Monday, May 05, 2008

And now following on Godwin's Law...

Godwin points to the negative affects of dragging Nazis into an argument. In the case of Darwinism and Social Darwinism, the two topics are unrelated. One is legitimate science and the other is crap based pseudoscience, used to justify all sorts of horror and abuse. But there are lessons to take from history. You just have to know how far to properly take things.

PZ Myers:
...

"The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life" ('My New Order', Adolf Hitler, Proclamation of the German Nation at Berlin, February 1, 1933)

Funny…those words could be taken straight from just about any American religious right web site in 2008, and they'd fit right in.
To claim to preserve morality, to protect "family", and to be a Christian nation. It is SO EASY for people to throw these ideas around and refuse to see how easy they can and are used to justify horrible things, yes, but also stupid things. Going beyond war and atrocity, the new German way also meant driving out the likes of Einstein, destroying art and literature, turning on those that didn't fit in and...well it doesn't get better from there.

Just something to consider.

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