Slouching towards stupidity

John West over at the DI moans:

David Klinghoffer has a provocative essay commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado. Klinghoffer notes that Columbine killer Eric Harris was inspired in part by his fanatical devotion to Darwinian natural selection, a trait Harris unfortunately shared with many opponents of human dignity during the past century. Given the pervasive influence of Social Darwinism in our culture, Klinghoffer suggests that Darwin's Tree of Life might be more appropriately viewed as a Tree of Death.

Wow. So much wrong, so little time. Let's start by mentioning the murderers of abortion providers who have a "fanatical devotion" to Christianity, shall we, and then just move on from there. Two can play at this game.

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Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 Richard Hofstadter wrote in Social Darwinism in American Thought that this political theory was "one of the leading strains in American conservative thought for more than a generation." In this series I have shown many of the inconsistencies that exist in the…
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I can't think of many people more opposed to social darwinism than those who understand evolution. Evolution has favored humans being social cooperative creatures, social darwinism promotes acting in purely selfish anti-social ways that are not good for the species.

Did David Harris actually ever expressed interrest or "devotion" in Natural Selection ?

"Did David Harris actually ever expressed interrest or 'devotion' in Natural Selection ?"

No. What he expressed was an appreciation for the strong killing the weak. Nothing more. He was a psychopath, afterall.

By Todd Hollywood (not verified) on 20 Apr 2009 #permalink

The debate over whether natural selection justifies mass murder is an interesting one. Arguing against the idea, you have evolutionary scientists. Arguing in favor: Eric Harris, Adolph Hitler, David Klinghoffer, and John West.

Birds of a feather...

Let's start by mentioning the murders of abortion providers who have a "fanatical devotion" to Christianity...

Let's not.

The connection there runs much deeper and wider than that between Columbine & Darwin. The latter is barely a casual relationship; that between violent "pro-lifers" and Christianism is causal.

By Pierce R. Butler (not verified) on 20 Apr 2009 #permalink

WOW! Distortions of Darwin's search for truth. If anything natural selection should embody the idea of us together as a species. We should want to further our "familily" or species. The deranged will be deranged, no matter the "religion". We develop "morals" though empathy. Empathy has a naturaly selective purpose. But the are parts of the bible that seem to allow some to seperation of empathy if someone or a group is considered "evil". Eugenics is a distortion of "darwinian" ideals. That along with an obvious catholic influence(look at the beltbuckles among many others) allowed hitler to do what he did.

By Scott Plummer (not verified) on 20 Apr 2009 #permalink

Odd how they never mention that those two kids, supposed experts in and followers of "Darwinism", succeeded mostly in selecting themselves out of the gene pool.