Re: The man with the rhesus monkey brain (was Re: Jim's poor

Steve Clark (ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu)
Sat, 16 Nov 1996 12:32:31 -0600

Jim writes:
>But it was only your narrow, and in my view illogical, point I was addressing.
>You equated Hitler's "abuse" of evolutionism with, e.g., white supremecist's
>"abuse" of Christianity.
>
>I pointed out the flaw: Hitler did not "abuse" his paradigm. There is no way
>to call him to account based upon evolutionism alone. That's why I asked you
>to try to do it. You couldn't, and that proves the point.
>
>Sure, there are moral evolutionists. But they attain their morality from a
>moral sphere, e.g. Christianity. Evolutionism has no moral sphere. It
>therefore cannot have been "abused" (a moral term which you employed) by
>Hitler.

You read too much into my point. The parallel between Hitler and evolution
and White Supremacy and Christianity simply lies in the way that both
Christianity and evolution science do not provide the epistemological
frameworks on which the racist philosophies are based. Rather, selective
aspects and narrow interpretations of Christian religion and evolution
science are used in attempt to justify the underlying philosophy of racism
in these parallel examples. This misuse and misunderstanding of religion
and science is an "abuse" of logic and that is what I meant. "Abuse" is
simply synonymous with misuse.

Steve
____________________________________________________________
Steven S. Clark, Ph.D . Phone: 608/263-9137
Associate Professor FAX: 608/263-4226
Dept. of Human Oncology and Email: ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu
UW Comprehensive Cancer Center
CSC K4-432
600 Highland Ave.
Madison, WI 53792

"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings to
search out a matter." Proverbs
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