Two Jews' views of Darwinism & the holocaust
Ben Stein and Jeffrey Selman are both -- by their own admission -- Jewish. Ben Stein is of course the star of the anti-Darwinist movie "Expelled." Jeffrey Selman was the lead plaintiff in the Selman v. Cobb County lawsuit against evolution-disclaimer textbook stickers. They have differing views about the relationship between Darwinism and the holocaust. Clevelandjewishnews.com said of Jeffrey Selman,
John West, in responding to Jeffrey Selman's above statements, said,
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Yes -- we know that William Jennings Bryan and all those other evil creationist fundies wanted to exterminate the Jews.
Ben Stein said in an interview with Paul Crouch Jr. on the Trinity Broadcasting Network,
The Darwinists' reactions to Ben Stein's above statements were predictable.
There seems to be an element of truth in Ben Stein's statements. Like a mad scientist in a horror movie, many Darwinists seem to have morbid, sadistic and Strangelovian fascinations with the pernicious social effects of Darwinism. These Darwinists don’t just regard Darwinism as a necessary evil but shamelessly worship Darwin — there are Darwin Day celebrations, “I love Darwin” knick-knacks, “Friend of Darwin” certificates handed out at a reunion of the Dover plaintiffs, etc.. Though I don’t think that being descended from monkeys is anything to be ashamed of, I don’t think that it is cause for celebration, either.
Who is the bigger crackpot -- Jeffrey Selman or Ben Stein?
Disclaimer: My own position is that a "systematic" Jewish holocaust was impossible because the Nazis had no objective and reliable ways of identifying Jews and non-Jews.
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When a federal judge in Georgia ruled last week that a local school board's decision to put a small sticker on its science textbooks labeling evolution "a theory, not a fact" was unconstitutional, Jeffrey Selman said it was primarily an American issue.
Still, he said, he could not help but view it through the lens of his Jewishness.
"Look what happened in Germany," said Selman, one of a group of parents that sued the Cobb County school board to have the stickers removed.
"The German Jews said, 'We're Germans. We'll be fine.' The next thing you know, they were opening the oven doors for us."
John West, in responding to Jeffrey Selman's above statements, said,
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. . .it is simply Orwellian for defenders of Darwin to try to suggest that criticism of Darwin's theory can in any way be tied to the Holocaust -- especially when critics of Darwin were some of the most vocal opponents of the sort of eugenics policies championed by the Nazis and leading American defenders of Darwin's theory!
Yes -- we know that William Jennings Bryan and all those other evil creationist fundies wanted to exterminate the Jews.
Ben Stein said in an interview with Paul Crouch Jr. on the Trinity Broadcasting Network,
Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers [i.e. biologist P.Z. Myers], talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed . . . that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion — that’s where science leads you.
Crouch: That’s right.
Stein: . . . Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.
Crouch: Good word, good word.
The Darwinists' reactions to Ben Stein's above statements were predictable.
There seems to be an element of truth in Ben Stein's statements. Like a mad scientist in a horror movie, many Darwinists seem to have morbid, sadistic and Strangelovian fascinations with the pernicious social effects of Darwinism. These Darwinists don’t just regard Darwinism as a necessary evil but shamelessly worship Darwin — there are Darwin Day celebrations, “I love Darwin” knick-knacks, “Friend of Darwin” certificates handed out at a reunion of the Dover plaintiffs, etc.. Though I don’t think that being descended from monkeys is anything to be ashamed of, I don’t think that it is cause for celebration, either.
Who is the bigger crackpot -- Jeffrey Selman or Ben Stein?
Disclaimer: My own position is that a "systematic" Jewish holocaust was impossible because the Nazis had no objective and reliable ways of identifying Jews and non-Jews.
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Labels: Darwin-to-HItler (new #1)
posted by Larry Fafarman | 5/04/2008 06:57:00 PM
3 Comments:
> The Darwinists' reactions to Ben Stein's above statements were predictable. <
As would anybody's reactions to such an absurd statement. "Scientists telling them to go into showers"
> There seems to be an element of truth in Ben Stein's statements. <
There is none in that statement.
> Who is the bigger crackpot -- Jeffrey Selman or Ben Stein? <
You and the San Francisco homeless man may have a different idea than the rest of us on this.
> My own position is that a "systematic" Jewish holocaust was impossible because the Nazis had no objective and reliable ways of identifying Jews and non-Jews. <
Despite this being disproven many times on this blog. A clue, Larry, you would have been recognized and would have gone up the chimney with many of your relatives. Do you really doubt that some of your not too distant relatives suffered this fate?
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William Jennings Bryan was indeed a vocal opponent of eugenics. And although Darwinists have often misrepresented him as an ignorant buffoon, he was a highly educated man: who didn't interpret the Bible literally; so that he accepted that the earth is much older than the Biblical account says. It would be hard to call him a fundamentalist.
Bryan had long had doubts about Darwinism and evolution, but didn't fully reject the theory until World War I. He was Wilson's first Secretary of State, and as Stephen Jay Gould wrote in his book Rocks of Ages, 1999: "First, he learned that the martial view of Darwinism had been invoked by most German intellectuals and military leaders as a justification for war and future domination." (p.155.)
Bryan fought against eugenics, which was then being advocated by many Darwinist biologists. About Darwinism, he said: "Its only program for man is scientific breeding, a system under which a few supposedly superior intellects, self-appointed, would direct the mating and the movemants of the mass of mankind - an impossible system!" (Quoted by Gould in his book Bully for Brontosaurus, p.428. Gould added, "I cannot fault Bryan here.")
Bryan wrote in The New York Times, Feb. 26, 1922:
"The real question is, Did God use evolution as His plan? If it could be shown that man, instead of being made in the image of God, is a development of beasts we would have to accept it regardless of its effect, for truth is truth and must prevail. But when there is no proof we have the right to consider the effect of the acceptance of an unsupported hypothesis."
He argued, very rationally, that Darwinism is a "guess" rather that demonstrable science: "The objection to Darwinism is that it is harmful as well as groundless" (by which he meant insufficiently proven.)
Bryan concluded that Darwinism was insufficiently proven and socially harmful. So he rejected it, and in the process ended by rejecting any form of human descent from lower animals. Although I think that descent of new species from old is now well-estabished, it's hard to fault Bryan's position, at least in his era. And Darwinism, the notion that all species evolved by random mutations plus natural selection, or by some similar perfectly mechanical process, is actually far less believable today than it was in the 1920's.
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