Darwin and Hitler

Here's another comment I left on the blog of David Klinghoffer, an Orthodox Jew, who is also trying to establish the connection between these two individuals. http://blog.beliefnet.com/kingdomofpriests/2009/08/darwin-faithful-indirectly-affirm-darwin-hitler-link.html#preview

Although there isn’t a necessary connection between Darwinism and eugenics and genocide, there seems to be a logical one for at least two reasons:

1. As society rejects theism in favor of naturalism (Darwinism), it also rejects any basis for moral absolutes. As such, morals no longer constitute an independent reality to be discovered. Instead, they must be arbitrarily created. This opens the door to the creation of any number of moralities—social Darwinism, hedonism, enlightened selfism, utilitarianism—none of which have an adequate rational basis. As philosopher David Hume had pointed out, it isn’t logically possible to go from what “is” to what “ought to be.” Therefore, how can we contemplate standing up against evil if we refuse to recognize that such a thing even exists?

Consequently, atheist Arthur Leff, Duke School of Law, writes,

“The so-called death of God wasn’t just His funeral, but was the elimination of any coherent ethical or legal system…As it stands now, everything is up for grabs…Napalming babies is bad, starving the poor wicked, buying and selling people is depraved—but, ‘Sez who?’ God help us.”

2. Within this moral vacuum, the Darwinist understands that natural selection is the guiding and mothering force that has sired us forth from the slim, and we are its grandest “achievement.” It is therefore understandable that genomic progress would become our highest goal. (And historically, it often has!) For many, this means helping natural selection along with some of our own eugenic, genocidal manipulations.

Although this course will not always be taken, there is nothing within naturalism that argues persuasively against it.