Darwin and Racism

Darwin was very much of his time and can be forgiven for coming to the conclusions that he did with the knowledge that he had. Crucially he didn’t have our knowledge of DNA. However, at the very core of the evolutionary hypothesis is the notion of the survial of the fittest and upward adaption from primates to human. Having begun in Africa the human race evolved and moved outwards.

Tragically yet inevitably one could easily conclude that the progression from black skin to white skin was part of evolutionary improvement. That is certainly what people who we today would call “white supremacists” believe. Thus Hitler and his followers could easily label Jews, Blacks, Romanies and others as inferior to the “Master Race”.

Inadvertently or purposely Darwin underpinned racism with scientific argument.

BUT! We all come from Adam, or to be more precise the three sons of Noah and their wives.

Fortunately believers in God’s creation of man see things very differently. We are not a whole number of different races. We are all one race. We all come from Adam, or to be more precise the three sons of Noah and their wives. Recent studies of Mitochondrial DNA idicates that all humans track back to three and then to one who even scientists have nicknamed “Eve”. To fit ancient earth theory she has to be 100,000 to 200,000 years old. However the science suggests that she is no more than 6,000 years old. Confused? Richard Dawkins should be!

Skin colour is literally a superficial difference.

I was quite struck by this image which I came across because it raises for me the question “What exactly do we mean by “Black?”