Creation Science Rebuttals -

Potatoes and 'White Chimpanzees'

Rebuttal to Creation Magazine Article

by Greg Neyman

First Published 30 March 2006

Answers In Creation website

Young earth creation science ministry Creation Ministries International ran an article in the September 2004 issue of Creation Magazine, in which the author argued that evolution can cause racism and other social ills (the article was the featured article on the Creation Ministries International website on 29 March 2006).¹

Upon first reading of this article, I found myself amazed that this English clergyman, Charles Kingsley, would refer to the poor Irish people as 'white chimpanzees.' I can easily see that Kingsley clearly did not have compassion for these people. It appears that through his evolutionary thinking process, that he looked down on these people as less than human. There were certainly thoughts of racism involved.

Naturally, the young earth creation science author, a fellow by the name of Russell Grigg, clearly tries to blame this racist behavior on evolution. He says "Kingsley’s sad attitude towards the Irish shows how the false evolutionary dogma can poison a person’s thinking, even to regarding fellow descendants of Adam and Eve as little more than chimpanzees."

However, is evolution to blame for racism? More on that later.

Grigg goes on to say that the selective breeding of the potato shows that it actually reduces the total amount of information (genetic variety). I have no issues with this, and it needs no discussion. On the surface, it appears to argue against evolution, but it is a small data point.

So, is evolution to blame for racism? Let's look at a few items...

	Virtually all Englishmen in Darwin's time viewed blacks as culturally and intellectually inferior to Europeans. Some men of that time (such as Louis Agassiz, a staunch creationist) went so far as to say they were a different species. In other words, this was part of the culture prior to Darwin's Origin of Species, and it was part of America's culture, through slavery, many years prior to Darwin, and prior to the theory of evolution²
	Genetic studies show that humans are remarkably homogeneous genetically, so all humans are only one biological race. Evolution does not teach racism; it teaches the very opposite³
	Racism is thousands of years older than the theory of evolution, and its prevalence has probably decreased since Darwin's day; certainly slavery is much less now. That is the opposite of what we would expect if evolution promotes racism³
	Racism was practiced in the Bible, thousands of years before the theory of evolution was proposed. The Israelites were enslaved several times in the Old Testament

It is interesting that our founding fathers in America were racist...owned slaves, yet we look to them as great Christians. This was many years prior to Darwin.

This Christian form of racism is still evident today. Look at the Ku Klux Klan, an organization clearly known as a racist organization. It is based in Christianity. Its current leader is a Baptist minister! (which means that he is probably a young earth creationist!)

Racism was here long before evolution came along. It was in the Bible thousands of years before evolution was even thought of, and there are many examples down through history of racist behavior. Blaming racist behavior on evolution is clearly wrong, and young earth creation science ministries should be ashamed of making this claim.

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¹ Creation Magazine, Volume 26, Issue 4. Published on the web at http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v26/i4/chimps.asp and at http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/497/

² http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CA/CA005_1.html

³ http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CA/CA005.html

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