Intelligent Design and Racism

I've been reading about creationism, intelligent design, and evolution. There is a clear link between proponents of intelligent design and evangelical christians, and there is also a link with creationists. Creationists love ID because it supports their viewpoint. This is the happy (for ID'ers) circumstance of the "Big Tent" strategy - that is, ID allows people from diverse backgrounds to feel good about their nutty ideas and work together to undermine science education in America.

Given this link between Intelligent Design and religious fundamentalists, I was reminded of the unspoken link between good old fashioned American racism and Christian fundamentalism. I believe that a big part of the resistance to Darwinism was and is the idea that all humans evolved from a common ancestor. Think about it. American style white supremacy rests on religion and the clear belief that "colored" races are inferior. In the South, Darwin would have been a serious threat to the social order - an order that allowed lynch mobs to torture black men to death just on suspicion.

Good Christian men found it abhorrent for 14 year old Emmett Till to whistle at a white woman - so abhorrent that they beat him to death and threw him in a river. Just imagine how threatening common descent would be to their self image.

Tags:

• intelligentdesign
• church.state
• racism