![]() From the outset Darwin concerned himself with the unity of humankind” (p. xviii), so much so that “human evolution wasn’t his last piece in the evolution jigsaw it was the first. Acknowledging contradictions in Darwin’s thought and writings-“paradoxical” in Desmond and Moore’s words-nevertheless, they find “a moral passion firing his evolutionary work” (p. They assert evolutionists, secularists and even creationists and fundamentalists of all stripes are wrong when they attribute Darwin’s success to “his single-minded pursuit of science,” and that “a zeal for scientific knowledge consumed him, keeping him on target to overthrow God and bestialize humanity” (p. Desmond and Moore’s central argument is quite daring the primary force driving Darwin-even as a young man-was his detestation of slavery and racism. Their efforts have been assisted by increased accessibility to Darwin’s correspondence, his marginalia in books, his notebooks, and voluminous manuscript material, which have been painstakingly deciphered and transcribed for the past 35 years, and continues unabatedly as an ongoing project. Despite the baseless nature of these charges, they have damaged Darwin’s reputation, not only among the educated lay public but also among historians, scientists, and other scholars who seem eager for the opportunity to dismiss the “great man” theory they feel is too prevalent in the history of ideas.Īdrian Desmond and James Moore in their latest biography of Darwin, Darwin’s Sacred Cause: How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin’s views on Human Evolution, seek to correct the inaccurate depiction of Darwin and his status in the Victorian nation of ideas, as well as his reputation today. In other instances, such charges have been deliberately advanced in an attempt to discredit evolution by using the well-worn device of personal attacks to discredit the character of Darwin. Often, it is the result of a lack of sophistication and understanding of Darwin’s contributions to biology. The fact that Darwin’s cousin, Sir Francis Galton, helped found the eugenics movement in the late nineteenth century has further encouraged those who are not particularly well informed on the subject to assume biological evolution can be linked with social Darwinism, a false application of Darwin’s ideas that attributes the success individuals or groups enjoy to their inherent genetic superiority. ![]() A few have tried to link Darwin with the rise of National Socialism in Germany. Misinformation concerning Charles Darwin and his social views has been receiving greater currency recently i.e., he has been called a racist or it is alleged his theories precipitated the growth of racism, seen as a logical consequence of his theory of evolution. ![]()
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