Social Darwinism: Darwinism is an Atheist Lie, Except in Politics
Friday September 5, 2008
Photo © istockphoto/ruchos
Poster © Austin Cline
A common argument used by conservative Christians against evolutionary theory is the idea that it reduces humanity to mere physical beings and morality to "survival of the fittest." They don't often mention Social Darwinism by name, yet these same conservative Christians often support politics similar Social Darwinism in their effects, if not their intent. How can Christians be so horrified by the alleged moral and social consequences of "Darwinism" while supporting Social Darwinism?
Read Article: Social Darwinism: Darwinism is an Atheist Lie, Except in Politics
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“True opponents of Social Darwinism should be strong supporters of social safety nets and welfare policies which ensure that everyone can have a minimally decent standard of living, basic health care, good education, etc. In short, strong opponents to Social Darwinism should tend to prefer the policies of liberal Democrats over conservative Republicans.”
It’s not quite as simple as you make it out to be. I’ve heard stories of people dying in countries with universal health care because the government beauracracy took to long to treat. Of course, of heard scary stories that happened as a result of the lack of universal health care too, but still.
The fact that no universal health care system is 100% perfect, and so even there some people fail to be adequately helped, is a non sequitur to the argument you quoted: the more strongly opposed one is to Social Darwinism, the more strongly one should support social safety nets.
Given the imperfections of humanity, it’s necessarily true that those nets will always fall short of perfection, but the argument does not require that they ever be perfect. All that’s required is that the social safety nets help mitigate the negative effects of unrestrained competition and contingent events which create the sort of system typically referred to as Social Darwinism.
Sincere opposition to Social Darwinism must be accompanied by sincere support for the means to fight it and its effects. This is generally not found among conservatives who defend social and economic systems which produce precisely the conditions which Social Darwinists always wanted.