Show Links Darwin, Hitler Ideologies

[Ladyfractal]

Hitler tried to use Artificial Selection instead of letting the Natural Selection have its way. So Hitler wasn't a True Darwinist.

 

I think he was more focused on survival of the fitest. He argued that the fitest were killing off the weaklings.

 

 

There's a couple of problems with the "Hitler was inspired by Darwin". Firstly, Hitler was, more properly, a *social* Darwinian which is to Darwinism what Britney Spears is to music--tangentially related to Holst, in that they both use notes. Secondly, the Nazis also discovered the link between cigarette smoking and cancer...does that mean that smoking is suddenly *not* a health risk? No.

 

Now, the other thing--and it's been brought up here already but I'm going to echo it anyway--is that Christianity was used, in a far more direct way, to justify, to take one instance, chattel slavery in the United States and segregation after the end of slavery system. But Christians don't want to admit that because the slaveholders were not 'true Christians'.

 

Lastly (returning to Hitler the Darwinian), Darwinism really figured very tangentially in Hitler's ideas. While eugenics did figure into it, that was more the result of Galton and Spencer (who, incidentally, is the person who coined 'survival of the fittest') and the Nazis drew far more inspiration from the germ theory of disease than any Darwinian idea. If you read the propoganda, there's a lot about European Jews, gypsies, etc. being a disease--less, far less actually, about them being an unfit variation on the species.

 

Like most attacks on Darwinian theory from lay people, this one has no more veracity than the idea that 'how do you get from mud to a human being'. It's a non sequitur.

 

Cheers

lf

[Reverend AtheiStar]

And think of all the warships and the submarines used in the wars. Archimedes deserved to DIE by the hand of the Roman soldier for his ideas of bouyance of bodies in water. And not to mention all the triangulations that are done in the GPS over the satelites today to guide the soldiers in Iraq, because his evil theories about triangles and circles. Damn him to Hades!!!

 

Yes! And whoever invented the wheel! No wheels, no tanks, no jeeps, no planes, no cars, etc! What about the first primitive humans who learned to control fire? Think of all the horrors fire has brought us! Hell, why not go all the way back into Christianity: No Yahweh, no humans, nothing bad that came from humans! There we go. If it's good for Darwin, then it's good for their god.