Darwin is 200 Years Old

This year of Darwin's 200th birthday, a book was published in an attempt to shed more light on Charles Darwin, and his ideas and motivation.

"Darwin's Sacred Cause" by Adrian Desmond and James Moore

I came across the book in the library yesterday, and only skimmed through it a bit before putting it back (typical of me), then I looked up some comments on the Internet.

I was surprised to read this new take on Darwin, that apparently his scientific work was in the context of an Abolitionist background. Darwin's most influential friends and family were anti-slavery, and so was Darwin, in his own way. Of course, "science" cannot be used promote theories to try to prove a certain ideological point of view, like Abolitionism. So it would unethical, scientifically, for Darwin to formulate scientific theories ideas with the goal of abolishing slavery.

I have a copy of "Naturalist's Voyage on HMS Beagle". I last read it about 35 years ago, I skipped through it again to see what attitude Darwin might be shaping toward slavery and racism when he was in his twenties.

P. 18 (about some runaway slaves who were eking out a subsistence in the mountains) "At length they were discovered, and a party of soldiers being sent, the whole were seized with the exception of one old woman, who, sooner than again be led into slavery, dashed herself to pieces from the summit of the mountain. In a Roman matron this would have been called the noble love of freedom: in a poor negress it is mere brutal obstinacy."

P.22 (visiting an estate near Rio de Janeiro) "As long as the idea of slavery could be banished, there was something exceedingly fascinating in this simple and patriarchal style of living." .... "On such fazendas as these, I have no doubt that slaves pass happy and contented lives."

p. 480 "On the 19th of August we finally left the shores of Brazil. I thank God, I shall never again visit a slave-country. To this day, if I hear a distant scream, it recalls with painful vividness my feelings, when passing a house near Pernambuco, I heard the most pitiable moans, and could not but suspect some poor slave was being tortured, yet knew that I was powerless as a child even to remonstrate. I suspected these moans were from a tortured slave, for I was told that this was the case in another instance. Near Rio de Janeiro I lived opposite to an old lady, who kept screws to crush the fingers of her female slaves. I have staid in a house where a young household mulatto, daily and hourly, was reviled, beaten and persecuted enough to break the spirit of the lowest animal. I have seen a little boy, six or seven years old, struck thrice with a horse-whip (before I could interfere), on his naked head, for having handed me a glass of water not quite clean; I saw his father tremble at a mere glance from his master's eye. These latter cruelties were witnessed by me in a Spanish colony, in which it has always been said, that slaves are better treated than by the Portuguese, English, or other European nations"

Darwin continues on a rant for about a page, along the same lines followed up with:

"And these deeds are done and palliated by men, who profess to love their neighbours as themselves, who believe in God, and pray that his Will be done on earth! It makes one's blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen and our American descendants, with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty: but it is a consolation to reflect, that we at least have made a greater sacrifice, than ever made by any nation, to expiate our sin."

After that re-read, I would not be surprised if he was quite happy to see one of the pillars of slavery come down in his Theory of Evolution. That pillar being the religious argument that "God created man in His image, to have dominion over the beasts etc." Where racists insisted, and insist to this very day that Adam was a white man. Since there are no photos in the Bible, it's hard to prove that Adam might have been African or Asian, or possibly even monkey-like.

Darwin's theory of evolution blew away this white racist religious argument, along with many other beliefs of the time. But religious extremists are still fighting it tooth and nail, blaming Darwin for the Nazi holocaust, and claiming he has held back scientific advancement. I believe the opposite is actually closer to the truth.

It should come as no surprise that hatred of Darwin is strongly based in former slave territory of the Southern US. What is a surprise is that their numbers seem to be growing. Where once the racists' main goal was the return of slavery, it seems like they have now given up on that as hopeless, and now are turning themselves more toward end of the world scenario. Their goal now is to start a nuclear holy war: Christians united with Jews against Muslims, leading to the final days of the planet. It is a natural psychological progression, actually, one followed by Hitler when he found out that he could not dominate and enslave the rest of the world, he would then try destroy as much of it as he could before killing himself.

It's too late for Hitler and the Nazis, of course, but it's too bad we can't get some therapy for the leftover religious racists before they hurt somebody. We know it can be cured, just by the example of Germans today, but first you have to admit you are sick.

The picture? In case you couldn't guess, it's Adam and Eve from a Christian website.