Ivey Brandon Writing 2 Susan Cook 11-6-06 Is Natural Selection Natural? America has always been an advocate for human equality and considers its borders to be a safe haven of tolerance and understanding. This is ironic based on the fact that the original colonist who came here searching for religious freedom striped the land from its original owners, cheated them, and drove some of the tribes to the brink of extinction. The so called religious colonist completely disregarded some of the Bible's core values of not murdering and stealing in order to fulfill their own greed. With our extremely advanced technology taking control of the land was very easy. This is also seen in other species of animals as well; the biggest, strongest, and fastest gain all the respect and power. This fact was popularized by Charles Darwin's book the Origin of Species, this book contains the theory of Natural Selection basically states, There are certain plants and animals that have certain genetic traits that allow them to survive better in nature. This idea was the founding block of Social Darwinism, this theory holds the same idea but it applies it to the ethnicities of humans saying that some races are genetically destined to be superior. This false principle has been proven false throughout history, by showing that its followers lead to their own destruction. Many intolerant groups use Social Darwinism as a justification for their bigotry. This problem is not isolated solely in American culture, but in countries all over the world millions of innocent people are being slaughtered; just because humans can not settle their differences. All this animosity wastes time and energy that could be spent on the advancement of society instead of destroying it. One of the most famous disasters of Social Darwinism is the unforgettable actions of Nazi Germany. The Nazi party was originally founded to unite the German people after depressing defeats during World War One. The main promise of the Nazi party was that it would form a master race to rule
the world. Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazi party, and his orders had six million captured Jews killed, in addition to the losses on both sides of the battlefield. Even though Hitler only caused chaos there are some people who consider him a hero. The Ku Klux Klan and The Neo-Nazi movement hold Hitler's opinions with the most up right respect imaginable. There respect is misplaced, because many events in Hitler's life prove that he was not a member of Natural Selection. Encarta encyclopedia reveals that "Hitler he was a poor student and that he had a fondness for art, but showed not determination to make his true goals come true. Later he served in World War 1, and then later moved on to politics, where after gain enormous public support started the Nazi party.( Weinberg, 2006) After the allied forces broke through the Nazi front lines Hitler killed himself in fear of the consequences of his actions. Hitler was not willing to fight for what he viewed was rightfully his. Instead of standing up with pride as a member of the Master Race and fighting to the very end he ran, hid, and killed himself in a dark bunker underground. In an attempt to understand how people can find common ground on such twisted beliefs, an Ethnographer named Raphael S Ezekiel wrote The Racist Mind Revisited. Ezekiel interviews members of the movements for several years at the risk of his own safety as well, he tells the members about his Jewish heritage and leftist political ideas. His book reports back that the main point of white supremacy ideology is called Christian Identity it is founded on the notion that, "Whites are the creation of God who is white as well, the people of color originated from the mixing of whites with animals, and the third and final race is the Jews who are believed to be the descents of Eve and the Serpent, sent by the devil to seize the earth."(Pg 3) Ezekiel continues to explain how followers of the movement are convinced that Jews are trying to stop the dominance of the white race by controlling the media and encouraging inter-racial relationships. Ezekiel describes the members as "Being afraid of economic failure and personal annihilation"; he also noticed that the leaders seemed to be driven by a thirst for power more than racism. (Pg 1) After several more interviews, Ezekiel discovered the broken homes many followers
came from, and how drug use, and a sense of belonging influenced many to join the cause and become a Neo-Nazi. The Racist Mind Revisited proves that the white race undergoes the same hardships as other races. Unfortunately the followers can not come to the realization that if they are such a pure and noble people then they would not be breaking their own families apart, and partaking in actions that they feel they are justified to condemn others for. The actions and beliefs of the followers are completely hypocritical, they claim to be doing the work of God; however what they stand for is more of a disgrace upon God. How could messages of the scriptures change from "Love thy neighbor as you love yourself" change to something like how Jews are the children of the devil (Pg 3).Nazis claim that Jesus was an ancient Aryan who are not related to modern Jews (Pg 3). However anybody else who had a basic understanding of Christian religion would explain that Jesus was born to Jewish parents, and raised in the Jewish faith. The Nazis try to make religion convenient to their message and do not care if they twist the word of God. It seems appropriate that they burn the cross, because they already violated everything else sacred in the religion; why not deface one of its holiest symbols as well. Natural Selection suggests that there are races that are genetically superior; however current scientific research is starting to discredit this theory. Lundy Braun wrote "Race, Ethnicity, and Health; can genetics explain disparities?" The article researches why the mortality rate and subject ability to certain diseases vary in-between races, and explains previous attempts to find genetic differences. The Immigrant Exclusion Act of 1924 was the result of a big migration wave, the people of Anglo-Saxton ancestry were automatically viewed as the most evolved, and so "Race thus became a key predicative marker of disease status and social utility." (Pg 161) The American Anthological Association states the opposite, "Racial beliefs constitute myths about the diversity of the human species... the myths fused behavior and physical features together in the public mind, impeding our comprehension of both biological variations and culture behavior, leading us to think that both are genetic. Next Braun states, "Research in the biological sciences has
also provided strong evidence that human genetic diversity can not be portioned into genetically determined racial categories (Pg 162). After discrediting the theory of natural selection Braun introduces the work of Richard Lewontin; Lewontin's work proved that there are more genetic differences between two members of the same race, that there are differences between members of different races. There is still objection to Lewontin's work because there are diseases the one race is more subject able to get, Braun defends Lewontin's findings by saying, "Race does not reflect a single path of ancestry... if individual identity is complex, and then group identity infinity is more complex." Her statement goes hand in hand with the sociological belief that society creates race. "Race, Ethnicity, and Health; can genetics explain disparities?" proves that no race is predetermined to rule over all the rest. Siding with her opinion is Jerry Bergman who wrote" Some Biological Problems with the Natural Selection Theory" in his essay he argues that the weaker of the species survive better, in environmental challenges. "Individual survival after birth tends to be mostly the result of chance; in most cases natural selection eliminates only the sick and the deformed." With this statement he begins to doubt the credibility of the theory and begins to compare humans to other animals to prove that our bodies are not as superior as we are taught to believe and how some "lower creatures" have certain abilities that surpass our own. (Pg 6) " If a 170 pound man expending energy at the rate equivalent to that of a ruby throated hummingbird would burn about 300 thousand calories daily, requiring consuming 285 pounds of hamburger, about double his weight, daily. He would also need to evaporate about 100 pounds of sweat each hour just to keep his skin temperature slightly below the boiling point of water."(Pg 7) This fact proves that if humans were forced to live to a humming bird's way of life the whole species would die. This arouses the fact that natural has a plan for creature, and intentionally balanced all species attributes to preserve the natural order of balance. This can applied to the fact that all men are capable for success, while some are bestowed with more opportunities to succeed they are not
genitally better. When it comes to humans achieving success it all comes down to determination.
There are so many different people you are going to interact with in life; you can not expect them to all act the same. People are going to have different upbringings so having a set definition about how a whole culture conducts itself is ignorant on your part. How can you define something you have never experienced? More importantly how can you consider yourself superior? If nature intended for one race to reign supreme, that race would be born with a tool to defend its authority. The lion rules over the plains in Africa, like nature in tended they have huge muscles, claws, natural instincts, and other biological adaptations. The second humans are born they cry out for help from anybody, we are not born with ideas of racism. Racism is forced or acquired by our environment, and unfortunately that is the only thing people are exposed to so the cycle continues to spin. It is obvious that we are destined to work together, but this idea is not recognized by every one. Instead of embracing our incredible gift to solve problems and expand our capacity to learn, society misuses it to destroy each other it's a damn shame that our species has found no point of peace.
Ezekiel, RE. (1995) The Racist Mind Revisited 1991 statistics of the southern poverty law center shows that there are 36 Klan organizations, 21 Neo
Nazi organizations, 10 Skin Head organizations. All of these groups have different chapters that increase the total amount of groups into the hundreds. The organizations like to be viewed separately, but are common viewed together under their common hater for non white, non Christians, and homosexuals. They believe race to be, "A biological category with absolute boundaries each race having different essences."(Pg 5) Ezekiel also examines the leaders of these organizations, "His motive is power, racism is his tool, and he feels most alive influencing men, affecting them." Later he explains how hundreds of youth are recruited under the pretenses that they can escape current social conditions and work towards a noble goal. This source gave a very in-depth analysis of the organizations that use Natural Selection as an Ideology. Weinberg, GW. (2006) Adolf Hitler," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia Adolf Hitler was born in Austria in 1889, to Klara and Alois Hitler. Adolf performed poor in school and had several arguments with his father over a career to pursue. During this time Hitler developed his ideas of anti Semitism and German Nationalism. Soon his father passes away; Hitler joined the service and served in World War One, where he served mainly as a messenger. After Germany losing the war and being wounded in battle, Hitler decided that the "Jews had caused Germany's defeat and that he would enter politics to save the country." The Nazi movement gained lots of support from the depressed German people. After getting into power Hitler quickly destroyed any other political party and started his oppressive reign. He Spread his beliefs that the Germans were destined to rise up and rule the world. To stop resistance Hitler formed his own secret police that rounded up Jews and enemies of the people. The D-Day invasion on June of 1944 was a signal of the end of Hitler's tyranny. The allied forces were closing in on Berlin; Hitler committed suicide leaving his followers to carry out his dream. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Volume 45, number 2(Spring 2002): 159 74 This Journal had the essay by Lundy Braun called "Race, Ethnicity, and Health; can genetics explain disparities?" This essay addresses the fact that some races are more subject- able to certain diseases that other races. Several experiments were conducted to find an explanation beyond this phenomenon. The results still showed that certain races were subject-able. Braun states, "Genetically based ideas lead to disease prevention policies that are bound to be ineffective." To support her claim she refers back to Richard Lewontin's findings that discovered, genetic variations occurred with in racial groups had a 6.3% of variation. While inside the racial groups there was a variation of 8.3% between members of the same race. Lundy concludes that there are no genetic differences that predispose people, she wonders are the psychological damage inflicted by society is a factor to disparity. This essay focuses more on biology than natural selection; however its imported research made a good source for my thesis. Bergman, J. (1992). Some Biological Problems with The Natural Selection Theory Research Society Quarterly Journal, 29 Creation
This journal looked at other ideas of evolution besides the Theory of Natural Selection. Some other possible factors of evolution are "recombination of existing genes that produce positive, negative, or neutral characteristics." These characteristics vary between mammal, reptiles, fish, and birds. Since there are millions of different animal species it is possible that climate and geography can affect reproductive cycles and in turn, inhibit or excite evolution. The articles continues to look at other influences of evolution and growth such as bacteria and cell division, it gives many great examples to
prove its thesis and uses several credited sources that proved useful and very interesting.
References Bergman, J. (1992). Some Biological Problems with The Natural Selection Theory Creation Research Society Quarterly Journal, 29 Braun, Lb. (2002) Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Volume 45, number 2(Spring 159 74 Ezekiel, RE. (1995) The Racist Mind Revisited Weinberg, GW. (2006) Adolf Hitler," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2002):