Social Darwinism

Here is an exert from my history term paper on the European colonization during the late 1800's

Charles Darwin, who was born in 1809 into a wealthy family, possessed a love for plants and animals. In 1831 he began a trip around the world as a ship’s naturalist. It was on this trip that he made several discoveries that led him to write the book On the Orgins of Species by Natural Selection in which he set forth his ideas on natural selection and the evolution of living beings. Darwin’s belief that slowly, over millions of years, plants and animals have changed from very simple organism, to what they are today, flew in the face of many Christians who believed that God had created the world in seven days. However others embraced the idea of Darwinian evolution. Evolution not only affected the world of science, it also affected the very ideologies that men live by.

Ever since the time of Darwin and, one could argue, even before the time of Darwin, the idea behind Social Darwinism has reared its ugly head. Darwinism only fueled and created an excuse for man’s behavior of do what he has to to look out for number one that has been prevalent since the dawn of time. Many soon took the theory of evolution so far as to exclude God completely from the picture of life. And when men feel that there is no God to answer to, why shouldn’t they just look out for number one? If this world is all that there is, then live life to the fullest here before it’s all over. Immorality has plagued our world since the Garden of Eden, but evolution has given an excuse for such practices as Euthanasia, Anti-Semitism, and many other immoral movements. The theory of evolution has given man the “right” to take natural selection into his own hands. Should those who are old be allowed to live and take up valuable space and resources on our planet? How about those who are dumb? How about the handicapped? And so Social Darwinism opens up a whole world of issues about morality and what is right and what is wrong.