The Real Ideological Root of Terrorism DARWINISM AND MATERIALISM

[البكري]

by
HARUN YAHYA
(http://www.islamdenouncesterrorism.com/ )
(http://www.hyahya.org/

Introduction


Darwin legitimized violence by claiming that humans are, in essence, animals
struggling for life.
Most people think the theory of evolution was first proposed by Charles Darwin,
and rests on scientific evidence, observations and experiments. However, in the
same way that Darwin was not its originator, neither does the theory rest on
scientific proof. The theory consists of an adaptation to nature of an ancient
dogma called materialist philosophy. Although it is backed up by no scientific
evidence, the theory is blindly supported in the name of materialist philosophy.

This fanaticism has resulted in many of disasters. That is because together with
the spread of Darwinism and the materialist philosophy it supports, the answer
to the question 'What is a human being?' has changed. People who used to answer:
'Human beings were created by God and have to live according to the morality He
teaches' have now begun to think that 'Man came into being by chance, and is an
animal who developed with the fight for survival.' There is a heavy price to pay
for this great deception. Violent ideologies such as racism, fascism and
communism, and many other cruel world views based on conflict have all drawn
strength from this deception.

This article will examine this disaster Darwinism has brought to the world and
reveal its connection with terrorism, one of the most important global problems
of our time.

The Darwinist Misconception: 'Life is conflict'

Darwin set out with one basic premise when developing his theory: 'The
development of living things depends on the fight for survival. The strong win
the struggle. The weak are condemned to defeat and oblivion.'

According to Darwin, there was a ruthless struggle for survival and eternal
conflict in nature. The strong always overcome the weak, and this enables
development to take place. The subtitle he gave to his book The Origin of
Species, "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the
Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life", encapsulates that
view.

Furthermore, Darwin proposed that the 'fight for survival' also applied between
human races. According to that claim, 'favoured races' were victorious in the
struggle. Favoured races, in Darwin's view, were white Europeans. African or
Asian races had lagged behind in the struggle for survival. Darwin went further,
and suggested that these races would soon lose the 'struggle for survival'
entirely, and thus disappear:

At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised
races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace the savage races
throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes … will no doubt
be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be
wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may
hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as
now between the negro or Australian and the gorilla. [1]

The Indian anthropologist Lalita Vidyarthi explains how Darwin's theory of
evolution imposed racism on the social sciences:

His (Darwin's) theory of the survival of the fittest was warmly welcomed by the
social scientists of the day, and they believed mankind had achieved various
levels of evolution culminating in the white man's civilization. By the second
half of the nineteenth century racism was accepted as fact by the vast majority
of Western scientists. [2]

Darwin's Source of Inspiration: Malthus's Theory of Ruthlessness


Darwin was influenced by the social theories of Malthus, who defined
ruthlessness as a law of nature.
Darwin's source of inspiration on this subject was the British economist Thomas
Malthus's book An Essay on the Principle of Population. Left to their own
devices, Malthus calculated that the human population increased rapidly. In his
view, the main influences that kept populations under control were disasters
such as war, famine and disease. In short, according to this brutal claim, some
people had to die for others to live. Existence came to mean 'permanent war.'

In the 19th century, Malthus's ideas were widely accepted. European upper class
intellectuals in particular supported his cruel ideas. In an article titled 'The
Nazis' Secret Scientific Agenda,' the importance 19th century attached Europe
attached to Malthus's views on population is described in this way:

In the opening half of the nineteenth century, throughout Europe, members of the
ruling classes gathered to discuss the newly discovered "Population problem" and
to devise ways of implementing the Malthusian mandate, to increase the mortality
rate of the poor: "Instead of recommending cleanliness to the poor, we should
encourage contrary habits. In our towns we should make the streets narrower,
crowd more people into the houses, and court the return of the plague. In the
country we should build our villages near stagnant pools, and particularly
encourage settlements in all marshy and unwholesome situations," and so forth
and so on. [3]

As a result of this cruel policy, the weak, and those who lost the struggle for
survival would be eliminated, and as a result the rapid rise in population would
be balanced out. This so-called 'oppression of the poor' policy was actually
carried out in 19th century Britain. An industrial order was set up in which
children of eight and nine were made to work sixteen hours a day in the coal
mines and thousands died from the terrible conditions. The 'struggle for
survival' demanded by Malthus's theory led to millions of Britons leading lives
full of suffering.

Influenced by these ideas, Darwin applied this concept of conflict to all of
nature, and proposed that the strong and the fittest emerged victorious from
this war of existence. Moreover, he claimed that the so-called struggle for
survival was a justified an unchangeable law of nature. On the other hand, he
invited people to abandon their religious beliefs by denying creation, and thus
aimed at all ethical values that could prove an obstacle to the ruthlessness of
the 'struggle for survival.'

The dissemination of these untrue ideas that led individuals to ruthlessness and
cruelty, cost humanity a heavy price in the 20thcentury.

The Role of Darwinism in Preparing the Ground for World War I

As Darwinism dominated European culture, the effects of the 'struggle for
survival' began to emerge. Colonialist European nations in particular began to
portray the nations they colonized as 'evolutionary backward nations' and looked
to Darwinism for justification.

The bloodiest political effect of Darwinism was the outbreak of World War I in
1914.

In his book Europe Since 1870, the well-known British professor of history James
Joll explains that one of the factors that prepared the ground for World War I
was the belief in Darwinism of European rulers at the time. For instance, the
Austro-Hungarian chief of staff, Franz Baron Conrad von Hoetzendorff, wrote in
his post-war memoirs:

Philanthropic religions, moral teachings and philosophical doctrines may
certainly sometimes serve to weaken mankind's struggle for existence in its
crudest form, but they will never succeed in removing it as a driving motive of
the world… It is in accordance with this great principle that the catastrophe of
the world war came about as the result of the motive forces in the lives of
states and peoples, like a thunderstorm which must by its nature discharge
itself. [4]


The leaders of Europe on the eve of World War I were mislead by the Social
Darwinist dogma. They thought that war was a biological necessity.

It is not hard to understand why Conrad, with that ideological foundation,
should have encouraged the Austro-Hungarian Empire to declare war. Such ideas at
the time were not limited to the military. Kurt Riezler, the personal assistant
and confidant of the German chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, wrote in
1914: 'Eternal and absolute enmity is fundamentally inherent in relations
between peoples; and the hostility which we observe everywhere… is not the
result of a perversion of human nature but is the essence of the world and the
source of life itself.' [5]

Friedrich von Bernardi, a World War I general, made a similar connection between
war and the laws of war in nature. "War" declared Bernhardi "is a biological
necessity"; it "is as necessary as the struggle of the elements of nature"; it
"gives a biologically just decision, since its decisions rest on the very nature
of things." [6]

As we have seen, World War I broke out because of European thinkers, generals
and administrators who saw warfare, bloodshed and suffering as a kind of
'development,' and thought they were an unchanging 'law of nature,' The
ideological root that dragged all of that generation to destruction was nothing
else than Darwin's concepts of the 'struggle for survival' and 'favoured races.'

World War I left behind it 8 million dead, hundreds of ruined cities, and
millions of wounded, crippled, homeless and unemployed.

The basic cause of World War II, which broke out 21 years later and left 55
million dead behind it, was also based on Darwinism.

The Fruit of 'The Law of the Jungle': Fascism

As Darwinism fed racism in the 19th century, it formed the basis of an ideology
that would develop and drown the world in blood in the 20thcentury: Nazism.


Both the race theory and the war hysteria of the Nazis were inspired from
Darwinism.
A strong Darwinist influence can be seen in Nazi ideologues. When one examines
this theory, which was given shape by Adolf Hitler and Alfred Rosenberg, one
comes across such concepts as 'natural selection,' 'selected mating,' and 'the
struggle for survival between the races,' which are repeated dozens of time in
The Origin of Species. When calling his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle), Hitler
was inspired by the Darwinist struggle for survival and the principle that
victory went to the fittest. He particularly talks about the struggle between
the races:

'History would culminate in a new millennial empire of unparalleled splendour,
based on a new racial hierarchy ordained by nature herself.'[7]

In the 1933 Nuremberg party rally, Hitler proclaimed that "a higher race
subjects to itself a lower race… a right which we see in nature and which can be
regarded as the sole conceivable right".

That the Nazis were influenced by Darwinism is a fact that many historians
accept. The historian Hickman describes Darwinism's influence on Hitler as
follows:

(Hitler) was a firm believer and preacher of evolution. Whatever the deeper,
profound, complexities of his psychosis, it is certain that [the concept of
struggle was important because] … his book, Mein Kampf, clearly set forth a
number of evolutionary ideas, particularly those emphasizing struggle, survival
of the fittest and the extermination of the weak to produce a better society.
[8]

Hitler, who emerged with these views, dragged the world to violence that had
never before been seen. Many ethnic and political groups, and especially the
Jews, were exposed to terrible cruelty and slaughter in the Nazi concentration
camps. World War II, which began with the Nazi invasion, cost 55 million lives.
What lay behind the greatest tragedy in world history was Darwinism's concept of
the 'struggle for survival.'

The Bloody Alliance: Darwinism and Communism


The dialectical materialism of Marx defined violence as a constructive force
that helped human progress.
While fascists are found on the right wing of Social Darwinism, the left wing is
occupied by communists. Communists have always been among the fiercest defenders
of Darwin's theory.

This relationship between Darwinism and communism goes right back to the
founders of both these 'isms.' Marx and Engels, the founders of communism, read
Darwin's The Origin of Species as soon as it came out, and were amazed at is
'dialectical materialist' attitude. The correspondence between Marx and Engels
showed that they saw Darwin's theory as 'containing the basis in natural history
for communism.' In his book The Dialectics of Nature, which he wrote under the
influence of Darwin, Engels was full of praise for Darwin, and tried to make his
own contribution to the theory in the chapter 'The Part Played by Labour in the
Transition from Ape to Man.'

Russian communists who followed in the footsteps of Marx and Engels, such as
Plekhanov, Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin, all agreed with Darwin's theory of
evolution. Plekhanov, who is considered as the founder of Russian communism,
regarded marxism as 'Darwinism in its application to social science'. [9]

Trotsky said, 'Darwin's discovery is the highest triumph of the dialectic in the
whole field of organic matter.' [10]

'Darwinist education' had a major role in the formation of communist cadres. For
instance, historians note the fact that Stalin was religious in his youth, but
became an atheist because of Darwin's books. [11]

Mao, who established communist rule in China and killed millions of people,
openly stated that 'Chinese socialism is founded upon Darwin and the theory of
evolution.' [12]

The Harvard University historian James Reeve Pusey goes into great detail
regarding Darwinism's effect on Mao and Chinese communism in his research book
China and Charles Darwin. [13]

In short, there is an unbreakable link between the theory of evolution and
communism. The theory claims that living things are the product of blind chance,
and provides a so-called scientific support for atheism. Communism, an atheist
ideology, is for that reason firmly tied to Darwinism. Moreover, the theory of
evolution proposes that development in nature is possible thanks to conflict (in
other words 'the struggle for survival') and supports the concept of
'dialectics' which is fundamental to communism.

If we think of the communist concept of 'dialectical conflict,' which killed
some 120 million people throughout the 20thcentury, as a 'killing machine' then
we can better understand the dimension of the disaster that Darwinism visited on
our planet.

Darwinism and Terrorism

As we have so far seen, Darwinism is at the root of various ideologies of
violence that spelled disaster to mankind in the 20thcentury. However, as well
as these ideologies, Darwinism also defines an 'ethical understanding' and
'method' that could influence various world views. The fundamental concept
behind this understanding and method is 'fighting those who are not one of us.'

We can explain this in the following way: There are different beliefs,
worldviews and philosophies in the world. These can look at each other in one of
two ways:

1) They can respect the existence of those who are not one of them and try to
establish dialogue with them, employing a humane method.

2) They can choose to fight others, and to try to secure an advantage by
damaging them, in other words, behave like a wild animal.

The horror we call terrorism is nothing other than a statement of the second
view.


The faith in the legitimacy of terror comes from materialist ideologies, not
Theistic faiths.
When we consider the difference between these two approaches, we can see that
the idea of "man as a fighting animal" which Darwinism has subconsciously
imposed on people is particularly influential. Individuals and groups who choose
the way of conflict may never have heard of Darwinism and the principles of that
ideology. But in the final analysis, they agree with a view whose philosophical
basis rests on Darwinism. What leads them to believe in the rightness of
violence is such Darwinism-based slogans as;

'In this world, only the strong survive,'
'Big fish swallow the little ones,'
'War is a virtue,'
and 'Man advances by waging war.'

Take Darwinism away, and these are nothing but empty slogans.

Actually, when Darwinism is taken away, no philosophy of 'conflict' remains. The
three monotheistic religions that most people in the world believe in, Islam,
Christianity and Judaism, all oppose violence. All three religions wish to bring
peace and harmony to the world, and oppose innocent people being killed and
suffering cruelty and torture. Conflict and violence violate the morality that
God has set out for man, and are abnormal and undesired concepts. However,
Darwinism sees and portrays conflict and violence as natural, justified and
correct concepts that have to exist.

For this reason, if some people commit terrorism using the concepts and symbols
of Islam, Christianity and Judaism in the name of those religions, you can be
sure that those people are not Muslims, Christians or Jews. They are in fact
Social Darwinists. They hide under a cloak of religion, but they are not genuine
believers. Even if they claim to be serving religion, they are actually enemies
of religion and believers. That is because they are ruthlessly committing a
crime that religion forbids, and in such a way as to blacken religion in
peoples' eyes.

For this reason, the root of the terrorism that plagues our world is not in any
of the monotheistic religions, but is in atheism, and the expression of atheism
in our times: 'Darwinism' and 'materialism.'

Notes

1- Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, 2nd edition, New York, A L. Burt Co.,
1874, p. 178
2- Lalita Prasad Vidyarthi, Racism, Science and Pseudo-Science, Unesco, France,
Vendôme, 1983. s. 54
3- Theodore D. Hall, The Scientific Background of the Nazi Race Purification
Program, http://www.trufax.org/avoid/nazi.html
4- James Joll, Europe Since 1870: An International History, Penguin Books,
Middlesex, 1990, s. 164
5- James Joll, Europe Since 1870: An International History, Penguin Books,
Middlesex, 1990, s. 164
6- M.F. Ashley-Montagu, Man in Process (New York: World. Pub. Co. 1961) pp. 76,
77 cited in Bolton Davidheiser, W E Lammers (ed) Scientific Studies in Special
Creationism, 1971, p. 338-339
7- L.H. Gann, "Adolf Hitler, The Complete Totalitarian", The Intercollegiate
Review, Fall 1985, p. 24; cited in Henry M. Morris, The Long war Against God,
Baker Book House, 1989, p. 78
8- Hickman, R., Biocreation, Science Press, Worthington, OH, pp. 51-52, 1983;
Jerry Bergman, "Darwinism and the Nazi Race Holocaust", Creation Ex Nihilo
Technical Journal 13 (2): 101-111, 1999
9- Robert M. Young DARWINIAN EVOLUTION AND HUMAN HISTORY, Historical Studies on
Science and Belief, 1980
10- Alan Woods and Ted Grant. "Marxism and Darwinism", Reason in Revolt: Marxism
and Modern Science, London, 1993
11- Alex de Jonge, Stalin and The Shaping of the Soviet Uninon, William Collins
Sons & Limited Co., Glasgow, 1987, s. 22
12- Mehnert, Kampf um Mao's Erbe, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1977
13- James Reeve Pusey, China and Charles Darwin, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1983