Little Green Footballs has caught the DI in another example of a creationist lie—one that it is difficult to believe they don't know the truth of. The lie is that Hitler used Darwinian philosophy to launch his Holocaust against the Jews. I have blogged about this before. The piece at the DI is by David Klinghoffer, who should know better and LGF calls him on the carpet for it:
The problem with this idea is simple—it’s not true. Klinghoffer claims that Mein Kampf uses “the language of Darwinian biology,” but in fact, Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection are not mentioned even once in Mein Kampf. Klinghoffer’s claim is just short of an outright lie.
What was new to me is the information that Hitler banned Darwin's books. LGF quotes from When Books Burn: A List of Banned Books, 1933-1939 and one of the banned items in the Third Reich was:
6. Writings of a philosophical and social nature whose content deals with the false scientific enlightenment of primitive Darwinism and Monism (Häckel).
You can tell the people at the DI this. They will find some way not to believe it. This is similar to the creationist idea that there are no transitional fossils in the rock record—when the truth is the opposite. It is only willful ignorance that perpetuates this viewpoint. As I have said before, it is getting harder and harder to tell the DI from the ICR. Sad.
When it comes to the holocaust, we Christians should deal with the log in our own eye before putting specs in the eyes of Darwin. Hitler was far more influenced by his fellow German, Martin Luther, who had his own 8-step plan to deal with the Jews. He wrote the following in his book "On the Jews and their Lies":
ReplyDelete1. "First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. ..."
2. "Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. ..."
3. "Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them. ..."
4. "Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb. ..."
5. "Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. ..."
6. "Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them. ... Such money should now be used in ... the following [way]... Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed [a certain amount]..."
7. "Seventh, I commend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow... For it is not fitting that they should let us accursed Goyim toil in the sweat of our faces while they, the holy people, idle away their time behind the stove, feasting and farting, and on top of all, boasting blasphemously of their lordship over the Christians by means of our sweat. No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants."
8. "If we wish to wash our hands of the Jews' blasphemy and not share in their guilt, we have to part company with them. They must be driven from our country" and "we must drive them out like mad dogs."
As far as I know, Darwin never advocated anything like this. In fact, he emphasized the brotherhood of all races of men.
Thanks, Gordon. I wonder if it would be worth pointing this out to David Klinghoffer to see what kind of response you would get.
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