Ryken on Darwin
Due to recent discussion on evolution and Darwin’s intentions, I want to draw attention to a post that Phil Ryken wrote at Reformation 21 a while back. Ryken points out the significance of the title of Darwin’s magnum opus The Origin of the Species in light of it’s subtitle. The subtitle? The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. Dr. Ryken shows that there is an undeniable relation between the philosophy behind eugenics, euthanasia and racism and the philosophy set out in Origin of the Species. You can read Dr. Ryken’s post here. In that post, he references the following quote from Darwin:
“With savages, the weak in body or mind are eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilised men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; 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 civilised 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 any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.”
With regard to the racism inherent in Darwin’s worldview, note what he says in The Descent of Man beginning with his section titled, “On the Formation of the Races of Man.”
About Post Author
The Darwin quote is from The Descent of Man, and it appears on page 116 of this edition, which is online:
http://books.google.com/books?id=iArG1dDytFAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Nick, when you say,
what are you referring to? I don’t see anything in Ryken’s post that is not also in yours, and I don’t see any argument in either post. All you and he do is point out that the word “races” is in the subtitle of Darwin’s The Origin of Species, and quote a paragraph which is entirely descriptive, not normative at all, and assert that there is a relationship between the “philosophy” of Origin and euthanasia, eugenics, and racism. Where are are you “showing” anything? Do you have anything beyond bare assertion?
Steve
Steve,
If the quote that Ryken set out does not show the folly of Darwin’s theory-a theory that thinks that the mentally challenged are those that belong to the category of the “degenratation of a domestic race.” That, is an atrocity. God has created the healthy and the sick to bring glory to Him. The mentally challenged are no less valuable in His sight.
Furthermore, Darwin used the phrase “the races of man” to intimate that there was more than one race. This is racism indeed. Biblical theology shows that there is one race–the human race. All men descended from the historical Adam.
“Darwin used the phrase “the races of man†to intimate that there was more than one race. This is racism indeed. Biblical theology shows that there is one race–the human race. All men descended from the historical Adam.”
Probably Darwin had in mind earlier non-homo sapien bipedal hominids. What’s the connection to racism?
I do agree with you (and Ryken) here, though—the connection that a eugenics proponent could have made to this quote of Darwin’s is obvious. It reminds me, interestingly, of Waltke’s further clarification regarding that recent video: “Evolution as a process must be clearly distinguished from evolutionism as a philosophy. The latter is incompatible with orthodox Christian theology.”