

The Old Design Argument, Now Politicized - bdfh42
http://www.charlespetzold.com/blog/2008/04/Old-Design-Argument-Now-Politicized.html

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mynameishere
The full title of the book in question is this,

 _On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation
of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life_

...and Ben Stein's political concerns are quite appropriate. It is astonishing
to listen to ordinary people discuss evolution, and to observe the context in
which the subject is raised. The one context is...

 _Christianity_.

You see? There has arisen an odd dichotomy [1] between Christianity and
Evolution. And people understand religion to the extent that it is _false_ ,
and understand evolution to the extent that it is the _proof of that
falsehood_. Lesson over. Ordinary people can only understand things in an
oversimplified way. Part of the job of the elite is to determine how things
are simplified.

In fact, the implications of evolution, and especially its offshoots like
sociobiology are in extreme contradistinction with an entire class of laws and
shibboleths and received wisdom----shortly, anything that champions
egalitarianism or sings "We shall overcome" when that overcoming means a
quashing of the superior by the inferior through unnatural means. I posit that
"unnatural" means are inherently temporary, and so require constant
maintenance--which is what Stein is doing.

[1] <http://www.northernsun.com/images/thumb/2214.jpg>

~~~
aswanson
_In fact, the implications of evolution, and especially its offshoots like
sociobiology are in extreme contradistinction with an entire class of laws and
shibboleths and received wisdom_

This, then, is the basis for societal construction? The apeish mandate of kill
or be killed is the last word, simply by virtue of it being the _only_ word
for most of history?

