It’s been common lately for creationists, largely rallying around Ben Stein’s “Expelled”, to argue that evolutionary theory in particular and science in general led to the Holocaust. I can see how someone could come to that view, if they were completely unversed in science, philosophy, history, theology, and basic logic, and sadly, most Americans are.

A few of the more common remarks I’ve seen and a few comments;

Hitler was a disciple of Darwin

Interesting, then, that Darwin is never mentioned in Mein Kamph or any major speech or public doctrine of Hitler that I’m aware of. Hitler does repeatedly invoke Christianity, nationalism, and cultural supremacy, all big favorites with the right wing crowd that most pretty much all American creationists belong to.

Hitler merely tried to enact the Darwinist maxim “survival of the fittest”.

Not true. First of all, Darwin’s expression refers explicitly to the way species observably act in a natural setting. This is not a moral imperative, nor did Darwin ever say it should be. While Darwin’s views on race were not exactly enlightened by our standards (though they were significantly advanced for his own times), he never makes any sort of reference to human “races” being gradable. This was, however, a favorite view of many Christians, who used the bible to justify, among other things, the violent dispossession of the American Indians and the transatlantic slave trade.

At any rate, Darwin believed in natural selection as an observable part of nature, nothing more. Saying he believed that it should be applied to human society is like saying that Newton wanted people forcible held to the ground because he believed in gravity. At any rate, what Hitler did is not natural selection, but artificial selection, its opposite. Breeding dogs or horses is an example of a more widespread version of this, controlling traits through selective breeding, much like eugenics.

Without the moral absolute of religion, one has no basis not to murder

Let’s stay away from the very, very obvious fact that Hitler was a proudly avowed Christian, if only for a moment. In my eyes, a strong, unyielding, unexplored “moral absolute” is exactly what caused the Shoah. Deciding to exterminate a race because they are ‘a disease’ is not an act of relativism, it’s an act of very powerful belief. The holocaust didn’t happen because Germans were bored and chose and amoral way to blow off steam, the holocaust was an expression of a very ingrained set of morals.

It seems peculiar to me as well that creationists seem unaware that when Europe was almost entirely Christian, with no evolutionary theory to speak of, there was still plenty of killing to go around. Jews were randomly brutalized and slaughtered regularly, and hatred of Jews was encoded in the books of many prominent Christian theologians. Hitler was not working in a vacuum, but rather followed in the footsteps of men like Martin Luther, who in turn followed in the footsteps of many church policy makers. The inquisition and crusades also took place in the name of Christianity. Look, I’ll throw you righties a bone you’ll eat up. Do you think Muslim terrorists do what they do because their beliefs aren’t strong enough?

By the way, I’m not an atheist so don’t bother with mentioning Stalin, especially because he’s not the point of this, and you know it.

ID should be presented alongside/instead of evolutionary theory in schools to keep children in reverence of life.

Point the first, there’s no evidence that this works and in fact history seems to speak against any idea that creationist thought leads naturally to a respect for life (though I’m sure there are many creationists who are compassionate people). Having the same people urge a respect for life AND the invasion of the middle east is a bit off, but one thing at a time.

Second, ID is not and never will be science. Period, end of story. There’s no more reason to give kids a chance to “figure it out for themselves” in a classroom setting than there is to study phrenology side by side with neurology or flat earth theory with geography.

Science leads you to kill people

Yeah, those scientists who invented the smallpox vaccine sure were heartless bastards. Seriously, not even going to bother with this one.

Faith in the highest and scientific progress are compatible; willful ignorance and scientific knowledge are not.

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