Lincoln vs. Darwin: Co-Shaping the Modern World?

Two hundred years ago today, two boys were born within hours of each other; one in the United States and the other in England. Both would become renowned and affect the lives of their contemporaries as well as generations to come. One would lead his nation to a “new birth of freedom” and pay with his life. The other would be responsible for an idea that would justify and rationalize the worst cruelty and oppression the world has ever seen. Whose 200th birthday is getting the most attention?
The cover story of this month’s Smithsonian magazine tells readers “How Lincoln and Darwin Shaped the Modern World” The author of the article writes that Lincoln and Darwin had “midwifed” a new world where “the hierarchies of nature and race and class that had governed the world”, had been brought into question, if not overthrown. According to the author, “evolution” and “emancipation” are co-laborers in this transformation. What?
Tell that nonsense to the millions of people murdered in the name of ideologies that cited Darwin’s On the Origin of Species as justification for their acts such as the perpetrators of the gulags and the death camps. They saw themselves as acting in concert with the laws of nature: specifically, nature according to Darwin and his successor supporters. And what about “Social Darwinism”; which ideas have been utilized to justify and rationalize class hierarchies (Hitler's so-called "master race") around the world rather than “weaken” “question” or “overthrow” them.
The adverse social consequences of Darwinism are spun and portrayed as after-the-fact corruptions of Darwin’s thoughts. However, it has been documented plainly from Darwin’s own notebooks that he anticipated his ideas’ influencing “competition, free trade, imperialism, racial extermination, and sexual inequality”. Not to mention his endorsement of ideas about eugenics. Where is the outrage over the social consequences of Darwinism and Darwin’s complicity in these consequences and the destructive impact those ideas have had on one particular species: man himself?
So as for me and my house, I think I’ll celebrate Lincoln today.
Credit for much of the content and concept of the above post is attributable to Chuck Colson.
And we haven't even started talking about the justification for the denial of God or avoiding accountability for lack of morality that has spun off from Darwinism. We'll get to that.