By A. O.
Darwin’s nonsensical ideas were not only theorized, but also given a degree of scientific and social respectability that enabled them to provide the most important “scientific ground” for racism.
Defending Darwinism Facilitates Communism’s Spread
Communism is a hostile ideology, both in terms of the materialist philosophy upon which it is based and the historical analysis it proposes. It begins by denying God’s existence, and its historical analysis, which describes religion as the “opiate of the masses,” calls for the eradication of religion in order to erect its envisioned communist society.
Thus all communist regimes fight religion, attack religious values, destroy places of worship, and outlaw the observance of religious obligations. Regimes in such places as the former Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, Bulgaria, and Albania have followed policies that are so anti-religious that they border upon, and sometimes lead to, genocide.
Darwinism plays an important role in Marxist ideology’s hatred of religion. Darwin provided Marxist atheism with a so-called scientific basis, which explains why Marx and Engels felt such gratitude for him. Engels’ praise is particularly striking:
“He (Darwin) dealt the metaphysical conception of Nature the heaviest blow by his proof that all organic beings, plants, animals, and man himself, are the products of a process of evolution going on through millions of years.”
Conflict lies at the heart of Marxist philosophy (dialectical materialism), which asserts that the universe functions according to the law of clashes between opposites. In other words, Darwin’s asserted fight for survival in nature was now applied to human societies. Darwinism was the greatest support for communist ideology, which saw human history as a battleground and prepared the ground for further conflict.
The evolutionist P. J. Darlington explains that violence is a natural consequence of belief in this theory:
The first point is that selfishness and violence are inherent in us, inherited from our remotest animal ancestors…. Violence is, then, natural to man; a product of evolution.
Marxists believe that societies will accept their ideology if they bring them to believe in Darwinism. They attach so much importance to Darwin’s principle that “violence and conflict are unchanging natural laws.” This is why all communist-oriented terrorist organizations give their militants months of training in communism, dialectical materialism, and Darwinism. Darwin’s theory encourages these people to believe that they are actually animals, and that just like animals, people must fight for survival. Thus many young people become monsters quite capable of killing and even ruthlessly slaughtering children and babies.
In this way, communist ideology led to guerrilla and civil wars and bloody acts of terrorism in numerous countries throughout the twentieth century. That is why the intellectual struggle against Darwinism is so important: If Darwinism is exposed as the fallacy that it is and then collapses, Marxist philosophies based upon it will crumble. Since Darwinism has such an important role to play in anti-religious communist ideology, supporting one means supporting the other. Trying to justify Darwinism by reconciling it with religion and claiming that God used evolution to create living things means justifying communism. The communists know that religion and Darwinism are incompatible, but remain silent when confronted with religious people who accept evolutionary creation so that both ideologies can spread easily and even further afield. The important thing is to first open a door to the acceptance of Darwinism.
The communists’ belief in evolution stems from their blind devotion to their ideology. For instance Robert Shapiro, an evolutionist professor of chemistry and DNA expert, says that the theory’s basic claim that inanimate substances organized themselves and formed DNA and RNA is based on no scientific fact at all. He continues:
Another evolutionary principle is therefore needed to take us across the gap from mixtures of simple natural chemicals to the first effective replicator. This principle has not yet been described in detail or demonstrated, but it is anticipated, and given names such as chemical evolution and self-organization of matter. The existence of the principle is taken for granted in the philosophy of dialectical materialism…
As Shapiro has stated, evolutionists continue to defend the theory of evolution due to their dogmatic adherence to materialist philosophy. This indicates that any support given to this theory also means direct support for materialist philosophy, the spread of which inevitably prepares the ground for communist ideology’s entrance into a given society. This link reveals how communist ideology draws its strength from Darwinism.
Muslims who support the theory of evolution need to think about this truth. They must not share a common perspective with communists, who have been and remain the fiercest enemies of religion, and/or support a view that is the “scientific” basis of communism. This becomes even more important when we consider that communism has not died, but is still holding out in authoritarian regimes like North Korea and, most dangerously, still dominating the political system and political culture of China, despite her superficial “capitalist” outlook.
Darwin’s Racism
One of the most important and yet least-known aspects of Darwin is his racism: Darwin regarded white Europeans as more “advanced” than other human races. Presuming that man evolved from ape-like creatures, he surmised that some races developed more than others and that the latter still bore simian features. In his book, The Descent of Man, which he published after The Origin of Species, he boldly commented on “the greater differences between men of distinct races.”41 In his book, Darwin held blacks and Australian Aborigines to be equal to gorillas and then inferred that these would be “done away with” by the “civilized races” in time. He said:
At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes… will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene in a more civilized state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian and the gorilla.
Darwin’s nonsensical ideas were not only theorized, but also given a degree of scientific and social respectability that enabled them to provide the most important “scientific ground” for racism. Supposing that living beings evolved in the struggle for life, Darwinism soon was applied to the social sciences. Known as “Social Darwinism,” this new ideology contends that existing human races are located at different rungs of the “evolutionary ladder,” that the European races are the most “advanced” of all, and that many other races still bear “ape-like” features.
Moreover, Darwinism does not rest with preparing the ground for racist attacks, for it also allows all kinds of separatist and destructive actions. This “life is a fight” principle has created an argument that justifies putting other people living peacefully in the same country into concentration camps, as well as the use of violence and brute force, war, death, and murder.
However, Muslims who realize that Allah has created them and everything else, that Allah has breathed His soul into them, that the world is a place of peace and brotherhood, that all people are equal, and that each person will be punished in the hereafter for whatever he or she has done in this world cannot harm others. Only those who believe that they came into existence by chance, have no responsibility to anyone, will never have to account for their actions, and believe that the world is a place of conflict can engage in such activities.
That is why Muslims should listen to their consciences before accepting Darwinism, and why they should understand the true price of backing a theory that science itself refutes. The damage Darwinism has done to humanity is clear. The tragedies, suffering, and conflict it leads to also are well known. As we have seen throughout this chapter, the way in which people are brought to believe in irrational and illogical ideas and concepts should convince us that Darwinism is a grave danger.
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Taken with slight editorial modifications from the book titled, “Why Darwinism Is Incompatible with the Qur’an” by the author.
A. O. is a Turkish writer and author.