Curtis Dahlgren
Evolution: The Thalidomide of social silver bullets (a "best of")
By Curtis Dahlgren
"Secularism n.; ethical doctrine which advocates a moral code independent of all religious considerations or practices."— Webster
OUR SEXAGENARIAN HIPPIES ARE HAVING FITS. Since their sex lives are now so dysfunctional, and all their Utopian visions seem to be going "up in smoke," they have decided to not make love but to make war, openly, on Christianity. Therefore, in honor of college "orientation" week, I'm re-posting one of my very best columns
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/dahlgren/031020
When people say, "It's not about [such and such]," often that's the very thing it's ALL ABOUT. Believers in Darwinism often say that evolution isn't about religion, or that it is "neutral on God." Educator John Dewey, however, half a century after the publication of Darwin's theory, said that evolution had "introduced a mode of thinking that in the end was bound to transform the logic of knowledge, and hence the treatment of morals, politics, and religion." And I can picture him saying that with all the "neutrality" of Dan Rather announcing that the state of Tennessee had just gone for Al Gore in 2000.
One of the more honest Darwinists was Huxley, who made no secret of the fact that what evolution was "about" was freedom from traditional morals, for him and his friends. As for politics, Karl Marx wanted to dedicate "Das Kapital" to Darwin (his request was turned down), and as for religion, many theologians now insist that they are descended from some primate themselves.
An even bigger issue than the theory's scientific accuracy is its ramifications. Though touted by early advocates as a social cure-all for everything from poverty to guilty consciences, its actual ramifications have been specific and horrific. Darwin's Origin was published in 1859, and three years later, Russian writer Turgueniev described some of the consequences of the theory in Fathers and Children.
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition ("Nihilism"), the world's first hippies weren't those of the 1960s, but those in 1860s Russia, the forerunners of the Communist Revolution:
"Turgueniev had noticed a new and strikingly original type [of student] — young men and women in slovenly attire, who called in question and ridiculed the generally received convictions and respectable conventionalities of social life. . . . They reversed the traditional order of things even in trivial matters of external appearance, the males allowing the hair to grow long and the female adepts cutting it short. . . . [They] had raised themselves above the level of so-called public opinion, despised Philistine respectability, and rather liked to scandalize people still under the influence of what they considered antiquated prejudices. . . .
"Some of the Nihilists maintained that things were not yet ripe for a rising of the masses . . . that before attempting to overthrow the existing social organization some idea should be formed as to the order of things which should take its place [but] . . . in a brochure issued in 1874 one of the most influential leaders (Tkatchev) explained that the object of the revolutionary party should be, not the preparation of revolution in general, but the realization of it at the earliest possible moment, that it was a mistake to attach great importance to questions of future organization. . . .
"In accordance with the fashionable doctrine of evolution [my emphasis], the reconstruction of society on the tabula rosa might be left, it was thought, to the spontaneous action of natural forces." So says the Britannica, and the tsar was assassinated in 1881 by those "hippies" (virtually 100 years to the month prior to the attempt on President Reagan's life by someone influenced by our hippie movement). Violence and back-lashes to it culminated in the 1917 revolution.
The World & I, August 1999, ("Darwin's 'Origin' Transforms Culture") said this:
"The scientific search for truth takes place in a cultural context, and Darwin's theorizing was no exception. He unconsciously absorbed many social and political values peculiar to his time, place, and class; and these values indirectly colored his ideas. . . . In their turn, social, political, and economic theorists appropriated features of Darwin's evolutionary argument for their own constructs, some of which were strikingly different from Darwin's values."
The eugenics movement and the Bolshevist Revolution are only two examples. The evils of all the wars of the Dark Ages were only dwarfed by the deaths resulting directly from the dogma of the various proponents of Darwinism in the 20th century. Ironically, I found a Wisconsin license plate made in 1917 that outlasted Russian Communism and its attempt to wipe out the Bible and religion and to engineer a secular "New Soviet Man."
Thomas Jefferson said, "I hold (without appeal to revelation) that when we take a view of the Universe, in its parts general or particular, it is impossible for the human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and indefinite power in every atom of its composition. . . . So irresistible are these evidences of an intelligent and powerful Agent that, of the infinite numbers of men who have existed thro' all time, they have believed, in the proportion of a million at least to [one], in the hypothesis of an eternal pre-existence of a creator, rather than in that of self-existent Universe" (letter to John Adams, 4/11/1823).
The term Darwinizing had been coined in the 1700s to refer to theorizing done by Charles Darwin's grandfather, so Jefferson had already heard it all and he still said that believers outnumbered non-believers a million to one. What's foreboding about today's secular movement is that John Dewey's public schools have used more patience and systematic methods than Russia's Bolshevists, and the scales are beginning to tilt in the direction of a million doubters for every true believer.
Is the evil genie out of the bottle for good? All the Founding Fathers could do is give the new Republic a shove in the right direction. The final fate of their high hopes is, without a doubt, up to you and me — if you are up to the task, so help us God.
CONCLUSION: Back to the present
A friend of mine took exception to that concluding line from the column above. He said "This system is going down." I KNOW it's going down (that was the point), but I'm also saying that it's time to "PULL UP! PULL UP!" on the old joy stick before we hit the ground.
When the ACLU and the rest of the Utopians say that all they want is a "secular" society through "separation" of state and religious values, let's be honest about their MEANING. They know — and more and more of us are coming to know — that they really want a Darwinized society with "ethics" devoid of "all religious considerations." And even our "great" universities are beginning to get the vague foreboding that we reap what we sew when it comes to confusion, meaninglessness, hypocrisy, and political correctness.
WHATEVER YOU DO, do not be so preoccupied with the dog days of summer that you fail to read the article featured on RenewAmerica's front page:
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51603
It's a classic paradox: While proclaiming their innocence of any "war on religion," it's obvious to anyone with his eyes wide open that the only "religion" they really respect is one that keeps its mouth shut (like the "official" state-churches in the old Soviet Union and in Red China today)!
First comes the carrot and then the STICK.
When those who speak of the evils of "divisiveness" say, "Can't we all just get along?" — what they really mean is — "How dare you disagree with US? We have 'academic freedom' and you DON'T. If you're too stupid to see that we're SMARTER than you are, that's TOUGH."
In a nutshell: "Peace, peace — when there is no peace."
WATCH WHOM THE REAL "BOOK BURNERS" TURN OUT TO BE!
© Curtis Dahlgren
"Secularism n.; ethical doctrine which advocates a moral code independent of all religious considerations or practices."
OUR SEXAGENARIAN HIPPIES ARE HAVING FITS. Since their sex lives are now so dysfunctional, and all their Utopian visions seem to be going "up in smoke," they have decided to not make love but to make war, openly, on Christianity. Therefore, in honor of college "orientation" week, I'm re-posting one of my very best columns
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/dahlgren/031020
When people say, "It's not about [such and such]," often that's the very thing it's ALL ABOUT. Believers in Darwinism often say that evolution isn't about religion, or that it is "neutral on God." Educator John Dewey, however, half a century after the publication of Darwin's theory, said that evolution had "introduced a mode of thinking that in the end was bound to transform the logic of knowledge, and hence the treatment of morals, politics, and religion." And I can picture him saying that with all the "neutrality" of Dan Rather announcing that the state of Tennessee had just gone for Al Gore in 2000.
One of the more honest Darwinists was Huxley, who made no secret of the fact that what evolution was "about" was freedom from traditional morals, for him and his friends. As for politics, Karl Marx wanted to dedicate "Das Kapital" to Darwin (his request was turned down), and as for religion, many theologians now insist that they are descended from some primate themselves.
An even bigger issue than the theory's scientific accuracy is its ramifications. Though touted by early advocates as a social cure-all for everything from poverty to guilty consciences, its actual ramifications have been specific and horrific. Darwin's Origin was published in 1859, and three years later, Russian writer Turgueniev described some of the consequences of the theory in Fathers and Children.
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition ("Nihilism"), the world's first hippies weren't those of the 1960s, but those in 1860s Russia, the forerunners of the Communist Revolution:
"Turgueniev had noticed a new and strikingly original type [of student] — young men and women in slovenly attire, who called in question and ridiculed the generally received convictions and respectable conventionalities of social life. . . . They reversed the traditional order of things even in trivial matters of external appearance, the males allowing the hair to grow long and the female adepts cutting it short. . . . [They] had raised themselves above the level of so-called public opinion, despised Philistine respectability, and rather liked to scandalize people still under the influence of what they considered antiquated prejudices. . . .
"Some of the Nihilists maintained that things were not yet ripe for a rising of the masses . . . that before attempting to overthrow the existing social organization some idea should be formed as to the order of things which should take its place [but] . . . in a brochure issued in 1874 one of the most influential leaders (Tkatchev) explained that the object of the revolutionary party should be, not the preparation of revolution in general, but the realization of it at the earliest possible moment, that it was a mistake to attach great importance to questions of future organization. . . .
"In accordance with the fashionable doctrine of evolution [my emphasis], the reconstruction of society on the tabula rosa might be left, it was thought, to the spontaneous action of natural forces." So says the Britannica, and the tsar was assassinated in 1881 by those "hippies" (virtually 100 years to the month prior to the attempt on President Reagan's life by someone influenced by our hippie movement). Violence and back-lashes to it culminated in the 1917 revolution.
The World & I, August 1999, ("Darwin's 'Origin' Transforms Culture") said this:
"The scientific search for truth takes place in a cultural context, and Darwin's theorizing was no exception. He unconsciously absorbed many social and political values peculiar to his time, place, and class; and these values indirectly colored his ideas. . . . In their turn, social, political, and economic theorists appropriated features of Darwin's evolutionary argument for their own constructs, some of which were strikingly different from Darwin's values."
The eugenics movement and the Bolshevist Revolution are only two examples. The evils of all the wars of the Dark Ages were only dwarfed by the deaths resulting directly from the dogma of the various proponents of Darwinism in the 20th century. Ironically, I found a Wisconsin license plate made in 1917 that outlasted Russian Communism and its attempt to wipe out the Bible and religion and to engineer a secular "New Soviet Man."
Thomas Jefferson said, "I hold (without appeal to revelation) that when we take a view of the Universe, in its parts general or particular, it is impossible for the human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and indefinite power in every atom of its composition. . . . So irresistible are these evidences of an intelligent and powerful Agent that, of the infinite numbers of men who have existed thro' all time, they have believed, in the proportion of a million at least to [one], in the hypothesis of an eternal pre-existence of a creator, rather than in that of self-existent Universe" (letter to John Adams, 4/11/1823).
The term Darwinizing had been coined in the 1700s to refer to theorizing done by Charles Darwin's grandfather, so Jefferson had already heard it all and he still said that believers outnumbered non-believers a million to one. What's foreboding about today's secular movement is that John Dewey's public schools have used more patience and systematic methods than Russia's Bolshevists, and the scales are beginning to tilt in the direction of a million doubters for every true believer.
Is the evil genie out of the bottle for good? All the Founding Fathers could do is give the new Republic a shove in the right direction. The final fate of their high hopes is, without a doubt, up to you and me — if you are up to the task, so help us God.
CONCLUSION: Back to the present
A friend of mine took exception to that concluding line from the column above. He said "This system is going down." I KNOW it's going down (that was the point), but I'm also saying that it's time to "PULL UP! PULL UP!" on the old joy stick before we hit the ground.
When the ACLU and the rest of the Utopians say that all they want is a "secular" society through "separation" of state and religious values, let's be honest about their MEANING. They know — and more and more of us are coming to know — that they really want a Darwinized society with "ethics" devoid of "all religious considerations." And even our "great" universities are beginning to get the vague foreboding that we reap what we sew when it comes to confusion, meaninglessness, hypocrisy, and political correctness.
WHATEVER YOU DO, do not be so preoccupied with the dog days of summer that you fail to read the article featured on RenewAmerica's front page:
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51603
EVOLUTION WATCH
Show links Darwin, Hitler ideologies
Holocaust was fallout of evolution theory, says new production
Posted: August 19, 2006
[excerpts]
"This show basically is about the social effects of Darwinism, and shows this idea, which is scientifically bankrupt, has probably been responsible for more bloodshed than anything else in the history of humanity," Jerry Newcomb, one of two co-producers, told WorldNetDaily.
Author and Christian broadcaster D. James Kennedy said the new "Darwin's Deadly Legacy," is a ground-breaking inquiry into Darwin's "chilling" social impact, and it will air nationwide on Aug. 26-27 on "The Coral Ridge Hour."
. . . Karl Marx wouldn't embrace all (Darwin's) tenets, but said, 'This is a scientific theory on which we can base our theory of man,'" Newcomb told WND.
Ann Coulter, bestselling author of "Godless: The Church of Liberalism," and a WND columnist, said Hitler simply was taking Darwinism from the theoretical to the practical. "He thought the Aryans were the fittest and he was just hurrying natural selection along," she said.
"We talk about the link between Darwin and Hitler, and in the middle ground, eugenics," said Newcomb. "Darwin led to eugenics, which led directly to Hitler."
"I was just shocked about a week ago, (when a news report) talked about a designer clinic, where you could design your own baby. They said everybody seems to want perfect Aryans. . . "
It's a classic paradox: While proclaiming their innocence of any "war on religion," it's obvious to anyone with his eyes wide open that the only "religion" they really respect is one that keeps its mouth shut (like the "official" state-churches in the old Soviet Union and in Red China today)!
First comes the carrot and then the STICK.
When those who speak of the evils of "divisiveness" say, "Can't we all just get along?" — what they really mean is — "How dare you disagree with US? We have 'academic freedom' and you DON'T. If you're too stupid to see that we're SMARTER than you are, that's TOUGH."
In a nutshell: "Peace, peace — when there is no peace."
WATCH WHOM THE REAL "BOOK BURNERS" TURN OUT TO BE!
© Curtis Dahlgren
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
