| Evolution Theory Under Attack for Links to Racism by Warren Krug (March/April, 2008) |
Ken Ham, the founder of the Creation Museum in Kentucky has been in the news again.
Ham has co-authored a new book along with Charles Ware, an African-American, which
charges that Darwin’s theory fuels racism and genocide.
Titled Darwin’s Plantation: Evolution’s Racist Roots, the book says the theory of evolution
puts some races “higher on the evolutionary scale” and other races “closer to the apes.”
Those who think this accusation is an overreaction should start by taking a look at the full
title of Darwin’s classic book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or
the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.
There is plenty of evidence to support the notion that the evolution theory, in the past at
least, has led to racist views and actions: the kidnapping of African pygmies in the early
1900s so that they could be studied by Western anthropologists; the views of Ernst
Haeckel, “Germany’s Darwin”, that he considered “the Negro to be a lower species of
man” and that Australian Aborigines were really animals; the views of American
evolutionist Henry Fairfield Osborne that the different “races” should be put into different
“genera”, not just different species; and, of course, the evolution-based racist views of
Hitler, Stalin, and Mao.
Even some Japanese during World War II considered the Japanese to be a more highly
evolved race than Europeans with their long arms and hairy chests.
Christians though shouldn’t get too smug. In the past, some Christians have
misinterpreted the “curse on Ham” (Gen. 9:20-25) as an excuse to look down on African-
Americans. Actually, the curse was on Ham’s son, Canaan, and Canaan’s descendents
were not black.
Really, there is but one race—the “human race.” Acts 17:26 tells us, “From one man he
made every nation of men.” Genetics shows us there is far more variation within any
group of people than between groups of people.
May we look forward to that endless day when prejudice will be a thing of the past and we
will see but one race, those who are wearing a crown of life. LSI
—Warren Krug
Ham has co-authored a new book along with Charles Ware, an African-American, which
charges that Darwin’s theory fuels racism and genocide.
Titled Darwin’s Plantation: Evolution’s Racist Roots, the book says the theory of evolution
puts some races “higher on the evolutionary scale” and other races “closer to the apes.”
Those who think this accusation is an overreaction should start by taking a look at the full
title of Darwin’s classic book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or
the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.
There is plenty of evidence to support the notion that the evolution theory, in the past at
least, has led to racist views and actions: the kidnapping of African pygmies in the early
1900s so that they could be studied by Western anthropologists; the views of Ernst
Haeckel, “Germany’s Darwin”, that he considered “the Negro to be a lower species of
man” and that Australian Aborigines were really animals; the views of American
evolutionist Henry Fairfield Osborne that the different “races” should be put into different
“genera”, not just different species; and, of course, the evolution-based racist views of
Hitler, Stalin, and Mao.
Even some Japanese during World War II considered the Japanese to be a more highly
evolved race than Europeans with their long arms and hairy chests.
Christians though shouldn’t get too smug. In the past, some Christians have
misinterpreted the “curse on Ham” (Gen. 9:20-25) as an excuse to look down on African-
Americans. Actually, the curse was on Ham’s son, Canaan, and Canaan’s descendents
were not black.
Really, there is but one race—the “human race.” Acts 17:26 tells us, “From one man he
made every nation of men.” Genetics shows us there is far more variation within any
group of people than between groups of people.
May we look forward to that endless day when prejudice will be a thing of the past and we
will see but one race, those who are wearing a crown of life. LSI
—Warren Krug
