immorality, that would be anti-nature itself as morality!

“Far too many keep on living; they hang on their branches much too long. May a storm soon come, which shakes all this rotten and worm-eaten fruit from the tree!”


Hitler:
A stronger race will supplant the weaker, since the drive for life in its final form will decimate every ridiculous fetter of the so-called "humaneness" of individuals, in order to make place for the true "humaneness of nature," which destroys the weak to make place for the strong.


Other Germans:
In a section of The Gay Science entitled "Holy Cruelty," a Nietzschean "saint" advises a father to kill his disabled child, rhetorically asking, "Isn't it crueler to allow it to live?" The Twilight of the Idols includes a section entitled "Morality for Physicians" that calls sick people "parasites" who have no right to life and advocates the "most ruthless suppression and pushing aside of degenerate life." And finally in his autobiography Ecce Homo, one of the last books he sent to the publisher before his collapse into insanity, he said: "If we cast a look a century ahead and assume that my assassination of two thousand years of opposition to nature and of dishonoring humans succeeds, then that new party of life [!] will take in hand the greatest of all tasks—the higher breeding of humanity, including the unsparing destruction of all degenerates and parasites."


It is important to remember that ideas have consequences. Many people are willing to hold onto unbiblical ideas but lack the guts to live consistently with them. But when enough people believe the lie, then all it takes is for someone with enough guts to come along and sweep the whole society along with him. No one will oppose him when he begins to act on the lie because everyone believes in the lie already and were secretly wishing for the opportunity to live it out. The leader who acts on the lie gives them the excuse they have been looking for, so they do not oppose the leader but eagerly support him. Unfortunately, millions who called themselves Christians also believed the lie and actually supported Hitler! Can it happen again?

You can read this article at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2006/006/15.35.html If this link doesn't work, click on the link for Books & Culture on the left sidebar and do a search for "Darwin."