Darwin's Deadly Legacy

"Biological arguments for racism may have been common before 1859, but they increased by orders of magnitude following the acceptance of evolutionary theory. The litany is familiar: cold, dispassionate, objective, modern science shows us that races can be ranked on a scale of superiority. If this offends Christian morality or a sentimental belief in human unity, so be it; science must be free to proclaim unpleasant truths."

Stephen Jay Gould
"Ontogeny and Phylogeny", Harvard University Press

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"The German Fuhrer, as I have consistently maintained, is an evolutionist; he has consciously sought to make the practice of Germany conform to the theory of evolution."

Sir Arthur Keith, "Evolution and Ethics"
Noted Scottish Anthropologist and Evolutionist

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"[Ernst] Haeckel was the chief apostle of evolution in Germany. Nordenskiold (1929) argues that he was even more influential than Darwin in convincing the world of the truth of evolution. Yet influential as Haeckel was among scientists, his general impact was even greater. Nordenskiold writes: "There are not many personalities who have so powerfully influenced the development of human culture--and that, too, in many different spheres--as Haeckel" (p. 505).

From the 1880's onward, he focused increasing attention on the political, social, and religious implications of his biological views--a set of ideas that he amalgamated into his "monistic" philosophy....But, as Gasman argues, Haeckel's greatest influence was, ultimately, in another, tragic direction--national socialism.

His evolutionary racism; his call to the German people for racial purity and unflinching devotion to a "just" state; his belief that harsh, inexorable laws of evolution ruled human civilization and nature alike, conferring upon favored races the right to dominate others; the irrational mysticism that had always stood in strange communion with his brave words about objective science--all contributed to the rise of Naziism. The Monist League that he had founded and led, though it included a wing of pacifists and leftists, made a comfortable transition to active support for Hitler."

Stephen Jay Gould
'Ontogeny and Phylogeny', Harvard University Press

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"Hitler stressed and singled out the idea of biological evolution as the most forceful weapon against traditional religion, and he repeatedly condemned Christianity for its opposition to the teachings of evolution. For Hitler, evolution was the hallmark of modern science and culture, and he defended its veracity as tenaciously as Haeckel."

Daniel Gasman, 'The Scientific Origins of National Socialism'

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"At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes, as Professor Schaaffhausen has remarked, will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the Negro or Australian and the gorilla."

Charles Darwin, 'The Descent of Man'

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"With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health.We civilized men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination [by natural selection]; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thousands, who from a weak constitution would formerly have succumbed to small-pox.

Thus the weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but excepting in the case of man himself, hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed."

Charles Darwin, 'The Descent of Man'

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