Is Evolutionism Racist?

 

 

 I have been taking the Creationist Worldview  (from ICR.com) online course for about two years now. I have really found it beneficial, informative and useful. This week, I was reading in one of the books that came with the course, Many Infallible Proofs, by Henry M. Morris, about the origin of the different nations on Earth.

 

Which leads me to the topic of discussion today. If you have read or studied the Old Testament at any length you probably know that it is from Noah's three sons that all the peoples of today have stemmed from. From Ham, Shem and Japheth, we all have come, and each one of us is a descendant of one of the three sons.

 

From what has been surmised and projected, Ham's descendants migrated into the African, Western Asian and Native American countries. Japheth's offspring moved to Europe, and Shem's stayed in the Middle East/Eastern Asian terrains.

 

The topic of how each nation came to be is really something to be covered at another time, what I wanted to talk about today was about racism and how it relates to evolutionistic thinking.

 

I am not simply name-calling when I state that evolutionism is racist.

 

This is something very much a reality, and it is truly very sad.

 

Truth be told, I am heartbroken in general about racism and how it has ruined so many lives who have chosen to believe that way. The though that one man is better, and superior to another, simply because of his physical attributes is just plain evil, and equally disturbing.

 

Multiple times throughout Scripture, God states that He is not a "respecter of persons", in other words, He does not favor or value one human being over another ultimately.

 

Galations 3:28 says... "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."

 

  And, Romans 10:12 -  "For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him."

 

 Finally, (although this is just a mere sampling of the many verses which relate to this topic!) Romans 2:11 "For there is no respect of persons with God."

 

Obviously, Creationism is not a racist belief system and has never been. There have been people who called themselves "Christian", and were racist, but God is not responsible for their decisions or actions. I do not think you can follow God's will and be racist; or be a true Christian and think that white people are 'better' than black people for example. So much in Scripture is this way of thinking refuted it just seems impossible to be both a racist AND follower of Jesus Christ!

 

Evolutionism itself is rooted deeply in racist thought, and vice versa.

 

Adolf Hitler, whom some believe was one of the most wicked (and quite obviously, extremely racist) men to ever exist, stated a belief in 'natural selection'., in this quote.

"By leaving the process of procreation unchecked and by submitting the individual to the hardest preparatory tests in life, Nature selects the best from an abundance of single elements and stamps them as fit to live and carry on the conservation of the species.^[2]"

 

 

And, again, here: "Whatever survives these hardships of existence has been tested and tried a thousandfold, hardened and renders fit to continue the process of procreation; so that the same thorough selection will begin all over again. By thus dealing brutally with the individual and recalling him the very moment he shows that he is not fitted for the trials of life, Nature preserves the strength of the race and the species and raises it to the highest degree of efficiency.^[2]"

 

In justifying his own vegetarianism, he stated, "The monkeys, our ancestors of prehistoric times, are strictly vegetarian".^[4]   If you can't see the evolutionistic mindset here than you might want to do some more research on the topic!

 

Just as one of the most adamant racists and white supremacists of history did in fact subtly infer favoring a naturalistic approach to creation, many evolutionists also have proclaimed (more or less subtly) racist ideologies.

 

The man more responsible than any other for the widespread acceptance of evolution in the 19th century was Thomas Huxley. Soon after the American Civil War, in which the black slaves were freed, he wrote as follows:

"No rational man, cognizant of the facts, believes that the average negro is the equal, still less the superior, of the white man. And if this be true, it is simply incredible that, when all his disabilities are removed, and our prognathous relative has a fair field and no favour, as well as no oppressor, he will be able to compete successfully with his bigger-brained and smaller-jawed rival, in a contest which is to be carried out by thoughts and not by bites."³
 

 What a horrible, cruel thing to say of another person!

 

"Ab initio, Afro-Americans were viewed by these intellectuals as being in certain ways unredeemably, unchangeably, irrevocably inferior."⁵

 

 The word "race", itself, is rather evolutionistic. It in biological terms defines a 'sub-species', or, species in the midst of evolving. And, it definitely does not describe an ultimately finished product.

As stated in the early chapters of Genesis, God made everything "good". Adam and Eve were created as 'final product', fully mature adult human beings. They did not evolve and neither had they come from evolving. Micro-evolution has been confused with this, and some have said that Biblical Creationists have been inconsistent in their argument that evolutionism is racist, because accordion to them, micro-evolution could be seen as a means of a species evolving to something 'greater'.

 

I do not think this is valid, but I'll save micro-evolution for yet another day. I know I have rambled quite a bit in this post so I want to get the gist of this discussion.

 

While I would not define a religion or stasis of thought simply on what some of its followers have believed; this does have a lot to do with how one can view the belief system. Darwin himself, known as the 'creator' of evolutionism, inferred racist ideas subtly throughout his writings. And, if the very 'creator' of the naturalistic religion of evolution did such, it is reasonable to assume that racism can and does indeed go hand in hand with evolution.

 

Think of natural selection alone. A concept which purports the eventual annihilation of the 'weak', and the 'survival of the fittest.' Surely it was not implied merely of the animal world, since Darwin believed humankind itself to be members of this realm and obviously nothing more than another species. Therefore, if natural selection is applied to mankind, wouldn't it seem awful racist in many ways? Yes, we have changed physically since the flood and Adam and Eve, but we are still all humans...people...created by God, and immensely precious in His eyes. We are ALL made in His image!

 

 By the way, do you ever see the word "race" mentioned in His Book? No? That's because it's a word He never uses therein. Instead, we see "peoples, nations, tribes, languages." God doesn't judge us by our skin color, He judges us by our hearts. (1 Sam. 16:7)

 

Is evolution racist? Yes. But thankfully, the Creator of the universe isn't.