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Did Darwinism “Evolve” into Hitler’s Programs and the “New Eugenics”?

For those with cable or satellite TV reception, the documentary “Darwin’s Deadly Legacy”, airing on various stations across the country this Saturday and Sunday, has kicked up a fuss that should spark public interest and viewership.

We have no idea whether the program is well done or not, but we do notice–like “Joy” at TelicThoughts–that Darwinists are displaying an unseemly interest in hiding from the historically undeniable connections that link the eugenics movement that Darwin’s supporters–including family members–organized in the 19th century (followed eagerly by Ernst Haeckel in Germany) to the US eugenics laws of the past century, then Hitler’s murder of handicapped people and “inferior” races, and then the new eugenics movement of our time.

CSC Fellow Richard Weikart’s excellent book, From Darwin to Hitler (2004), is a careful and nuanced account. It does not try to blame or point fingers. Darwin didn’t “cause”, let alone will Hitler. But Weikart (interviewed for the program), a professor at California State, Stanislaus, does tell the true history and any serious critic should start by recognizing the facts he marshals.

As for the TV documentary, we’ll see.

Bruce Chapman

Cofounder and Chairman of the Board of Discovery Institute
Bruce Chapman has had a long career in American politics and public policy at the city, state, national, and international levels. Elected to the Seattle City Council and as Washington State's Secretary of State, he also served in several leadership posts in the Reagan administration, including ambassador. In 1991, he founded the public policy think tank Discovery Institute, where he currently serves as Chairman of the Board and director of the Chapman Center on Citizen Leadership.

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