Darwin vs. God?

Every now and then, something so profoundly ignorant and worthless it shocks the conscience makes its way into a relatively respectable news outlet. When this happens, I cannot resist the urge, as a political writer, to wonder at how such drivel finds its way into wide circulation. In an article for RealClearPolitics.com (admittedly not the New York Times, but fairly reputable nonetheless), Carlos Alberto Montaner talks of the evolution/creationism debate, and by numerous incomprehensible leaps of 'logic' (to use the word loosely) equates creationism with belief in natural rights, and evolution with nazism, communist totalitarianism, and generally every cliche of oppression and amorality (link here, if you dare).

Montaner's ignorance becomes apparent in the very first words of his column:

Evolution or creationism? That's the polemic bitterly dividing the intelligentsia once again.

Of course, Montaner betrays himself to be cognitively no where near the level of the "intelligentsia" by the fact that he believes thinking people are seriously torn between the unscientific and irrational belief of creationism and the empirical, scientific theory of evolution. There is no such debate, except between those so blinded by ignorant fundamentalism that they adopt plainly incoherent theories of life on one side, and people capable of rational thought on the other.

From here on, Montaner builds baseless assertion upon baseless assertion until nothing in his writing even seems to correspond to reality. The base of this mass of ignorance is the following:

The whole philosophical and juridical structure that supports liberal democracy hinges on the existence of a superior being from whom emanate the ''natural rights'' that protect individuals from the actions of the state or from the will of other people.

Montaner goes on to state that no other theory of natural rights has ever been derived, nor by extension is morality possible in a society that does not believe that the world was created in 6 days. A simple visit to the Wikipedia article on Human Rights (under the section "Philosophical basis of human rights", link here) would have disabused Montaner of this silly notion, however such extensive research is apparently beyond his capabilities.

Montaner then asserts that:

It was not true, as Aristotle advocated, that ''natural slaves'' existed or that women and foreigners (then called ''barbarians'') were inferior. That's why when Christianity centuries later adopted the philosophical legacy of the Stoics, it opened its arms to all races, nationalities, social classes and both sexes. ''Catholic'' means universal.

According to this history, the rise of Christianity resulted in equality of all the people of earth. This must mean that women and African Americans really could vote in the late Roman empire, and that modern secular freedom movements in the early 1910s and 1960s were nothing more than the continuation of a constant expression of Christian equality, which had been the norm since mere "centuries" (not millennia) after Aristotle.

As Montaner finishes draws his tour de force of history and philosophy to a close, he reminds us that without Christian beliefs, natural rights are impossible, and therefore any society which is not Christian is necessarily evil, genocidal, and more than somewhat likely to commit a holocaust:

Nazism, which also did not believe in natural rights, exterminated six million Jews and one million Gypsies and other minorities because there was no moral or philosophical impediment to curb it.

And of course, no one was ever killed in the name of Christianity...

Christianity is a faith that can help people live great lives and do great good, if taken for what it is, and not transformed into a replacement for reason. People like Montaner, who seem to have read nothing but the Bible in their entire lives, give Christians a bad name. This blog entry is not about hating Christianity, or about insulting those who hold Christian beliefs. It is about not letting anyone get away with spreading absurd lies and outright historical fabrications in the name of a distorted, silly view of Christianity.