Claim CA005:
Evolution promotes racism.
Source:
Morris, Henry M. 1985. Scientific Creationism. Green Forest, AR: Master
Books, p. 179.
Response:
- When properly understood, evolution refutes racism. Before Darwin, people
used typological thinking for living things, considering different
plants and animals to be their distinct "kinds." This gave rise to a
misleading conception of human races, in which different races are
thought of as separate and distinct. Darwinism helps eliminate
typological thinking and with it the basis for racism.
- Genetic studies show that humans are remarkably homogeneous
genetically, so all humans are only one biological race. Evolution
does not teach racism; it teaches the very opposite.
- Racism is thousands of years older than the theory of evolution, and
its prevalence has probably decreased since Darwin's day; certainly
slavery is much less now. That is the opposite of what we would expect
if evolution promotes racism.
- Darwin himself was far less racist than most
of his
contemporaries.
- Although creationism is not inherently racist, it is based upon and
inseparable from religious bigotry, and religious bigotry is no less
hateful and harmful than racism.
- Racism historically has been closely associated with creationism (Moore
2004), as is evident in the following examples:
- George McCready Price, who is to young-earth creationism what Darwin
is to evolution, was much more racist than Darwin. He wrote,
The poor little fellow who went to the south
Got lost in the forests dank;
His skin grew black, as the fierce sun beat
And scorched his hair with its tropic heat,
And his mind became a blank.
In The Phantom of Organic Evolution, he referred to Negroes and
Mongolians as degenerate humans (Numbers 1992, 85).
- During much of the long history of apartheid in South Africa,
evolution was not allowed to be taught. The Christian National
Education system, formalized in 1948 and accepted as national policy
from 1967 to 1993, stated, among other things,
that white children should 'receive a separate education from
black children to prepare them for their respective superior and
inferior positions in South African social and economic life, and
all education should be based on Christian National principles'
(Esterhuysen and Smith 1998).
The policy excluded the concept of evolution, taught a version of
history that negatively characterized non-whites, and made Bible
education, including the teaching of creationism, and religious
assemblies compulsory (Esterhuysen and Smith 1998).
- The Bible Belt in the southern United States
fought hardest to maintain slavery.
- Henry Morris, of the Institute for Creation Research, has in the past
read racism into his interpretation of the Bible:
Sometimes the Hamites, especially the Negroes, have even become
actual slaves to the others. Possessed of a genetic character
concerned mainly with mundane, practical matters, they have often
eventually been displaced by the intellectual and philosophical
acumen of the Japhethites and the religious zeal of the Semites
(Morris 1976, 241).
- None of this matters to the science of evolution.
Links:
Trott, Richard and Jim Lippard, 2003. Creationism implies racism?
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/racism.html
References:
- Esterhuysen, Amanda and Jeannette Smith, 1998. Evolution: 'the
forbidden word'? South African Archaeological Bulletin 53: 135-137.
Quoted from Stear, J., 2004. It's official! Racism is an integral part
of creationist dogma.
http://noanswersingenesis.org.au/aig_and_racism_response.htm
- Moore, R., 2004. (see below)
- Morris, Henry M., 1976. The Genesis Record: A Scientific and
Devotional Commentary on the Book of Beginnings. San Diego:
Creation-Life Publishers.
- Numbers, Ronald L., 1992, The Creationists, New York: Knopf.
Further Reading:
Mayr, Ernst, 2000. Darwin's influence on modern thought. Scientific
American
283(1) (Jul.): 78-83.
Moore, Randy, 2004. The dark side of creationism. The American Biology
Teacher 66(2): 85-87.
created 2001-4-29, modified 2006-9-6