Was Darwin a Racist? It doesn’t matter!
PZ Myers reposts Ed Darrell’s comment making comprehensive set of arguments showing that Darwin was not a racist, unlike what the IDiots at Uncommon Descent seem to suggest. Darwin lived over one and half centuries ago. The sensitivity to racism has since gone a sea-change. Yet, we find Darwin was very much progressive in his thoughts and only through quote mining could one show Darwin to be racist.
That notwithstanding, lets assume that Darwin was a racist. Lets assume that eugenics is real science. Lets even assume that nazism is a natural extension of the theory of evolution. It doesn’t matter that the theory of evolution actually runs contrary to eugenics or Nazi-supremacy; lets make these assumptions for argument sake.
The point is: so what?
Scientific theories are not meant to be comforting. They aren’t meant to provide justifications for certain policies, nefarious or benevolent. Scientific theories are meant to explain the world, as one sees and experiences it. If the observations are as predicted by the theory, the theory is considered valid. If it tends to run contrary to the widely held norms or expectations, too bad.
Linus Pauling, a two-time Nobel winner, believed in consuming copious quantities of vitamins to treat diseases; specifically, he believed vitamin C to be some kind of panacea. The so-called mega-vitamin therapy isn’t any more valid because Pauling seemingly endorsed it, nor is other work by Pauling any less relevent due to his beliefs in this controvertial therapy.
[…] whether Darwin was a racist. […]