Re: Darwin's influence on Stalin

Glenn wrote:
> What is
> the logical point of saying things like, Ted Bundy, as a child, read the
> story of the three little pigs, and became a brutal killer.

Point taken, but is there any logical difference between this and a
news story in the UK about a year back, when a teenage boy brutally
murdered a friend of his, after becoming addicted to an excessively
violent computer game? Should the game have been censored? Should
the story of the three little pigs be censored? Where to draw the
line surely is a matter of judgement and shades of probability, rather
than 0/1 logic.

I guess the only difference is that the murder could with reasonable
confidence be attributed to the computer game, but not (with much
confidence) to the 3 little pigs (again that's a probabilistic
argument). But one can also say that, irrespective of its truth,
Darwinism does often lead people to abandon their religious faith.
Richard Dawkins is evangelical about this, and wants people to abandon
religion because Darwinism provides a better explanation of why we are
here than does religion. On a more personal note, one of my mother's
close friends, who is dying of cancer, has lost her faith in God
because the Daily Mail says we're all descended from apes. Now,
admittedly her position is not a logical one, and you can't blame
Darwinism for that, but equally one can say it's a cause. Many true
bits of knowledge have evil consequences (e.g. Nuclear Physics ->
Hiroshima). But the truth is surely always morally neutral, and it's
the job of scientists to pursue it.

Iain.
Received on Tue Jul 26 03:26:58 2005