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

*Vladimir (Nikolai) Lenin (1870-1924) and *Josef Stalin (1879-1953). Lenin was an ardent evolutionist who, in 1918, violently overthrew the Russian government and founded the Soviet Union.

According to *Yaroslavsky, a close friend of his, at an early age, while attending a Christian Orthodox school, Stalin began to read *Darwin and became an atheist (*E. Yaroslavsky, Landmarks in the Life of Stalin, 1940, pp. 8-9). Stalin was head of the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1953. During those years, he was responsible for the death of millions of Russians who refused to yield to his slave-state tactics. The Soviet Union under Stalin was an outstanding example of Darwinist principles extended to an entire nation.

*Austin H. Clark (1880-1954), an ardent evolutionist, was on the staff of the Smithsonian Institute from 1908 to 1950 and a member of several important scientific organizations. A prominent scientist, he authored several books and about 600 scientific articles. But, after years of honestly trying to deal with the fact that there is no evidence of cross-species change, in 1930 he wrote an astounding book, The New Evolution: Zoogenesis. In it, he cited fact after fact, disproving the possibility that major types of plants and animals could have evolved from one another. The book was breathtaking and could not be answered by any evolutionist. His alternate proposal, zoogenesis, was that every major type of plant and animal must have evolved—not from one another—but directly from dirt and water! (*A.H. Clark, The New Evolution: Zoogenesis, 1930, pp. 211, 100, 189, 196, 114). The evolutionary world was stunned into silence; for he was an expert who knew all the reasons why trans-species evolution was impossible.

*Richard Goldschmidt (1878-1958). The same year that *Clark wrote his book (1930), Goldschmidt gave up also. An earnest evolutionist, he had dedicated his life to proving it by applying X-rays and chemicals to fruit flies at the University of California, Berkeley, and producing large numbers of mutations in them. After 25 exhausting years, in which he had worked with more generations of fruit flies than humans and their ape ancestors are conjectured to have lived on our planet, Goldschmidt decided that he must figure out a different way that cross-species evolution could occur. For the next ten years, as he continued his fruit fly research, he gathered additional evidence of the foolishness of evolutionary theory;—and, in 1940, wrote his book, The Material Basis of Evolution, in which he exploded point after point in the ammunition box of the theory. He literally tore it to pieces (*Norman Macbeth, Darwin Retried, 1974, p. 152). No evolutionist could answer him. Like them, he was a confirmed evolutionist atheist, but he was honestly facing the facts. After soundly destroying their theory, he announced his new concept: a megaevolution in which one life form suddenly emerged completely out of a different one! He called them “hopeful monsters.” One day a fish laid some eggs, and some of them turned into a frog; a snake laid an egg, and a bird hatched from it! Goldschmidt asked for even bigger miracles than A.H. Clark had proposed! (*Steven M. Stanley, Macroevolution: Pattern and Process, 1979, p. 159).

Source: Evolution Handbook

 Nebraska Man Debunked (1922, 1928). In 1922 a single molar tooth was found and named Hesperopithecus, or “Nebraska Man.” An artist was told to make an “apeman” picture based on the tooth, which went around the world. Nebraska Man was a key evidence at the Scopes trial in July 1925. (The evolutionists had little else to offer!) *Grafton Smith, one of those involved in publicizing Nebraska Man, was knighted for his efforts in making known this fabulous find. When paleontologists returned to the site in 1928, they found the rest of the skeleton,—and discovered the tooth belonged to “an extinct pig”! (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p. 322). In 1972, living specimens of the same pig were found in Paraguay.

*Oliver Wendel Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935), powerfully affected the U.S. Supreme Court in both viewpoint and legal precedents. He was forceful in his positions and a leading justice for 30 years. The prevalent view since his time is that law is a product of evolution and should continually evolve in accord with social policy. But this, of course, keeps taking America further and further from the U.S. Constitution.

Source: Evolution Handbook

 The Scopes Trial (July 10 to July 21, 1925) was a powerful aid to the cause of evolution; yet scientific discoveries were not involved. That was fortunate; since, except for a single tooth (later disproved) and a few other frauds, the evolutionists had nothing worthwhile to present (*The World’s Most Famous Court Trial: A Complete Stenographic Report, 1925).The ACLU (*American Civil Liberties Union) had been searching for someone they could use to test the Butler Act, which forbade the teaching of evolution in the public schools in Tennessee. *John Scopes (24 at the time) volunteered for the job. He later privately admitted that he had never actually taught evolution in class, so the case was based on a fraud; he spent the time teaching them football maneuvers (*John Scopes, Center of the Storm, 1967, p. 60). But no matter, the ACLU wanted to so humiliate the State of Tennessee, that no other state would ever dare oppose the evolutionists. The entire trial, widely reported as the “Tennessee Monkey Trial,” was presented to the public as something of a comic opera. (A trained ape was even sent in, to walk around on a chain in the streets of Dayton.) But the objective was deadly serious; and they succeeded very well. Although the verdict was against Scopes, America’s politicians learned the lesson: Do not oppose the evolutionists.

The Scopes trial, the first event nationally broadcast over the radio, was a major victory for evolutionists throughout the world. Ridicule, side issues, misinformation, and false statements were used to win the battle.

Click to see cartoon of Scopes Trial

Source: Evolution Handbook

Communist Darwinism. *Marx and *Engels’ acceptance of evolutionary theory made *Darwin’s theory the “scientific” basis of all later communist ideologies (*Robert M. Young, “The Darwin Debate,” in Marxism Today, Vol. 26, April 1982, p. 21). Communist teaching declared that evolutionary change, which taught class struggle, came by revolution and violent uprisings. Communist dogma declares that Lamarckism (inheritance of acquired characteristics) is the mechanism by which this is done. Mendelian genetics was officially outlawed in Russia in 1948, since it was recognized as disproving evolution. Communist theorists also settled on “synthetic speciation” instead of natural selection or mutations as the mechanism for species change (*L.B. Halstead, “Museum of Errors,” in Nature, November 20, 1980, p. 208). This concept is identical to the sudden change theory of *Goldschmidt and *Gould, which we will mention later.

*John Dewey (1859-1952) was another influential thought leader. A vigorous Darwinist, Dewey founded and led out in the “progressive education movement” which so greatly affected U.S. educational history. But it was nothing more than careful animal training (*Samuel L. Blumenfeld, NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education, 1984, p. 43). The purpose was to indoctrinate the youth into evolution, humanism, and collectivism. In 1933, Dewey became a charter member of the American Humanist Association and its first president. Its basic statement of beliefs, published that year as the Humanist Manifesto, became the unofficial framework of teaching in most school textbooks. The evolutionists recognized that they must gain control of all public education (*Sir Julian Huxley, quoted in *Sol Tax and *Charles Callender, eds., Evolution after Darwin, 3 vols., 1960). Historically, American education was based on morals and standards; but Dewey declared that, in order to be “progressive,” education must leave “the past” and “evolve upward” to new, modern concepts.

Source: Evolution Handbook

*Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), like a variety of other evolutionist leaders before and after, was an avid spiritist. Many of his mystery stories were based on evolutionary themes.

*George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was so deeply involved in evolutionary theory, that he openly declared that he wrote his plays to teach various aspects of the theory (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p. 461).

(1912). In 1912, parts of a jaw and skull were found in England and dubbed “Piltdown Man.” News of it created a sensation. The report of a dentist, in 1916, who said someone had filed down the teeth was ignored. As we will learn below, in 1953 the fact that it was a total hoax was uncovered. This, like all the later evidences that our ancestors were part ape, has been questioned or repudiated by reputable scientists. See chapter 13, Ancient Man. (1917-1918). Darwinism basically taught that there is no moral code, our ancestors were savage, and civilization only progressed by violence against others. It therefore led to extreme nationalism, racism, and warfare through Nazism and Fascism. Evolution was declared to involve “natural selection”; and, in the struggle to survive, the fittest will win out at the expense of their rivals. *Frederich von Bernhard (a German military officer) wrote a book in 1909, extolling evolution and appealing to Germany to start another war. *Heinrich von Treitsche, a Prussian militarist, loudly called for war by Germany in order to fulfill its “evolutionary destiny” (*Heinrich G. von Treitsche, Politics, Vol. 1, pp. 66-67). Their teachings were fully adopted by the German government; and it only waited for a pretext to start the war (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p. 59).

*Walter S. Sutton and *T. Boveri (1902) independently discovered chromosomes and the linkage of genetic characters. This was only two years after Mendel’s research was rediscovered. Scientists were continually learning new facts about the fixity of the species.

*Thomas Hunt Morgan (1886-1945) was an American biologist who developed the theory of the gene. He found that the genetic determinants were present in a definite linear order in the chromosomes and could be somewhat “mapped.” He was the first to work intensively with the fruit fly, Drosophila (*Michael Pitman, Adam and Evolution, 1984, p. 70). But research with fruit flies, and other creatures, has proved a total failure in showing mutations to be a mechanism for cross-species change (*Richard B. Goldschmidt, “Evolution, as Viewed by One Geneticist,” American Scientist, January 1952, p. 94).*H.J. Muller (1890-1967). Upon learning of the 1927 discovery that X-rays, gamma rays, and various chemicals could induce an extremely rapid increase of mutations in the chromosomes of test animals and plants, Muller pioneered in using X-rays to greatly increase the mutation rate in fruit flies. But all he and the other researchers found was that mutations were always harmful (*H.J. Muller, Time, November 11, 1946, p. 38; *E.J. Gardner, Principles of Genetics, 1964, p. 192; *Theodosius Dobzhansky, Genetics and the Origin of the Species, 1951, p. 73).

*Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was deeply indebted to the evolutionary training he received in Germany as a young man. He fully accepted it, as well as *Haeckel’s recapitulation theory. Freud began his Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1916) with Haeckel’s premise: “Each individual somehow recapitulates in an abbreviated form the entire development of the human race” (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p. 177).

Freud’s “Oedipus complex” was based on a theory of “primal horde” he developed about a “mental complex” that caveman families had long ago. His theories of anxiety complexes, and “oral” and “anal” stages, etc., were based on his belief that our ancestors were savage.

*H.G. Wells (1866-1946), the science fiction pioneer, based his imaginative writings on evolutionary teachings. He had received a science training under Professor *Thomas H. Huxley, *Darwin’s chief defender.

Source: Evolution Handbook

 *Hugo deVries (1848-1935) was a Dutch botanist and one of the three men who, in 1900, rediscovered Mendel’s paper on the law of heredity. One day while working with primroses, deVries thought he had discovered a new species. This made headlines. He actually had found a new variety (sub-species) of the primrose, but deVries conjectured that perhaps his “new species” had suddenly sprung into existence as a “mutation.” He theorized that new species “saltated” (leaped), that is, continually spring into existence. His idea is called the saltation theory.

This was a new idea; and, during the first half of the 20th century, many evolutionist biologists, finding absolutely no evidence supporting “natural selection,” switched from natural selection (“Darwinism”) to mutations (“neo-Darwinism”) as the mechanism by which the theorized cross-species changes occurred.

Later in this book, we will discover that mutations cannot produce evolution either, for they are always harmful. In addition, decades of experimentation have revealed they never produce new species.

In order to prove the mutation theory, deVries and other researchers immediately began experimentation on fruit flies; and it has continued ever since—but totally without success in producing new species.

In 1914 *Edward Jeffries discovered that deVries’ primrose was just a new variety, not a new species.

Decades later, it was discovered that most plant varieties are produced by variations in gene factors, rarely by mutations. Those caused by gene variations may be strong (although not as strong as the average original), but those varieties produced by mutations are always weak and have a poor survival rate. See chapter 10, Mutations, for much, much more on the mutation problem.

Source: Evolution Handbook

 Bumpus’ Sparrows (1898). Herman Bumpus was a zoologist at Brown University. During the winter of 1898, by accident he carried out one of the only field experiments in natural selection. One cold morning, finding 136 stunned house sparrows on the ground, he tried to nurse them back to health. Of the total, 72 revived and 64 died. He weighed and carefully measured all of them, and found that those closest to the average survived best. This frequently quoted research study is another evidence that the animal or plant closest to the original species is the most hardy. Sub-species variations will not be as hardy, and evolution entirely across species (if the DNA code would permit it) would therefore be too weakened to survive. (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p. 61).

In 1900, three scientists independently discovered Gregor Mendel’s astounding research findings about heredity. In the years since then, genetic research has repeatedly confirmed that there are only changes within species—never cross-species changes (which would be true evolution). This is true of plants, animals, and even microbes.

Source: Evolution Handbook

*William Grant Sumner (1840-1910) applied evolutionary principles to political economics at Yale University. He taught many of America’s future business and industrial leaders that strong business should succeed and the weak perish, and that to help the unfit was to injure the fit and accomplish nothing for society (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, pp. 59, 446, 72). Millionaires were, in his thinking, the “fittest.” Modern laissez-faire capitalism was the result (*Gilman M. Ostrander, The Evolutionary Outlook: 1875-1900, 1971, p. 5).

*William James (1842-1910) was another evolutionist who influenced American thinking. His view of psychology placed the study of human behavior on an animalistic evolutionary basis.(1890). *George Darwin, son of *Charles Darwin, wanted to come up with something original, so he invented the theory that four million years ago the moon was pressed nearly against the earth, which revolved every five hours.—Then one day, a heavy tide occurred in the oceans, which lifted it out to its present location! Later proponents of George’s theory decided that the Pacific Basin is the hole the moon left behind, when those large ocean waves pushed it out into space.

Tidal Hypothesis Theory (1890). *George Darwin, son of *Charles Darwin, wanted to come up with something original, so he invented the theory that four million years ago the moon was pressed nearly against the earth, which revolved every five hours.—Then one day, a heavy tide occurred in the oceans, which lifted it out to its present location! Later proponents of George’s theory decided that the Pacific Basin is the hole the moon left behind, when those large ocean waves pushed it out into space.

Source: Evolution Handbook

 *Karl Marx (1818-1883) is closely linked with Darwinism. That which *Darwin did to biology, Marx with the help of others did to society. All the worst political philosophies of the 20th century emerged from the dark cave of Darwinism. Marx was thrilled when he read Origin of the Species; and he immediately wrote Darwin and asked to dedicate his own major work, Das Kapital, to him. Darwin, in his reply, thanked him but said it would be best not to do so.

In 1866, Marx wrote to *Frederick Engels, that Origin of the Species contained the basis in natural history for their political and economic system for an atheist world. Engels, the co-founder of world communism with Marx and *Lenin, wrote to Karl Marx in 1859: “Darwin, whom I am just now reading, is splendid” (*C. Zirkle, Evolution, Marxian Biology, and the Social Scene, 1959, p. 85). In 1861, Marx wrote to Engels: “Darwin’s book is very important and serves me as a basis in natural selection for the class struggle in history” (*op. cit., p. 86). At Marx’s funeral, Engles said that, as Darwin had discovered the law of organic evolution in natural history, so Marx had discovered the law of evolution in human history (*Otto Ruhle, Karl Marx, 1948, p. 366).As Darwin emphasized competitive survival as the key to advancement, so communism focused on the value of labor rather than the laborer. Like Darwin, Marx thought he had discovered the law of development. He saw history in stages, as the Darwinists saw geological strata and successive forms of life.

Source: Evolution Handbook