Darwin’s Influence by Kerby Anderson

Here's another timely article from Kerby Anderson that I thought was very thought provoking:

Each year World magazine picks their “books of the year.” This year, the two books had something in common: they challenged theistic evolution. When writing about the topic, Marvin Olasky (editor) provided an excellent summary of how Darwinian evolution has had an influence far beyond biology. He looks at five areas that have been affected by evolutionary thinking.

1. Politics – Woodrow Wilson started federal government expansion by opposing the “Newtonian” view that government should be rooted in an unchanging structure and foundation. Instead he argued that government should be “accountable to Darwin, not to Newton.”

2. Economics – The influence of Darwin on economics is easy to see if you read Karl Marx who called Darwin’s theory “epoch making” and provided the basis for his views on economics and history. He was merely the first to see economics from a Darwinian perspective.

3. Sex – Alfred Kinsey certainly was influenced by Darwin, as evidenced by the fact that his classmates half-jokingly called him the “Second Darwin.” His major studies contend that adultery and homosexuality are common among “the mammalian backgrounds of human behavior.”


4. Abortion – Marvin Olasky reminds us that proponents of evolution have contributed a great deal to the legalization of abortion and the belief the human life has no intrinsic value. Long before abortion was legal, some scholars were arguing that babies are sub-human.

5. Infanticide – Princeton’s Peter Singer says that since “we are simply animals” it is time for society to catch up and erase this imaginary line between us and the rest of the animal world.

Darwinian evolution has had a profound influence not only in biology, but in many of the other academic disciplines and in the direction of our society. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view.

NOTE: Mr. Anderson did not approach me to put this in my blog.  I do not know him nor am I associated with him.  Yes, he did acknowledge the last time I quoted him.  And yes, I was very excited to have him do so.  I like his work, and I like sharing the thoughts of great thinkers.  And that is my point of view.   Let me know yours.