I have heard people claim that evolution is the cause of all our social problems. Communism, Nazism, racism, lust, greed, hate, all are caused by the teaching of evolution. Is this true?
Social problems existed long before evolution. We have always had greed, lust, hate, and racism. Getting rid of evolution would not remove these problems. Religion has tried for thousands of years to control these problems with limited success. By blaming evolution we are missing the real complex social issues behind these problems.
Evolution is not the foundation of communism. In fact, the teaching of Darwinian evolution was outlawed in the Soviet Union during Stalin’s reign. Many biologists were sent to the gulags or were never heard from again. Please see here for more information on Lysenko and Lysenkoism
Nazism was not based on evolution. The German Workers Party had a list of twenty five points what they considered made a good German. Evolution is not mentioned anywhere. (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/25points.html) Hitler himself thought that he was doing God’s work.
In his 1938 Reichstag speech he proclaimed: “I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By fighting of the Jews I am doing the Lord’s work” (Shermer, The Science of Good and Evil, p. 153). There are many such more quotes in Hitler’s Mein Kampf: “The folkish-minded man, in particular, has the sacred duty, each in his own denomination, of making people stop just talking superficially of God's will, and actually fulfill God's will, and not let God's word be desecrated. For God's will gave men their form, their essence and their abilities. Anyone who destroys His work is declaring war on the Lord's creation, the divine will.” (Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Ralph Mannheim, ed., New York: Mariner Books, 1999, p. 562.)
Nowhere does Hitler mention that evolution caused him to have his particular views. Please see here and here for evidence of that.
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