Creationism and Racism
James J. Lippard
_Creation/Evolution_, _NCSE Reports_, and the _Skeptical Inquirer_,
as well as the book _Anti-Evolution: An Annotated Bibliography_, has
a book on creationism that will be published by the Univ. of California
Press. Chapter 15 of the book is titled "Creationism and Racism," and
the history of connections between creationism and racism. A shorter
version of the chapter will be published in a future issue of _Skeptic_
magazine (probably the issue after next).
Anyway, I wanted to share some of it here. McIver begins with a bunch
of quotes from creationists who maintain that racism comes from
belief in evolution--Henry Morris, Ken Ham, Bert Thompson, Malcolm
Bowden, etc.--it's a pretty long list. This part really caught my
eye, though:
"Evolution and racism are the same thing," declares Jerry Bergman
(McIver 1990:21; see Bergman's "Evolution and the Development of
Nazi Race Policy" in _Bible-Science Newsletter_ [1988] and articles
in _Creation Research Society Quarterly_ [1980], _CSSHQ_ [1986],
and _Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal_ [1991, 1992]).[2]
[2] Bergman has been featured in many creationist publications for
his complaint that he was denied tenure and dismissed from Bowling
Green State University "solely because of my beliefs and publications
in the area of creationism"; a cover story, for instance, in the
Creation Science Legal Defense Fund's magazine _Creation_ ("The
Jerry Bergman Story," 1984). In Bergman's _The Criterion_ (preface
by Wendell Bird, foreword by John Eidsmoe), Luther Sunderland said
Bergman was fired "solely" because of his religious beliefs--his
creationism (1984:64). But in a signed letter published in David
Duke's National Association of White People newsletter, Bergman
stated that "reverse [racial] discrimination was clearly part of the
decision"--i.e., that it was *not* solely religious discrimination
(Bergman 1985:2).
McIver goes on to look at the racism that arises from a particular
interpretation of Noah's three sons and the curse on Ham, from
polygenism (inferior pre-Adamite people), connections with the
Ku Klux Klan, Anglo-Israelism, and the Christian Identity movement,
etc. Some interesting points of connection:
* Prominent fundamentalists connected with the KKK: Bob Shuler,
Billy Sunday, and Bob Jones, Sr. (McIver says that "Perhaps
40,000 fundamentalist ministers joined the Klan.")
Rev. A.C. Dixon, who was editor of _The Fundamentals_, from
which fundamentalists get their name, was the brother of novelist
Thomas Dixon, author of the 1905 novel _The Clansman_, which was
the basis of D.W. Griffith's _Birth of a Nation_.
* Prominent creationists affiliated with Bob Jones University:
Emmett Williams, former editor of the _Creation Research Society
Quarterly_ and George Mulfinger, CRS board member.
* Gerald Winrod, founder of Defenders of the Christian Faith,
published the "openly racist" magazine _Defender_, which published
creationist articles by George McCready Price, W.B. Riley, and
A.I. Brown. For a time, it also published Harry Rimmer's newsletter
in its pages. (Riley was the leader of the World's Christian
Fundamentals Association, a prominent fundamentalist group in the
1920's. He openly advocated white supremacy.)
* Charles Totten, the Yale military science instructor who came up
with alleged calculations proving "Joshua's Missing Day" (later
turned into an urban legend about NASA by Harold Hill), was also
an advocate of British-Israelism (promoted in his journal _Our
Race_) and a pyramidologist.
* James Gray, editor of the _Moody Monthly_ and head of the Moody
Bible Institute, was a firm believer in the genuineness of the
anti-Semitic fraud _Protocols of the Elders of Zion_. When Henry
Ford publicly apologized for a series of articles by A.J. Cameron
(another British-Israelite) about the _Protocols_ in Ford's
Dearborn, Mich. newspaper, Gray claimed that Ford's apology was
itself evidence of Jewish conspiracy.
* Jarah Crawford, a Vermont Assembly of God minister, claims that
scientific creationism isn't creationist enough because it allows
for evolution of races.
* Herman Otten, editor of _Christian News_, is now an advocate of
Holocaust revisionism.
There's lots more (36 pages in this chapter), but you'll have to wait
for the book (or at least the _Skeptic_ article).
Jim Lippard Lip...@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU
Dept. of Philosophy Lip...@ARIZVMS.BITNET
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
Dave Knapp
>Tom McIver, an anthropologist who has written several articles for
>_Creation/Evolution_, _NCSE Reports_, and the _Skeptical Inquirer_,
>as well as the book _Anti-Evolution: An Annotated Bibliography_, has
>a book on creationism that will be published by the Univ. of California
>Press. Chapter 15 of the book is titled "Creationism and Racism," and
>the history of connections between creationism and racism. A shorter
>version of the chapter will be published in a future issue of _Skeptic_
>magazine (probably the issue after next).
This whole thing makes me more than a little uncomfortable. It is, it
seems, the moral equivalent of a chapter in a Creationist book linking
evolutionism and abortion, or evolutionism and atheism. We (rightly)
complain when Creationists introduce such faulty arguments here; we should
do the same for the other side.
Creationism and racism are no more linked than are evolution and atheism.
-- Dave
--
*-------------------------------------------------------------*
* David Knapp d...@imager.llnl.gov (510) 422-1023 *
* 98.7% of all statistics are made up. *
*-------------------------------------------------------------*
Tero Sand
> Creationism and racism are no more linked than are evolution and atheism.
I wouldn't bet on it. Creationism is linked to being [absolutely] sure
of your opinion.
In any case, presumably that chapter is a response to "evolution =
racism" claims, and to show a (stronger?) case can be made that
creationist thought often leads to racism.
>
> -- Dave
--
Tero Sand, 2 kyu ! Science is a process of enlarging one's
! ignorance to dizzying heights.
EMail: cus...@cc.helsinki.fi ! - D.C.Lindsay in talk.origins
cus...@cc.helsinki.fi !
CR TURVEY
: In article <2havtb$j...@lll-winken.llnl.gov>, Dave Knapp <dk@imager> wrote:
: > Creationism and racism are no more linked than are evolution and atheism.
: I wouldn't bet on it. Creationism is linked to being [absolutely] sure
: of your opinion.
: In any case, presumably that chapter is a response to "evolution =
: racism" claims, and to show a (stronger?) case can be made that
: creationist thought often leads to racism.
It's a mixed bag isn't it? I would have thought that one of the strongest
arguments against this is how many BNP memebers are god fearing creationist
church goers. I thought it would have more to do with their own insecurity
than belief in the universes origins. Insecurity might breed a belief in
creationism, might not. But isn't it nearer the root cause?
(Oh BNP is British National Party. Like the Front National in France and
Neo-nazis in Germany, Sweeden etc)
Cheers,
Colin
--
crtu...@bradford.ac.uk
"FUCK OFF! I get so sick of every new moron who comes in here saying the
same things. Atheism isn't a religion. Get a clue, read a FAQ, shut up."
-K.Allegood, Alt.Atheism
James J. Lippard
>In article <15JAN199...@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu> lip...@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu (James J. Lippard) writes:
>>Tom McIver, an anthropologist who has written several articles for
>>_Creation/Evolution_, _NCSE Reports_, and the _Skeptical Inquirer_,
>>as well as the book _Anti-Evolution: An Annotated Bibliography_, has
>>a book on creationism that will be published by the Univ. of California
>>Press. Chapter 15 of the book is titled "Creationism and Racism," and
>>the history of connections between creationism and racism. A shorter
>>version of the chapter will be published in a future issue of _Skeptic_
>>magazine (probably the issue after next).
>
> This whole thing makes me more than a little uncomfortable. It is, it
>seems, the moral equivalent of a chapter in a Creationist book linking
>evolutionism and abortion, or evolutionism and atheism. We (rightly)
>complain when Creationists introduce such faulty arguments here; we should
>do the same for the other side.
No, it isn't, because McIver never says anything remotely like the
creationist claims. His central point is this--many creationists claim
that belief in evolution is the *cause* of racism. If this is so, then
why are there all these racist creationists who appeal to their
creationist views in defense of racism?
If anyone is guilty of what you are complaining about here, it's me,
since my article failed to make McIver's main point.
> Creationism and racism are no more linked than are evolution and atheism.
Causally, no. In terms of correlations, who knows? (I'd say that
the vast majority of creationists are not racists, but perhaps a majority
of racists (in the U.S., anyway) are creationists, while the vast majority
of those who believe in evolution are not atheists and the vast majority
of those who are atheists do believe in evolution.)
asia z lerner
>In article <2havtb$j...@lll-winken.llnl.gov>, Dave Knapp <dk@imager> wrote:
>> Creationism and racism are no more linked than are evolution and atheism.
>
>I wouldn't bet on it. Creationism is linked to being [absolutely] sure
>of your opinion.
How sure are you that all races are "equal" in some coherent sense?
>In any case, presumably that chapter is a response to "evolution =
>racism" claims, and to show a (stronger?) case can be made that
>creationist thought often leads to racism.
>
Just as in the case of evolution, the problematic thing would be to
prove that creationism is in any way the primary cause for the racist
beliefs of those particular people, or that in some general way people
who are/have been creationists are likelier to be/have been racists
than those who believe in evolution. For instance, this would not be
at all true in the beginning of 20th century - evolutionism was highly
connected to racism at that point.
Asia
asia z lerner
>
>Causally, no. In terms of correlations, who knows? (I'd say that
>the vast majority of creationists are not racists, but perhaps a majority
>of racists (in the U.S., anyway) are creationists
Well, it's pretty clear that most of racism in Europe has little to
do with belief in evolution or lack of it.
Asia
Stanley Friesen
>of your opinion.
>In any case, presumably that chapter is a response to "evolution =
>racism" claims, and to show a (stronger?) case can be made that
>creationist thought often leads to racism.
>
case for a *correlation* between racism and creationism.
In this case it is more likely that they both procede from a
common cause, a particular attitude towards religion, than
that one leads to the other.
[It is certainly true that in my own family the people who
are the most racist are also Creationists].
--
NAMES: sar...@netcom.com s...@ElSegundoCA.ncr.com
May the peace of God be with you.
Daniel A Ashlock
In article <2havtb$j...@lll-winken.llnl.gov>, dk@imager (Dave Knapp) writes:
[...]
|> Creationism and racism are no more linked than are evolution and atheism.
|>
|> -- Dave
Creationism and racism are linked like Iowa and corn. There is no a-
priori reason Iowa must grow corn, but it does work well and accidents of
history firmly unite the two. The modern creationist movement is largely
the brainchild of Henry Morris and Duane Gish. For your inspection:
================================
(From)
_The Beginning of the World_
Henry Morris, 1991
PP 147-148
The descendants of Ham were marked especially for secular
service to mankind. Indeed they were to be "servants of
servants" that is "servants _extrodinary_!" Although only
Canaan is mentioned specifically (possibly because the branch
of Ham's family through Canaan would later come into most
direct contact with Israel), thge whole family of Ham is in view.
The prophecy is worldwide in scope and, since Shem and
Japeth are covered, all Ham's descendants must be also.
These include all nations which are neither Semetic nor
Japhetic. Thus, all of the earth's "colored" races, -yellow, red,
brown, and black - essentially the Afro-Asian group of peo-
ples, including the American Indians - are possibly Hamatic
in origin and included within the scope of the Canaanitic
prophesy, as well as the Egyptians, Sumerians, Hittites, and
Phoenicians of antiquity.
The Hamites have been the great "servants" of mankind in
the following ways, among many others: (1) they were the
original explorers and settlers of practically all parts of the
world, following the dispersion at Babel; (2) they were the
first cultivators of most of the basic food staples of the world,
such as potatoes, corn, beans, cereals, and others, as well as
the first ones to domesticate most animals; (3) they developed
most of the basic types of structural forms and building tools
and materials; (4) they were the first to develop fabrics for
clothing and various sewing and weaving devices; (5) they
were the discoverers and inventors of an amazingly wide
variety of medicines and surgical practices and instruments;
(6) most of the concepts of basic mathematics, including
algebra, geometry, and trigonometry were developed by
Hamites; (7) the machinery of commerce and trade - money,
banks, postal systems, etc. - were invented by them; (8) they
developed paper, ink, block printing, moveable type, and other
accoutrements of writing and communication. It seems that
almost no matter what the particular device or principle or
system may be, if one traces back far enough, he will find that
it originated with the Sumerians or Egyptians or early Chinese
or some other Hamatic people. Truy they have been the "ser-
vants" of mankind in a most amazing way.
Yet the prophecy again has its obverse side. Somehow they
have only gone so far and no farther. The Japethites and
Semites have, sooner or later, taken over their territories, and
their inventions, and then developed them and utilized them
for their own enlargement. Often the Hamites, especially the
Negros, have become actual personal servants or even slaves
to the others. Posessed of a genetic character concerned
mainly with mundane matters, they have eventually been dis-
placed by the intellectual and philosophical acumen of the
Japethites and the religious zeal of the Semites.
============================
Not only is that pile of crap obviously wrong, at odds with standard
theology (ref: Kurt VonRoeschlaub), and logically inconsistent with
known history, it is flamingly racist. I know several individual non-
racist creationists. The movements official statements about the history
of the earth are racist.
Dan
Dan...@IASTATE.EDU
--
Dan Ashlock (Danwell)
dan...@iastate.edu
Daniel A Ashlock
In article <1994Jan17.0...@midway.uchicago.edu>, azle...@quads.uchicago.edu (asia z lerner) writes:
|> How sure are you that all races are "equal" in some coherent sense?
Very :). There are good mathemeticians from every race, and that
is the only reasonable test of equality, I'm sure you will agree. I
only know of one Amerind mathemetician of quality and I have never met
her personally, but I know of at least a dozen negro, mongoloid, and
caucasian mathemeticians that have managed to impress me at various
meetings over the years.
|>In any case, presumably that chapter is a response to "evolution =
|>racism" claims, and to show a (stronger?) case can be made that
|>creationist thought often leads to racism.
|> Just as in the case of evolution, the problematic thing would be to
|> prove that creationism is in any way the primary cause for the racist
|> beliefs of those particular people, or that in some general way people
|> who are/have been creationists are likelier to be/have been racists
|> than those who believe in evolution. For instance, this would not be
|> at all true in the beginning of 20th century - evolutionism was highly
|> connected to racism at that point.
I suspect that racisism and creationism are both often caused by
abject ignorance in the presence of a particular type of religion. I
therefore predict you will get correlation rather than causition.
In any case, the claim is not
Creationism ==> Racism
but rather
[(Evolution ==> Racism) ==> False)]
together with a dose of "The black pot speaks".
Ken Smith
>In article <15JAN199...@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu> lip...@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu (James J. Lippard) writes:
>>Tom McIver, an anthropologist who has written several articles for
>>_Creation/Evolution_, _NCSE Reports_, and the _Skeptical Inquirer_,
>>as well as the book _Anti-Evolution: An Annotated Bibliography_, has
>>a book on creationism that will be published by the Univ. of California
>>Press. Chapter 15 of the book is titled "Creationism and Racism," and
>>the history of connections between creationism and racism. A shorter
>>version of the chapter will be published in a future issue of _Skeptic_
>>magazine (probably the issue after next).
>
> This whole thing makes me more than a little uncomfortable. It is, it
>seems, the moral equivalent of a chapter in a Creationist book linking
>evolutionism and abortion, or evolutionism and atheism. We (rightly)
>complain when Creationists introduce such faulty arguments here; we should
>do the same for the other side.
>
> Creationism and racism are no more linked than are evolution and atheism.
I'm not too sure about the first part of this sentence.
There seem to be three places in the English speaking world where
creationism is strongly supported - the southern states of USA, South
Arica, and, though it pains me somewhat to admit it, the northern part
of Queensland, Australia.
These three places are also the three parts of the English speaking
world where, until fairly recently, racism of the anti-black variety
was a prominent part of the culture.
Now I know that correlation doesn't prove any sort of cause-effect
relationship, but I must admit to a bit of uneasiness about the
vehemence of creationist claims about racism, given this background.
> -- Dave
>--
> *-------------------------------------------------------------*
> * David Knapp d...@imager.llnl.gov (510) 422-1023 *
> * 98.7% of all statistics are made up. *
> *-------------------------------------------------------------*
Ken Smith
--
Dr. Ken Smith | snailmail: Department of Mathematics,
email: k...@maths.uq.oz.au | The University of Queensland,
Mathematician by profession; | St Lucia, Qld. 4072.
reason sometimes rules. | Australia.
Simon E Spero
history. Fascists of a nazi disposition tend towards an idealised theology
of the Nordic gods, and El Duce co-opted the Catholic church to a certain
extent (not something that would go down well with your average KKK member).
The only mythology that the far right seems to agree on is their attempts
at so-called "historical revisionism".
Simon
--
Hackers Local 42- National Union of Computer Operatives, Chapel Hill section
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Tar Heel Information Services - Nothing but net! | WAIS/Z39.50 spoken here
North Carolina - First in Usenet | DoD #612 | Tel: +1-919-962-9107
asia z lerner
>
>In article <1994Jan17.0...@midway.uchicago.edu>, azle...@quads.uchicago.edu (asia z lerner) writes:
>|> How sure are you that all races are "equal" in some coherent sense?
>
> Very :). There are good mathemeticians from every race, and that
>is the only reasonable test of equality, I'm sure you will agree.
No, actually.
1) I am not sure how one would go about proving that mathematical
skills are a good way to measure intelligence, that they are more
important to intelligence that musical skills, say, or painting skills,
or the ability to rime verses.
2) Statistically speaking, if you actually count noses, you'll find a
large amount of inequality between the races in giving rise to great
mathematicians. You'll find equally large inequalities between sexes and
between social classes, from what I understand.
Asia
Wade Hines
> dan...@iastate.edu (Daniel A Ashlock) writes:
>> Very :). There are good mathemeticians from every race, and that
>>is the only reasonable test of equality, I'm sure you will agree.
>No, actually.
>1) I am not sure how one would go about proving that mathematical
>skills are a good way to measure intelligence, that they are more
>important to intelligence that musical skills, say, or painting skills,
>or the ability to rime verses.
Just the other day, I was heard to say,
The ability to spell, couldn't win me hell,
But now I see, and all will agree,
that creativity, in my orthography,
won't help my cause and doesn't help yours either.
--Wade
Paul Keck
>In article <2hee1g$8...@news.iastate.edu> dan...@iastate.edu (Daniel A Ashlock) writes:
>>
>> Very :). There are good mathemeticians from every race, and that
>>is the only reasonable test of equality, I'm sure you will agree.
>
>No, actually.
>
>1) I am not sure how one would go about proving that mathematical
>skills are a good way to measure intelligence, that they are more
>important to intelligence that musical skills, say, or painting skills,
>or the ability to rime verses.
What, cover them with frost?
Or ancient mariners?
Couldn't help myself. I do agree with Asia that math may not be the best way
to measure intelligence. It's perhaps the best way to measure math skills,
though.
Paul Keck I'm not an ancient mariner, but I play one on TV.
Herb Huston
asia z lerner <azle...@midway.uchicago.edu> wrote:
}2) Statistically speaking, if you actually count noses, you'll find a
}large amount of inequality between the races in giving rise to great
}mathematicians. You'll find equally large inequalities between sexes and
}between social classes, from what I understand.
References, please.
-- Herb Huston
-- hus...@access.digex.net
asia z lerner
>
>Just the other day, I was heard to say,
>The ability to spell, couldn't win me hell,
>But now I see, and all will agree,
>that creativity, in my orthography,
>won't help my cause and doesn't help yours either.
>--Wade
Well, it ain't the letter, it's the spirit.
Asia
James J. Lippard
For gender, see
Camilla Persson Benbow, "Sex differences in mathematical reasoning
ability in intellectually talented preadolescents: Their nature,
effects, and possible causes," _Behavioral and Brain Sciences_
11(2, June 1988):169-232.
92...@tayloru.edu
The examples below reek of witch hunting. I mean really, one of the mentioned
names is insinuated to be a racist because he taught at a school that was
founded by the brother of an author that wrote a book that was the basis for
"Birth of a Nation". GET REAL!! I can just see you standing up in Congress
and yelling that you have 230, uh no, 247, uh no, 333 names of commun..uh I
mean racists. I do not believe in any sort of superior race or inferior race,
etc. But the extent that this goes to is unreal Get a CLUE!!.
Daniel A Ashlock
In article <1994Jan18.1...@midway.uchicago.edu>, azle...@quads.uchicago.edu (asia z lerner) writes:
[I didn't see your smiley face]
But he kept it under a page, so it's okay.
James J. Lippard
:The examples below reek of witch hunting. I mean really, one of the mentioned
:founded by the brother of an author that wrote a book that was the basis for
:"Birth of a Nation". GET REAL!! I can just see you standing up in Congress
This is simply not true. None of the examples below match this description.
:and yelling that you have 230, uh no, 247, uh no, 333 names of commun..uh I
:mean racists. I do not believe in any sort of superior race or inferior race,
:etc. But the extent that this goes to is unreal Get a CLUE!!.
:
:> * Prominent fundamentalists connected with the KKK: Bob Shuler,
:> Billy Sunday, and Bob Jones, Sr. (McIver says that "Perhaps
:> 40,000 fundamentalist ministers joined the Klan.")
Members of the Klan--that seems like pretty solid prima facie evidence
of racism to me.
:> Rev. A.C. Dixon, who was editor of _The Fundamentals_, from
:> which fundamentalists get their name, was the brother of novelist
:> Thomas Dixon, author of the 1905 novel _The Clansman_, which was
:> the basis of D.W. Griffith's _Birth of a Nation_.
This example has been legitimately criticized as "guilt by association."
:> * Prominent creationists affiliated with Bob Jones University:
:> Emmett Williams, former editor of the _Creation Research Society
:> Quarterly_ and George Mulfinger, CRS board member.
Bob Jones University came under fire by the U.S. government a few years
ago for its racially discriminatory policies, including a student code
of conduct which forbids interracial dating. Bob Jones Jr. apparently
holds at least a few of Bob Jones Sr.'s views regarding race.
:> * Gerald Winrod, founder of Defenders of the Christian Faith,
:> published the "openly racist" magazine _Defender_, which published
:> creationist articles by George McCready Price, W.B. Riley, and
:> A.I. Brown. For a time, it also published Harry Rimmer's newsletter
:> in its pages. (Riley was the leader of the World's Christian
:> Fundamentals Association, a prominent fundamentalist group in the
:> 1920's. He openly advocated white supremacy.)
Being published in a racist magazine isn't the strongest evidence of
racism one can have, but it does offer some support. For Winrod and Riley
there is direct evidence of racism.
:> * Charles Totten, the Yale military science instructor who came up
:> with alleged calculations proving "Joshua's Missing Day" (later
:> turned into an urban legend about NASA by Harold Hill), was also
:> an advocate of British-Israelism (promoted in his journal _Our
:> Race_) and a pyramidologist.
Totten was a racist and an anti-Semite.
:> * James Gray, editor of the _Moody Monthly_ and head of the Moody
:> Bible Institute, was a firm believer in the genuineness of the
:> anti-Semitic fraud _Protocols of the Elders of Zion_. When Henry
:> Ford publicly apologized for a series of articles by A.J. Cameron
:> (another British-Israelite) about the _Protocols_ in Ford's
:> Dearborn, Mich. newspaper, Gray claimed that Ford's apology was
:> itself evidence of Jewish conspiracy.
Looks to me like Gray was an anti-Semite.
:> * Jarah Crawford, a Vermont Assembly of God minister, claims that
:> scientific creationism isn't creationist enough because it allows
:> for evolution of races.
Crawford specifically maintains that blacks were a separately created
inferior race.
:> * Herman Otten, editor of _Christian News_, is now an advocate of
:> Holocaust revisionism.
Otten says the Holocaust never happened.
Would you like to offer some specific criticisms of any of these examples,
aside from the Dixon example which you may consider retracted? How,
exactly, is this list a "witch hunt"?
Please keep in mind that in later articles I clarified the point of
the McIver chapter which I was summarizing, and that it was specifically
responding to creationist claims such as the following:
The incredible thing is that we live in a society that states it
wants to be rid of racist attitudes. Yet we are conditioned to
racist attitudes by our very education system, and the whole
foundational basis for racism permeates people's minds.
It was the evolutionary view that convinced anthropologists
there were different races of humans at different levels of
intelligence and ability. It is the Christian view that there is
one race (in the sense that we all came from the same two humans,
and therefore there are no lower or higher evolutionary groups)
and that all people are equal. (Ken Ham, _The Lie: Evolution_,
1987, p. 87)
Neither imperialism nor racism originated with Darwinism, of course,
as both have been present in one form or another throughout history.
For that matter, so has the evolutionary, materialistic, pantheistic,
humanistic philosophy been present throughout history, and careful
study will show that this has always been the root that supports
these bitter fruits. (Henry Morris, _History of Modern Creationism_,
1993, 2nd ed, p. 51)
The fruit of evolution has been all sorts of anti-Christian systems
of beliefs and practice. It has served as an intellectual basis for
Hitler's nazism and Marx's communism. It has promoted apostasy,
atheism, secular humanism, and libertinism as well as establishing
a basis for ethical relativism, which has spread through our society
like a cancer. The mind and general welfare of mankind has suffered
greatly as a result of this naturalistic philosophy. ... The widespread
influence of evolution is largely responsible for our moral decline of
recent years. (Scott M. Huse, _The Collapse of Evolution_, 1983, pp.
124, 127)
asia z lerner
O.k. - those are examples of stupid argumentation, but it's important to
remember that creationism != polygenesis and evolution != monogenesis, since
both evolution and creationism can have both polygenesist and monogenesist
interpretations. Also, in the decades immediately prior to Darwin, polygenesis
was concidered a scientifically better supported supposition, and at that
time many scientists took monogenesis to be a sentimental and religiously
based myth. For an example of those kind of opinions : poligenesis +
scientificity + racism, see Josiah Clark Nott "Types of Mankind", 1854.
Evolution, who's initial interpretation was a monogenesist one, was seen
_at that point in time_ as liberal and anti-racist [George Stocking's Victorian
Anthropology has a good chapter on the poligenenesis* + racism vs. monogenesis +
evolution + anti-racism controvercy in the anthropological world]. The
problem is that scientific doctrines "travel" in political space - so that
evolution, e.g., which was initially, in Darwin's times, associated with
liberal politics and oppinions "traveled" to the right, and say, by the
beggining of 20th century became associated with racist views and positions,
while something like environmentalism, which started as an extreme right wing
movement [associated with demands to limmit emmigration into US for
non-WASPS, for a want of a better word] travelled left, so that nowdays it's
the sine qua non of the set of opinions that would include objections to
racism, worrying about the poor, and such like bleeding hart positions. It
seems quite true to say that scientific theories, especially ones concerning
human nature, invariably have political implications and interpretations, but
those interpretations are not fixed, they can swing from one end of the
political spectrum to the other.
*this kind of scientific polygenesis was associated to scientific creationism -
chiefly, the opinion that different geographical areas had their proper
set of living species that appeared _in situ_ and that the question on how
those organisms initially came to be was beyond the bounds of science.
Asia
Stephen Watson
>problem is that scientific doctrines "travel" in political space - so that
>It
>seems quite true to say that scientific theories, especially ones concerning
>human nature, invariably have political implications and interpretations, but
>those interpretations are not fixed, they can swing from one end of the
>political spectrum to the other.
Well said, Asia: one can derive either racist or anti-racist postions
from *either* c'ist or e'ist starting points, depending on the
political "spin" one puts on it (and assuming one already has a prior
ideological motive for doing so). Jim Lippard is not trying to say
that C'ism==>racism, only trying to show that this particular mud
sticks at least as well to their own faces (w/ subtext about glass
houses and rocks). The Ken Ham passage is a particularly egregious
example of the such mud-slinging (and the historical dishonesty it
requires is absolutely breath-taking. The book's title is really
ironic, considering that Ham seems to be using the "Big Lie" tactic
himself!)
It *is* true that (certain strains of) fundy Christianity is
historically associated both with creationism and racism, and it would
hardly be surprising that the two would become linked in the
theologies propounded by certain people.
--
| Steve Watson a.k.a. wat...@sce.carleton.ca === Carleton University, Ontario |
| this->opinion = My.opinion; assert (this->opinion != CarletonU.opinion); |
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you?
But to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God - Mic 6:8
Herb Huston
James J. Lippard <lip...@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu> wrote:
}In article <2hhn49$7...@access.digex.net>, hus...@access.digex.net (Herb Huston) writes...
}>In article <1994Jan18.1...@midway.uchicago.edu>,
}>asia z lerner <azle...@midway.uchicago.edu> wrote:
}>}2) Statistically speaking, if you actually count noses, you'll find a
}>}large amount of inequality between the races in giving rise to great
}>}mathematicians. You'll find equally large inequalities between sexes and
}>}between social classes, from what I understand.
}>
}>References, please.
}
}For gender, see
}
} Camilla Persson Benbow, "Sex differences in mathematical reasoning
} ability in intellectually talented preadolescents: Their nature,
} effects, and possible causes," _Behavioral and Brain Sciences_
} 11(2, June 1988):169-232.
Uh, thanks, Jim, but really I was curious to find out whether Asiz Z. Lerner
would post a reference to a paper published during this century. (Unless
I've missed an article, she has remained true to form by not furnishing any
reference.)