Charles Darwin – a Man, a Mission, did he succeed?

Foley, Minnesota – March 31, 2009 – It is widely thought that creationists base their beliefs on the Bible alone rather than on scientific evidence. However, the results of a recent survey taken by one of the oldest creationism organizations in the U.S. revealed that the primary reason creationists reject evolution is scientific in nature.

Creation Moments, a creationist group that teaches a young earth, today released the results of its survey revealing that creationists base their beliefs primarily on scientific evidences. When asked to provide the one or two top reasons why they do not believe in evolution, only 12% of the respondents said their only reason for rejecting evolution was because it contradicts the Bible. In contrast, 47% exclusively cited scientific reasons. The remaining 41% provided both scientific and biblical reasons why they rejected evolution. The survey from Creation Moments revealed that 88% of their constituents cited scientific reasons for their non-belief in evolution.

“We are not surprised that such a large percentage of creationists base their rejection of evolution on scientific criteria,” said Ian Taylor, host of the Creation Moments radio broadcast. “The academic establishment and the scientific community try to paint creationists as country bumpkins and Bible-thumpers who are ignorant of science. The results of this survey prove that nothing could be further from the truth.”

While respondents could answer the open-ended question in any way they liked, these are the reasons given most frequently: (1) the lack of transitional fossils, (2) the absence of living intermediate species, (3) the complexity of DNA, (4) mutations are almost always harmful, (5) the sudden appearance of all basic life forms in the fossil record, (6) evolution contradicts the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics, (7) the irreducible complexity of living things, and (8) the fine-tuning of the universe calls for a designer.

As these reasons make clear, creationists – though not part of the Intelligent Design movement – are being strongly influenced by ID’s scientific arguments.

About Creation Moments

Creation Moments, one of the first ministries to focus on the creation science vs. evolution debate, is best known for its daily “Creation Moments” radio program. Broadcast on over 1,200 radio stations and outlets worldwide, it’s among the top US syndicated radio programs of five minutes or less. The Minnesota-based ministry also publishes creation science books and offers thousands of free resources at its website, including articles, radio show transcripts, Bible studies and more. For additional information, call 1-800-422-4253 or visit www.creationmoments.com.

 Bone Inventory (1971). A complete listing of all the Australopithecine finds, up to the end of 1971, was printed in a new book. This included all the African bones of our “half-ape/half-human ancestors” (*Time-Life, The Missing Link, Vol. 2). Although over 1,400 specimens are described, most are little more than scraps of bone or isolated teeth. Not one complete skeleton of one individual exists. When parts of bones are found, they, of course, can be moved into various positions and be interpreted as belonging to different creatures with very different skull and jaw shapes. To this day, there is no real evidence of any genuine non-human ancestor of ours. Chapter 13 explains why reputable scientists question or reject the various finds by anthropologists.

*Matthews Attacks Darwinism (1971). By the latter part of the 20th century, even though the ignorant public continued to be told that evolution was a triumphant, proven success, it was difficult to find any scientist who would defend Darwin’s theories before his peers. *L. Harrison Matthews, another distinguished scientist, was asked to write a new introduction to Darwin’s Origin of the Species, to replace *Thompson’s 1956 Introduction which scathingly attacked Darwinism. In his Introduction, Matthews said that Thompson’s attacks on Darwin were “unanswerable.” Then Matthews proceeded to add more damaging facts (*L. Harrison Matthews, Introduction to Charles Darwin, Origin of the Species, 1971 edition). The evolutionary theory must have run into hard times, when book publishers cannot find a reputable scientist who is appreciative either of its basic teachings or its founder.

Nice Symposium(1972). By the early 1970s, not only were biological evolutionists in turmoil, but cosmologists (astronomical evolutionists) were also. The Nice Symposium met in April 1972, to summarize what had been accomplished and list what was still unknown. The unanswered questions included just about every aspect of evolution in outer space! (See “Nice” in the back index for a number of the questions.) How did hydrogen clouds form themselves into stars? How did linear momentum from the theorized Big Bang change itself into angular momentum—and begin circling. How did the planets and moons form? The entire list is mind-boggling. After all these years, the astronomers still do not have answers to any of the basic evolutionary problems (Review of the Nice Symposium, in R.E. Kofahl and K.L. Segraves, The Creation Explanation, pp. 141-143).

Institute for Creation Research(1972). Henry Morris and associates founded the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) this year. It has since become the leading anti-evolution organization in the world and is located in El Cajon, California.

Return of the Hopeful Monster(1972). *Stephen Jay Gould, a highly respected paleontologist at Harvard; *Niles Eldredge, the head paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City; and *Steven M. Stanley, of Johns Hopkins University, led out in resuscitating *Richard Goldschmidt’s “hopeful monster” theory—and demanding that the community of evolutionist scientists consider it as the only possible mechanism for trans-species changeovers.

It was first revived in a cautious science paper presented by*Gould and *Eldredge in 1972 (Punctuated Equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism, 1972), but it was not until 1977 that an article by Gould brought it back to center stage (”Return of the Hopeful Monsters,” in Natural History, June-July, 1977). The increasing despondency among evolutionists, over their inability to use natural selection or mutations to provide even the slightest evidence of cross-species evolution, eventually led large numbers of scientists, in the 1980s, to switch over to this astoundingly ridiculous concept that millions of beneficial mutations occur once every 50,000 years to two creatures, a male and female, who are living near each other—thus producing a new species pair!

Poll of Citizens and Parents(1973). A survey of 1,346 homes found that 89% said Creation should be taught in the public schools. In a separate poll of 1995 homes, 84% said scientific evidence for Creation should be presented along with evolution (”A Comparison of Students Studying . . Two Models,” in Decade of Creation, 1981, pp. 55-56).Dudley’s Radiodating Research (1975). Radiodating of the sedimentary rocks, based on uranium, thorium, and other chains, had been relied on heavily to provide the “millions of years” dates. But a broad variety of research data repeatedly demonstrated that these methods are extremely unreliable (much more on this in chapter 6, Inaccurate Dating Methods). *H.C. Dudley, one of these researchers, found that using pressure, temperature, electric and magnetic fields, stress in monomolecular layers, etc., he could change the decay rates of 14 different radioisotopes. The implications of this are astounding. The strata were laid down under great pressure, and samples would vary widely to temperature and other changes. Such discoveries, along with the fact that the dates never agree with one another, greatly reduce the value of radiodating uranium, thorium, and other rocks (*H.C. Dudley, “Radioactivity Re-Examined,” in Chemical and Engineering News, April 7, 1975, p. 2).

Source: Evolution Handbook 

 The Wistar Institute Symposium (1966). A milestone meeting was the four-day Wistar Institute Symposium, held in Philadelphia in April 1966. A number of mathematicians, familiar with biological problems, spoke—and clearly refuted neo-Darwinism in several ways. An important factor was that large computers were by this time able to work out immense calculations—showing that evolution could not possibly occur, even over a period of billions of years, given the complexities of DNA, protein, the cell, enzymes, and other factors.We will cite one example here:*Murray Eden of MIT explained that life could not begin by “random selection.” He noted that, if randomness is removed, only “design” would remain,—and that required purposive planning by an Intelligence. He showed that it would be impossible for even a single ordered pair of genes to be produced by DNA mutations in the bacteria, E. Coli (which has very little DNA), with 5 billion years in which to produce it. Eden then showed the mathematical impossibility of protein forming by chance. He also reported on his extensive investigations into genetic data on hemoglobin (red blood cells). Hemoglobin has two chains, called alpha and beta. A minimum of 120 mutations would be required to convert alpha to beta. At least 34 of those changes require changeovers in 2 or 3 nucleotides. Yet, Eden pointed out, if a single nucleotide change occurs through mutation, the result ruins the blood and kills the organism! For more on the Wistar Institute, read the following book: *Paul Moorhead and *Martin Kaplan (eds.), Mathematical Challenges to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation of Evolution, Wistar Institute Monograph No. 5.(1968). Trilobites are small marine creatures that are now extinct. Evolutionists tell us that trilobites are one of the most ancient creatures that have ever lived on Planet Earth, and they lived millions of years before there were human beings. *William J. Meister, Sr., a non-Christian evolutionist, made a hobby of searching for trilobite fossils in the mountains of Utah. On June 1, 1968, he found a human footprint and trilobites in the same rock, and the footprint was stepping on some of the trilobites! The location was Antelope Springs, about 43 miles [69 km] northwest of Delta, Utah.

Antelope Springs Tracks

Then, breaking off a large two-inch thick piece of rock, he hit it on the edge with a hammer, and it fell open in his hands. To his great astonishment, he found on one side the footprint of a human being, with trilobites right in the footprint itself! The other half of the rock slab showed an almost perfect mold of a footprint and fossils. Amazingly, the human was wearing a sandal! To make a longer story short, the find was confirmed when scientists came and found more sandaled footprints. Meister was so stunned that he became a Christian. This was Cambrian strata, the lowest level of strata in the world; yet it had sandaled human footprints! (”Discovery of Trilobite Fossils in Shod Footprint of Human in ‘Trilobite Beds,’ a Cambrian Formation, Antelope Springs, Utah,” in Why Not Creation? 1970, p. 190).

The Alpbach Institute Symposium(1969). A follow-up meeting of scientists was held and given the title, “Beyond Reductionism.” But it only resulted in fruitless discussions by scientists who had carefully researched the problems with men who were desperately trying to defend evolutionary theories, against an ever-growing mountain of evidence to the contrary.

First Moon Landing(1969). By the 1950s, scientists were able to predict that, if the moon was billions of years old, it would have a thick layer of dust many miles thick. This is due to the fact, as *R.A. Lyttleton explained, that the lunar surface is exposed to direct sunlight; and strong ultraviolet light and X-rays from the sun gradually destroy the surface layers of exposed rock and reduce them to dust at the rate of a few ten-thousandths of an inch per year. In 5 to 10 billion years, this would produce 20-60 miles [32-97 km] of dust (*R.A. Lyttleton, quoted in R. Wysong, Creation-Evolution Controversy, p. 175).

Because of this, NASA first sent an unmanned lander, which made the discovery that there is very little dust on the moon’s surface. In spite of that, Neil Armstrong feared that he and Edwin Aldrin might suffocate when they landed. But because the moon is young, they had no problem. Landing on July 20, 1969, they found an average of 3/4 inch [1.91cm] of dust on its surface. That is the amount one would expect if the moon were about 6000-8000 years old (at a rate of 1 inch every 10,000 years). In *Isaac Asimov’s first published article (1958), he predicted that the first rocket to land on the moon would sink ingloriously in the dust, and everyone inside would perish (Article mentioned in *Isaac Asimov, Asimov on Science: A Thirty-Year Retrospective, 1989, pp. xvi-xvii).

Source: Evolution Handbook

Revolt in France (early 1960s). A large number of French biologists and taxonomists (species classification experts) rebelled against the chains of the evolutionary creed and declared that they would continue their research, but would no longer try to prove evolution—which they considered an impossible theory. Taxonomists who joined the revolt took the name “cladists” (*Z. Litynski, “Should We Burn Darwin?” in Science Digest, Vol. 51, January 1961, p. 61).

(1962). Telescopes found a mysterious object, which was named 3C273. It had a spectrum that was unintelligible. This peculiar object radiated most strongly in the fringes of the visible spectrum. It was a total mystery until February 1963, when *Jesse Schmidt recognized that the problem was that it had a radical 16% shift toward the red. If the speed theory of redshift, promoted by evolutionists, was correct,—that meant the object was moving away from us at 16% of the speed of light—and was a massive 3 billion light-years from earth!As more—and apparently “faster”—quasars were discovered, the situation kept worsening. Ultimately, their existence debunked the evolutionists’ speed theory of redshift. Yet the redshift and background radiation were the only two “evidences” of an earlier Big Bang! For example, in 1977, a quasar was found which, according to the redshift theory, was moving faster (eight times faster) than the speed of light! Of course, scientists know it is impossible for anything to travel faster than the speed of light (*George Abell, Exploration of the Universe, 1973, p. 409; *Time-Life, Cosmic Mysteries, 1990, pp. 68-69; *Sky and Telescope 53, 1977, p. 1702).

Creation Research Society(1963). This important Creation research organization was founded by doctoral scientists, with the express purpose of conducting research into Creation-evolution topics and publishing regular reports on them. Its Journal reports have been of a high scientific caliber. (See our website for address.) (1965). Using a sensitive radio astronomy telescope, *A.A. Penzias and *R.W. Wilson (researchers at Bell Laboratories) discovered low-energy microwave radiation coming from outer space. Big Bang theorists immediately claimed that this proved the Big Bang! They said it was the last part of the explosion. But further research disclosed that it came from every direction instead of only one; that it was the wrong temperature; and that it was too even. Even discoveries in the 1990s have failed to show that this radiation is “lumpy” enough (their term) to have produced stars and planets. (1965). *Fred Hoyle abandoned his steady state theory entirely in a public announcement at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He listed five scientific reasons why it was impossible (Nature, October 9, 1965, p. 113). (See our website for the five.) (1965). It was not until the 1960s that the neo-Darwinists (those who had given up on natural selection and believed that mutations were the mechanism of cross-species change) began fighting with one another in earnest. At this meeting of mathematicians and biologists, mathematical doubts were raised about the possibility of evolution having occurred. At the end of several hours of heated discussion, it was decided to hold another meeting the next year.

Background Radiation

Steady State Universe Theory Abandoned

The Switzerland Meeting

Source: Evolution Handbook

First Quasar Discovered

 Courville’s Research (1956). After 15 years of careful research, Donovan A. Courville, a Loma Linda University biochemist, published an important book, Exodus Problem and Its Ramifications. Courville correlated ancient Egyptian and Bible events and dates, providing us with one of the best ancient chronologies available. He showed that Manetho’s king-lists overlapped, resulting in a major reduction in the duration of Egypt’s dynastic history and a placement of its first double-ruler dynasty at around 2150 B.C. This study, along with others reviewed in chapter 21, Archaeological Dating, shows that archaeological dating does indeed correlate closely with Bible history. (Due to a lack of space, as we neared publishing time we had to omit most of this chapter; but it is on our website.)

*Thompson’s Attack on *Darwin (1956). W.R. Thompson, a leading evolutionist scientist, was asked to write the Introduction to the 1956 reprint edition of Darwin’s Origin of the Species. In it, Thompson scathingly attacked Darwin’s theories on every essential point as worthless (*W.R. Thompson, Introduction to Charles Darwin, Origin of the Species, 1956 edition).

Children’s Books(1958). While evolutionists secretly recognize that their theory is falling through the floor, to the gullible public it is praised more and more as the scientifically proven answer to the mystery of life and matter. In 1958, the Wonderful Egg was published and immediately recommended by the *American Association for the Advancement of Science as a worthwhile science guide for little children. Two major NEA affiliates (the *American Council on Education and the *Association for Childhood Education International) gave it their highest recommendation. The book tells about a mother dinosaur who laid a “wonderful egg” which hatched into a baby bird—”the first baby bird in the whole world! And the baby bird grew up . . with feathers . . the first beautiful bird that ever sang a song high in the tree tops . . of long, long ago” (quoted in H. Morris and G. Parker, What is Creation Science? p. 148).

(1958). This Creationist organization (GRI), now located in Loma Linda, California, was organized specifically to carry on research work, in the area of Creationism, and produce educational materials for scientists and science teachers. Darwinian Centennial Celebration(1959). As the year 1959 approached, evolutionists saw it as a splendid opportunity to ballyhoo the glories of evolutionary theory. As the 100th anniversary of Darwin’s Origin of the Species approached, a flood of books and articles appeared. The largest meeting was held at the University of Chicago, where *Julian Huxley gave the keynote address, focusing his attention on a triumphant, total repudiation of God.The first was *Gertrude Himmelfarb’s Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution. Holding a doctorate from the University of Chicago, her book was a powerful exposé on the havoc the theory has wrought on the modern world. The second in-depth book was by *Jacques Barzun, history professor and dean of the Graduate Faculties at Columbia University. His book, Darwin, Marx, Wagner, declared that evolutionary theory was directly responsible for European wars from 1870 to 1945. (1959). Another significant event that year was the establishment of a standardized Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) for public secondary schools. The stated objective was the teaching of evolution, sex education, racial problems, and the need for legalizing abortion (*A.B. Grobman, Biological Science: An Inquiry into Life, p. xv). BSCS quickly received a $7 million grant from the National Science Foundation, to develop this new series. Shortly afterward, a second major textbook revision project, Man: A Course of Study, was given $7 million by the National Science Foundation. It was filled with humanism and morally objectionable interpretations of personal and social life.Source: http://evolution-facts.org/Evolution-handbook/E-H-1d.htm

Geoscience Research Institute

The same year, two major books attacking evolutionary theory in great detail were released:

Biological Sciences Curriculum

 Discovery of DNA (1953). *Rosiland Franklin took some special photographs which were used in 1953 by *Francis Crick and *James Watson (without giving her credit), to develop the astounding helix model of the DNA molecule. DNA has crushed the hopes of biological evolutionists; for it provides clear evidence that every species is locked into its own coding pattern. It would be impossible for one species to change into another, since the genes network together so closely. It is a combination lock, and it is shut tight. Only sub-species variations can occur (varieties in plants, and breeds in animals). This is done through gene shuffling (*A.I. Oparin, Life: Its Nature, Origin and Development, 1961, p. 31; *Hubert P. Yockey, “A Calculation of Probability of Spontaneous Biogenesis by Information Theory,” Journal of Theoretical Biology, Vol. 67, 1977, p. 398).

The odds of accidentally producing the correct DNA code in a species or changing it into another viable species are mathematically impossible. This has repeatedly been established. (*J. Leslie, “Cosmology, Probability, and the Need to Explain Life,” in Scientific American and Understanding, pp. 53, 64-65; *E. Ambrose, Nature and Origin of the Biological World, 1982, p. 135).Five Polls about Evolution (1954). (1) The general public supports the teaching of Creation in public schools, not just evolution, by a massive majority of 86% to 8% (AP-NBC News poll). (2) A national poll of attorneys agree (56% to 26%) and find dual instruction constitutional (63% to 26%, American Bar Association-commissioned poll). (3) A majority of university students at two secular colleges also agree (80% at Ohio State, 56% at Oberlin, Fuerst, Zimmerman). (4) Two-thirds of public school board members agree (67% to 25%, American School Board Journal poll). (5) A substantial minority of public school teachers favor Creation over evolution (Austin Analytical Consulting poll; source: W.R. Bird, Origin of Species Revisited, 1954, p. 8).

Source: Evolution Handbook

 Chinese Communism (1950-). When the communists took control of China in 1950, the first new text introduced into all the schools was neither Marxist nor Leninist, but Darwinian. Chinese communist leaders eagerly grasped evolutionary theory as a basic foundation for their ideology. The government established the Paleontological Institute in Beijing, with a large staff of paleontologists, dedicated to proving evolution.

*Sir Julian S. Huxley (1887-1975). Grandson of *Darwin’s “bulldog” (*Thomas Huxley), *Julian Huxley was the leading spokesman for evolution by natural selection in the mid-20th century. Upon being named the first director-general of UNESCO, he was able to make evolution the keystone of United Nations scientific policy. He saw it as his opportunity to extend evolutionary thinking to the nations of the world; and he made the most of it (*Julian Huxley, UNESCO pamphlet).

Piltdown Skull Debunked(1953). This piece of skull and separate jaw was the only clear evidence that man was descended from an apelike creature. In 1953, *Kenneth Oakley (British Museum geologist), *Joseph Weiner (Oxford University anthropologist), and *Le Gros Clark (anatomy professor at Oxford) managed to get their hands on the Piltdown skull and jaw—and proved it to be a total forgery. The newly developed fluorine test revealed the bones to be quite recent. Additional research showed the bones had been stained with bichromate, to make them appear aged. Drillings into the bone produced shavings instead of ancient powder. The canine tooth was found to have been filed and stained. Weiner published a book about the Piltdown forgery in 1955 (*William L. Straus, Jr., “The Great Piltdown Hoax,” Science, February 26, 1954; *Robert Silverberg, Scientists and Scoundrels: A Book of Hoaxes, 1965).

Amino Acid Synthesis(1953). When *Stanley Miller produced a few amino acids from chemicals, amid a continuous small sparking apparatus, newspaper headlines proclaimed: “Life has been created!” But evolutionists hid the truth: The experiment had disproved the possibility that evolution could occur.

Source: Evolution Handbook

The amino acids were totally dead, and the experiment only proved that a synthetic production of them would result in equal amounts of left- and right-handed amino acids. Since only left-handed ones exist in animals, accidental production could never produce a living creature (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p. 274).

 First Causal Changeover (1940s). *Darwin originally wrote that random activity naturally selects itself into improvements (a concept which any sensible person will say is totally impossible). In a later book (Descent of Man, 1871), Darwin abandoned “natural selection” as hopeless, and returned to Lamarckism (the scientifically discredited inheritance of acquired characteristics; if you build strong muscles, your son will inherit them). But evolutionists remained faithful to Darwin’s original mechanism (natural selection) for decades. They were called “Darwinists.” But, by the 1940s, many were switching over to mutations as the mechanism of cross-species change. Its advocates were called “neo-Darwinists.” The second changeover would come in the 1980s.

Radiocarbon dating(1946). *Willard Libby and his associates discovered carbon 14 (C 14) as a method for the dating of earlier organic materials. But later research revealed that its inaccuracy increases in accordance with the actual age of the material (*C.A. Reed, “Animal Domestication in the Prehistoric Near East,” in Science, 130, 1959, p. 1630; University of California at Los Angeles, “On the Accuracy of Radiocarbon Dates,” in Geochronicle, 2, 1966 [Libby’s own laboratory])

Big Bang Hypothesis(1948) Astronomers were totally buffaloed as to where matter and stars came from. In desperation, *George Gamow and two associates dreamed up the astonishing concept that an explosion of nothing produced hydrogen and helium, which then shot outward, then turned and began circling and pushing itself into our present highly organized stars and galactic systems. This far-fetched theory has repeatedly been opposed by a number of scientists (*G. Burbidge, “Was There Really a Big Bang?” in Nature 233, 1971, pp. 36, 39). By the 1980s, astronomers which continued to oppose the theory began to be relieved of their research time at major observatories (”Companion Galaxies Match Quasar Redshifts: The Debate Goes On,” Physics Today, 37:17, December 1984). In spite of clear evidence that the theory is unscientific and unworkable, evolutionists refuse to abandon it.Steady State Universe Theory(1948). In 1948, *Fred Hoyle, working with *Hermann Bondi and *Thomas Gold, proposed this theory as an alternative to the Big Bang. It declared that matter is continually “blipping” into existence throughout the universe (*Peter Pocock and *Pat Daniels, Galaxies, p. 114; *Fred Hoyle, Frontiers of Astronomy, 1955, pp. 317-318). We will learn that in 1965, the theory was abandoned. *Hoyle said it disagreed with several scientific facts.

Source: Evolution Handbook

 Coelacanth Discovered (1938). It was once an “index fossil, used to date a sedimentary strata. Evolutionists declared it as having been dead for 70 million years. If their strata theory was correct, no living specimens could occur, since no coelacanth fossils had been found in the millions of years of higher strata. But then, on December 25, 1938, a trawler fishing off South Africa brought up one that was 5 feet in length. More were found later. Many other discoveries helped disprove the evolutionists’ fossil/strata theories. Even living creatures like the trilobite have been found! (*”Living Fossil Resembles Long-extinct Trilobite,” Science Digest, December 1957).

 Hiroshima(1945) is an evolutionist’s paradise; for it is filled with people heavily irradiated, which—according to evolutionary mutation theory—should be able to produce children which are new, different, and a more exalted species. But this has not happened. Only injury and death resulted from the August 6, 1945, nuclear explosion. Mutations are always harmful and frequently lethal within a generation or two (*Animal Species and Evolution, p. 170, *H.J. Muller, Time, November 11, 1946, p. 38). (1940s). *Darwin originally wrote that random activity naturally selects itself into improvements (a concept which any sensible person will say is totally impossible). In a later book (Descent of Man, 1871), Darwin abandoned “natural selection” as hopeless, and returned to Lamarckism (the scientifically discredited inheritance of acquired characteristics; if you build strong muscles, your son will inherit them). But evolutionists remained faithful to Darwin’s original mechanism (natural selection) for decades. They were called “Darwinists.” But, by the 1940s, many were switching over to mutations as the mechanism of cross-species change. Its advocates were called “neo-Darwinists.” The second changeover would come in the 1980s.

Source: Evolution Handbook

 American Humanist Association (1933). “Humanism” is the modern word for “atheism.” As soon as it was formed in 1933, the AHA began working closely with science federations, to promote evolutionary theory and, with the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), to provoke legal action in the courts forcing Americans to accept evolutionary beliefs. Signatories included *Julian Huxley (*T.H. Huxley’s grandson), *John Dewey, *Margaret Sanger, *H.J. Muller, *Benjamin Spock, *Erich Froom, and *Carl Rogers (*American Humanist Association, promotional literature).

*Trofim Lysenko (1893-1976) rose to power in the 1930s in the USSR, by convincing the government that he could create a State Science that combined Darwinian evolution theory in science, animal husbandry, and agriculture with Marxist theory. With *Stalin’s hearty backing, Lysenko became responsible for the death of thousands, including many of Russia’s best scientists. Lysenko banned Mendelian genetics as a bourgeois heresy. He was ousted in 1965, when his theories produced agricultural disaster for the nation. (He claimed to be able to change winter wheat into spring wheat, through temperature change, and wheat into rye in one generation.)

*Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was chancellor of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. He carefully studied the writings of *Darwin and *Nietzsche. Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf, was based on evolutionary theory (*Sir Arthur Keith, Evolution and Ethics, 1947, p. 28). The very title of the book (“My Struggle” [to survive and overcome]) was copied from a Darwinian expression. Hitler believed he was fulfilling evolutionary objectives by eliminating “undesirable individuals and inferior races” in order to produce Germany’s “Master Race” (*Larry Azar, Twentieth Century in Crisis, 1990, p. 180). (Notice that the “master race” people always select the race they are in as the best one.)

*Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), the Italian Fascist dictator, was also captivated by *Darwin and *Nietzsche; and Neitzsche said he got his ideas from Darwin (*R.E.D. Clark, Darwin: Before and After, 1948, p. 115). Mussolini believed that violence is basic to social transformation (*Encyclopedia Britannica, 1962, Vol. 16, p. 27).

Source: Evolution Handbook