From: btd@IASTATE.EDU (Benjamin T Dehner)
Subject: Re: White skin-how did it develope?
Reply-To: btd@IASTATE.EDU (Benjamin T Dehner)
Organization: Iowa State University
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 20:00:42 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.104547.10666@city.cs>, lionel@cs.city.ac.uk (Lionel Tun)
writes:
> In article <1992Aug24.104129.1@si194b.llnl.gov> brinkman@si194b.llnl.gov
writes:
> >   First let me start by reposting what I feel was my key point in my
original
> >article [...]
> >   "Lionel. pointing to examples of misuse of an idea, any idea, to
> >    argue against the correctness of the idea is crap."
> 
> I was not arguing against the correctness of the idea (this time) I
> was pointing out some of the consequences of following the idea to
> its unfortunate conclusion. 

	These are not the ideas of evolution, however.  They are misuse and
misapplied.  (See below.)

>                              Now granted that not all evolutionists
> do this, and I apologise to evolutionists who believe they have a
> well developed sense of morals. However there are people, probably
> quite unscientific, who take evolutionary ideas and use them to
> justify their goal of world domination and genocide.

	These same things have been done with christian ideas.

> >   "You [sic] be hard pressed to argue that Christianity was/is not behind
> >    these examples, in much the same way you want to claim evolution is
> >    behind apartheid."
> 
> Good point. Christianity has been abused to perpetrate many evils.
> But the proper application of it has done much good. You live in
> the USA. The USA would not be the most successful, free and most
> powerful country in the world had it not been for its christian
> origins.

	The same can be said for science (evolutionary theory.)  Science
can be used to make new medicines and heal the sick, or make yet more deadly 
weapons of war.  Love of god can impel one to make beautiful works of art
in reverance or do great deeds for the less fortunate, or to raise holy wars
and steal from the vulnerable.  

> >   For the Creationists out there, who still think slinging this particular
> >form of mud, when applied to evolution, is a valid argument, the above
> >challenge still stands.  (This includes all of the arguments I have seen in
> >talk.origins like, "the Final Solution was based on evolution," "Marxism is
> >based on evolution", "Abortion is based on evolution", "Decay of family
> >values is based on evolution", "This one guy based his desire to sleep
> >around on evolution", "Apartheid is based on evolution", and so on ad 
> >infinitum, ad nauseum).
> 
> I was not using these examples as a valid argument against evolution,
> the scientific theory, I wished to alert people to the possible
> evils that may come out of the philosophy.

	Great evils can also come out of christianity.  In the end, the use
or misuse of a theory or idea is STILL no measure of it's validity.

> --
> Lionel Tun   (lionel@cs.city.ac.uk)
> Vision Group, City University, London, EC1V 0HB. 071-477 8000 x 3889

--
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Benjamin T. Dehner    Dept. of Physics and Astronomy 
btd@iastate.edu       Iowa State University 
                      Ames, IA 50011