Ben Stein and Dog Latin: Reductio ad Hitlerum

Blame Ben Stien.

In Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, he reduced the debate about creationism to Reductio ad Hitlerum, the lowest common denominator - the point at which you start saying 'Hitler believed in x, ergo x is bad.'

In this case, x was evolution.

"I was never a big fan of Darwinism," Stien explains, "because it played such a large part in the Nazis' Final Solution to their so-called "Jewish problem" - and was so clearly instrumental in their rationalizing of the Holocaust."

Fair comment, Ben. Although Darwin didn't advocate human eugenics (calling such an idea an 'overwhelming evil') his theory of 'survival of the fittest' led to America adopting a eugenics program that was then copied by the Nazis. You can read about it here.

Ironically, eugenics has nothing to do with Darwinism. His theory of evolution advocated variety to produce stronger stock, not Hitler's rubbish of 'racial purity.' Ask any dog breeder - they'll confirm that a mongrel mutt is generally healthier than a pedigree pup.

Beyond ignorance of Darwinism, Ben Stien's argument is stupid for another reason: Just because a scientific theory like evolution is 'unpalatable' doesn't make it any less true. (It's like Christians arguing that God must exist because Atheists have a higher rate of depression.)

But if he does want to play the Reductio ad Hitlerum game, let's cut to the chase...

It's not 'evolutionists' or even the Intelligent Design rabble who you need to be worried about. It's the New Earth Creationists. In my next post, I'm going to explain why...