DarwiNazis?

Unfortunately, this is such a felicitous term for the opposition, I may regret coining it. However, sooner or later, someone will, so I might as well go on record as early as possible. I hereby assert intellectual property rights over this term and insist it be used only by permission.

There are, unfortunately, some DarwiNazis, but this term properly describes a class of people as small as what Rush Limbaugh includes under the term "FemiNazi". He does not use the term to refer to any feminist, and I don't use the term to refer to anyone who accepts the reality of evolution.

A DarwiNazi is someone who believes the scientific theory of evolution precludes the existence of God (any god), and therefore the only valid belief is atheism (and the more militant, the better).

Given this definition, the number of DarwiNazis in the world is about equal to the number of FemiNazis in the world -- about twelve. Now, every now and then, Limbaugh stops to make it clear that he is not claiming that all feminists are FemiNazis. But anti-evolutionists, creationists, ID advocates, and particularly, the producers of "Expelled" are perfectly happy to tar anyone who accepts evolution with the Nazi brush.

Alas, just a few minutes into Stein's stint on Medved, I discover something unsavory about myself: Stein and Medved, both of whom reject evolutionary theo-- excuse me, "Darwinism" -- spent some time reassuring each other that the entire Nazi movement was founded on Darwinism, and that Hitler saw Darwinism as an integral part of Naziism. Ergo, I appear to have become a "Nazi" as well as an "atheist" "Darwinist".

....

But to Ben Stein and Michael Medved, evolutionary theory equals "Darwinism" (similarly, one must presume that quantum mechanics and special relativity are aspects of Newtonism, and I got my graduate degree in Euclidism); Darwinism equals social Darwinism; and social Darwinism is Naziism; ergo... Seig heil!

Evolution by natural selection is the most maligned theory in history; every political hack or philosophy monger twists the science to suit his own prejudices: The lefties twist it to indict Capitalism and individualism; Stein twists it to indict scientific "imperialism" that stands in the way of teaching Judeo-Christian religious precepts as science in the public schools. This saddens me, because I love so many other aspects of Ben Stein's conservatism.

The Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland claimed to be able to believe six impossible things before breakfast. I don't know how late in the day Ben Stein breaks fast, but he seems determined to give Her Majesty a run for her money.

We can start with the presumption that if Darwin had never existed, Hitler would have been a benign, if not benevolent, leader of the German people.

The central confusion, as always, is the one so thoroughly refuted by geneticist and staunch Christian believer Francis Collins in his seminal work, the Language of God: Stein and Medved both clearly believe that faith in God is incompatible with belief in evolution... as if God could not have created human beings by the mechanism of evolution. Collins shows the nonsensical theology behind this "argument by personal incredulity," as well as debunking the numerous examples of "well, Darwinism can't explain the evolution of this specific organ or organelle," upon which ID depends for its smattering of vaguely scientific arguments.

Until both conservatives and socialist atheists drop that absurd, self-created dichotomy, which does not exist in reality, we will continue to be subjected to such offensive claptrap as both Intelligent Design -- and books like Richard Dawkins' the God Delusion.

More's the pity.