February 20, 2009

Conscious selection

I have not kept up with my posts about the Answers in Genesis conference I attended earlier this week. I apologize for that. It was a fantastic conference.

I was mostly struck with Ken Ham's description of evangelistic targets as "Jews" (meaning those who have an understanding of God and believe that God is the Creator and motivator of all things) and "Greeks" (those who view the world through a naturalistic lens and discount God in the entire process). I will discuss that more fully in a future post.

But another thing that really struck me in this conference is the all-pervasive nature of the evolutionary world view. Just as a Christian's world view should affect every area and every discipline of life, the same is true of those who view the world through the Evolutionist's naturalism glasses. This world view impacts not only their biology and geology, but also such things as morality, self-image, business practices, and all other areas of life.

I am currently reading The Long War Against God by Dr. Henry Morris. In this book, Morris discusses the pervasive nature of the evolution-tainted world view. One quote in the first chapter of this book really struck me with the dangerous potential outworkings of a naturalistic world view.

It is essential for UNESCO [United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization] to adopt an evolutionary approach... the general philosophy of UNESCO should, it seems, be a scientific world humanism, global in extent and evolutionary in background.... Thus the struggle for existence that underlies natural selection is increasingly replaced by conscious selection, a struggle between ideas and values in consciousness.

Julian Huxley, "Evolution and Genetics," What is Science

Notice that the concept of survival of the fittest is being proclaimed as the method by which our society should determine which people and ideas should live and which people and ideas should become extinct. He said, "the struggle for existence that underlies natural selection is increasingly replaced by conscious selection." So Huxley is saying that survival of the fittest will be up to us as a culture. We will be the determining factor in who is the least fit and should be slated for extermination. Does this remind you of Adolph Hitler's world view? It should.

But then Huxley goes on to mention, "a struggle between ideas and values in consciousness," showing that he believes it should be taken further than just the ethnic cleansing policies of Adolph Hitler and should include which ideas and values should be slated for extinction. It appears that Huxley believes that the global "fittest" of society should determine who should be allowed to survive and who should be exterminated based on their ideas and values.

God help us all.

11 comments:

  1. I always have this reaction when the evolutionists become tree huggers. "If you believe in the processes of evolution, that lower forms lead to higher forms, why should extinction of any particular spiecies be a negative issue? Isn't this how the process works?" It never goes over very well.

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  2. Mary - I bet you're a blast at secular educational conventions. I'd love to watch you work over the guides at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. I remember relishing Dr. Carter's confrontation of the unsuspecting evolutionary koolaid drinkers.

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  3. Actually it's my passionate daughters who need watching. (Nothing like their momma bear...) They ask very difficult questions of the guides and I really have to get them to settle down and let the guide do her job.

    My passion for following an arguement to its logical conclusion has gotten me in trouble with the current "octomom" controversy. It tickles me to no end to see the vitriole the pro-abortion folks are dealing out. I, too, think she is highly irresponsible. But, if you follow the culture's current stance on reproductive rights, it's her decision. It's her body. They were all her eggs. She is utilizing the socialized programs to help needy individuals. She should be their star poster child, don't you think??

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  4. I think you're right about octomom. It's amusing when the outcome of a philosophical position comes back to smack the philosophers in the face.

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  5. You've probably heard, Rich, about Daniel Dennett's charming proposal that Baptists be "disarmed and caged" so that they can't mess up their children's minds with creationist ideas. If you Google "Dennett disarm cage" you'll find it. You will also probably be interested in this article at First Things:

    http://tinyurl.com/aqbmf8

    It has a number of quotations from self-styled "comprehensive liberals" who hold expressly that parents should not be allowed to raise their children in ways that make them poor citizens in a secular society.

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  6. Lydia - Thanks for the heads up about that Dennett quote. I had not heard that and it is appalling. I don't know that I found the entire quote--I didn't see anything that specifically targeted Baptists, although many of the things he said could certainly be pressed against our doctrines and beliefs. It seemed to target especially radical Muslims, but I know many people don't see a lot of difference between a radical Muslim and a dedicated Christian.

    I was not able to follow produce the First Things article from the Tiny URL forward. The page just froze each time I tried it. I'd like to read that article if you are able to find the static URL for it.

    These are scary days.

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  7. Talk about scary times -- I've always been pre-trib, but never felt I could actually be dogmatic about it. I hope I'm right!! Check out this story on CNN. The time is ripe for the antichrist. It's all in place.

    http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/02/22/germany.financial.summit/index.html

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  8. I see Wikipedia has apparently cut out the reference to the Baptists in Dennett's quotation. Here's the part about the Baptists:

    "Save the Baptists! Yes, of course, but not *by all means*. Not if it means tolerating the deliberate misinforming of children about the natural world. According to a recent poll, 48 percent of the people of the United States believe that the book of Genesis is literally true. And 70 percent believe that 'creation science' should be taught in school alongside evolution. Some recent writers recommend a policy in which parents would be able to 'opt
    out' of materials they didn't want their children taught. Should evolution be taught in the schools? Should arithmetic be taught? Should history? Misinforming a child is a terrible offense. A faith, like a species, must evolve or go extinct when the environment changes. It is not a gentle process in either case."

    And the "we will be obliged, reluctantly, to disarm and cage" (which I think you've found) comes, I believe, just a bit later in the same passage.

    I believe the book is _Darwin's Dangerous Idea_. I'm pretty sure we have a copy around here somewhere. The message board from which I cut and pasted that quote said it comes on p. 516.

    I'm sorry the tinyurl didn't work. The trouble is that Blogger comboxes won't accept long URLs.

    Here is the real URL, but it may be cut off:

    http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=300

    The article is called "The Enemies of Religious Liberty" and the author is James Hitchcock. First Things, February, 2004. You should be able to Google it pretty well with that info. or find it by going through the First Things archives at www.firstthings.com.

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  9. Thanks, Lydia. I'm going to check out that First Things article. And I'm also going to go to the library to get that full quote. I really need to do a post about that. That is a shocking quote.

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  10. Here's a page with several of the quotations and page numbers:

    http://bevets.com/equotesd5.htm

    (Hopefully that's a short enough URL for Blogger.)

    Dennett's claim to fame is the idea of the "meme." A meme is supposed to be like a gene, only it's actually an idea or set of ideas. The term "meme" usually is used nowadays to indicate that the idea in question is false and continues only because it is accepted in some social setting or by some group. A skeptic about global warming, for example, might refer to "the man-cause global warming meme." Dennett has a very similar idea to Huxley's as you quote Huxley--namely, that these various memes, like genes, "seek" to reproduce themselves, mutate, and so forth. In order to survive, Dennett implies that a meme must evolve and adapt to its surrounding circumstances. Those like the Baptists he describes are thus likened, by him, to species who do not adapt to their environment. Because their memes staying in their "wild state"--unsecularized, untamed--they will eventually go extinct.

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