Discovery Institute Doesn’t Think God Loves Them Enough
The Mar. 16 episode of Intelligent Design the Future has this blurb:
On this episode of ID The Future CSC Fellow, Dr. Richard Weikart, author of From Darwin to Hitler asks, “does Darwinism devalues human life?” Some Darwinists deny that Darwinism has any ethical implications at all. In this short clip, Dr. Weikart looks at comments from Darwinists about the animal ancestry of humans and shows how that blurred the distinction between the animal kingdom and humanity, and negates the idea of human exceptionalism.
(Transcribed from the MP3 file, in case you notice differences between this and what’s on the episode web page.)
Read that last sentence, and then look at the title of the episode:
Does Darwinism Devalue Human Life?
They just don’t get it. Common descent doesn’t make me think less of myself; it makes me think more highly of animals.
When I look at my cats (the first pets I’ve had since learning something about evolution), of course I see differences. But I also see many similarities: they have the same bones, organs, enzymes, proteins as I do. We both have teeth and claws; theirs are just sharper than mine. We both have brains; mine is just a lot bigger.
None of this changes who or what I am. I still have the same accomplishments, aspirations, family, friends (and flaws). that I did before. Yet the DI (or whoever wrote that title) thinks that common ancestry devalues human life. This is just the classic creationist “If you teach kids that they’re animals, they’ll behave like animals” argument (CA009). The only way I can make this make sense is if creationists have such a low self-image that the only way they can feel good about themselves is by having someone they can look down on. “God loves me” isn’t enough; it has to be “God loves me more than you.”