Othniel C. Marsh, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Asa Gray
*Marsh’s Horse Series (1870s). *Othniel C. Marsh claimed to have found 30 different kinds of horse fossils in Wyoming and Nebraska. He reconstructed and arranged them in a small-to-large evolutionary series, which was never in a straight line (*Encyclopedia Britannica, 1976 ed., Vol. 7, p. 13). Although displayed in museums for a time, the great majority of scientists later repudiated this “horse series” (*Charles Deperet, Transformations of the Animal World, p. 105; *G.A. Kerkut, Implications of Evolution, 1960, p. 149).
*Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). *Nietzsche was a remarkable example of a man who fully adopted Darwinist principles. He wrote books declaring that the way to evolve was to have wars and kill the weaker races, in order to produce a “super race”
(*T. Walter Wallbank and *Alastair M. Taylor, Civilization Past and Present, Vol. 2, 1949 ed., p. 274). *Darwin, in Origin of the Species, also said that this needed to happen. The writings of both men were read by German militarists and led to World War I. *Hitler valued both Darwin’s and Nietzche’s books. When Hitler killed 6 million Jews, he was only doing what Darwin taught.
It is of interest, that a year before he defended *John Scopes’ right to teach Darwinism at the Dayton “Monkey Trial,” *Clarence Darrow declared in court that the murderous thinking of two young men was caused by their having learned *Nietzsche’s vicious Darwinism in the public schools (*W. Brigan, ed., Classified Speeches).
Gray, a Presbyterian, worked closely with *Charles W. Eliot, president of Harvard, in promoting evolution as a “Christian teaching,” yet teaching long ages and the book of Genesis as a fable.
*Asa Gray was the first leading theistic evolutionist advocate in America, at the time when Darwin was writing his books.
Source: Evolution Handbook
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