There doesn’t seem to be any limit to how low they can go. We’re speaking of the neo-theocrats at the Discovery Institute‘s creationist public relations and lobbying operation, the Center for Science and Culture (a/k/a the Discoveroids, a/k/a the cdesign proponentsists).
The Discoveroid blog has an amazing new article: Darwin’s Legacy: Scientific Breakthrough or Breakdown? Here are a few excerpts, with bold font added by us:
On Thursday, October 28 the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History will host a panel discussion exploring the impact of Darwin’s theory on eugenics and scientific racism: Darwin’s Legacy: Scientific Breakthrough or Breakdown?
[…]
The Wright Museum describes itself as the world’s largest institution dedicated to the African American experience.
To attend what promises to be an innovative Discoveroid sales pitch, you’ll find a link at their article where you can register for this event. If you’re going to be in Detroit on 28 October, and you’re really desperate to kill some time, it might be entertaining.
We suspect that the Wright Museum staff know their history, and are well aware that the trans-Atlantic African slave trade began with the Spanish and Portuguese in the early 1500s. Even before Columbus, African slavery was believed to have been specifically sanctioned by a papal bull issued in 1452. See Dum Diversas which, according to Wikipedia, provided:
We grant you [Kings of Spain and Portugal] by these present documents, with our Apostolic Authority, full and free permission to invade, search out, capture, and subjugate the Saracens and pagans and any other unbelievers and enemies of Christ wherever they may be, as well as their kingdoms, duchies, counties, principalities, and other property […] and to reduce their persons into perpetual slavery.
Charles Darwin wasn’t born until 1809 and he strongly opposed slavery, which he witnessed during his travels. As most of you know, the usual Discoveroid line about Darwin and racism is a complete myth. See: Racism, Eugenics, and Darwin.
What about the role of Darwin’s work in the African American experience? Darwin’s first book on evolution, Origin of Species, was published in 1859, and it wasn’t published in the US until the following year — the same year Lincoln was elected President. The American Civil War — which ended slavery — started shortly thereafter.
Does anyone think Darwin’s book had any causal effect on racism in the United States? That was well entrenched long before Darwin, with roots going back into the centuries of African slavery that were practiced first by Spain and Portugal, and then 200 years later (to a lesser extent) in North America. All of that preceded Darwin’s theory. By the time he published Origins, African slavery was ending.
We doubt that the Wright Museum will be fooled by the Discoveroids’ presentation. But hey — we have to give the Discoveroids credit for reaching out to what they see as a potential new market. But if they think they’ll be making their sales pitch to a bunch of gullible dummies, they’re likely to be surprised.
Update: See Discovery Institute: Darwin = Racism.
Copyright © 2010. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.
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The Sensuous Curmudgeon 