CULTURE

Who Was More Important: Lincoln or Darwin?

By Malcolm Jones | NEWSWEEK
July 7-14, 2008 issue

« Return to Article

Discuss

Member Comments

  • Posted By: Dakotan @ 02/14/2009 12:00:10 AM

    Why is Lincoln so idealized? He started a was that killed 600,000 American men. George Bush was critisized for a war that lost 3000. Lincoln's war caused destruction of half of our nation and the bitterness still remains, What was so great about all that?. Slavery would have been aboliished anyway as all other civilized nations had done.

    • Posted By: MTBeck @ 11/25/2009 8:46:52 PM

      I'm pretty sure that it was the Confederate firing upon Fort Sumner that started the war...
      If you read any of Lincoln's literature, the concern wasn't all about slavery, it was about preserving the Union. Lincoln was a Unionist first and formost

  • Posted By: Old Fashioned @ 02/16/2009 9:49:10 PM

    We should not forget that Darwin, mostly along with Marx, was the justification for people like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc. with his emphasis on survival of the fittest...Mengele could get away with his experiments by Darwinian justification, and sterilization was done in the United States on many African Americans justified by Darwinian fitness. I am also absolutely convinced that Islamic fundamentalism is in no small way a reaction to the atheistic genocides of the twentieth century - Mengistu Haile Mariam - the 7th greatest murderer in history (and a Marxist) sat at the entrance to the Gulf of Aden (correct my geography if I am wrong) an entrace to the heart of Muslim lands (not that that excuses religious terrorism). Richard Dawkins asks us to consider atheism "again" and I think to myself (a former atheist) they did such a bang up job in the twentieth century, I cannot wait to see what they do in the 21st.

    Additionally, if one has any handicapped family members, they are not special, but expendable in the world of Darwin.

    • Posted By: MTBeck @ 11/25/2009 8:43:02 PM

      Actually, it was not Darwin, but Herbert Spencer who coined the phrase "survival of the fittest", and it was coined before Darwin published "Origins"

  • Posted By: STEM987 @ 03/03/2009 10:58:36 AM

    Lincoln freed black slaves
    Darwin called them 'degraded' and 'savage'.
    Darwin stated ("Descent of Man") that he would rather be descended from monkeys than such a 'savage'.
    Darwin was a racist, hence the use that Hitler etc., could make of his 'theory'.

    • Posted By: Bill Smith @ 03/19/2009 10:54:04 AM

      Lincoln never freed one slave. He was dead when the slaves were freed by the 14th Amendment. I can see that government school "education" has worked well.

      • Posted By: boom shaka @ 08/08/2009 12:09:08 PM

        Perhaps, if you had gotten a "government" education, you'd know about the Emancipation Proclamation, which offered freedom to any slave in any of the Confederate States who did not return to the Union, which meant that any slave who escaped from the South or who lived in a state occupied by the Union Army would be free.

        You may have also learned that Lincoln was an astute politician who knew that America would not fight simply to free slaves, which is why (up until the Emancipation Proclamation) the entire focus of the war was on reuniting the country.

        You would also have learned that the Amendments of which you speak -- actually, you only spoke of one, the 14th, which didn't actually free the slaves, but rather gave them citizenship and limited civil rights whereas the 13th Amendment abolished slavery and the slave trade -- were passed in large part because the people who could have effectively blocked them had already seceded from the Union.

        Having a clue is not a bad thing. You should try it some day.


        BS

  • Posted By: saqui @ 03/14/2009 4:07:34 AM

    Nothing special to discuss about these two genius only this that:
    One truth they discovered & one truth they hide.

  • Posted By: Ksspyder55 @ 02/15/2009 10:56:05 PM

    See http://tinyurl.com/darwinvicarofatheists

  • Posted By: Pokerface @ 02/15/2009 6:22:16 PM

    Pokerface: To UserNameNewsweek, in light of Wolfdaughter retort and quoting Nelson, of The Simpsons ..."Ha Ha!".

  • Posted By: Paul Goyal @ 02/15/2009 12:58:42 PM

    Lincoln and Darwin are two colossal pillars supporting two different buildings built at the same time but by two different builders. "If ever the chance comes,I shall remove the curse of slavery from earth," was the sentence I still remember from my school book titled "Ten Great Lives." Darwin and other naturalists compelled the religious world to examine the beliefs and Biblical stories more passionately and rationally to the extent that science and religion can now debate and get enlightened from each domain without getting blood on fingers. I wish the Islamic world takes a lesson and starts discussing the Quaran with Islamic scholars and general public in order to present a more transparent and scientific explanations so that those who are using Islam to wage war on certain communities may be enlightened about the fact that all Islam is supposed to be a Religion of Peace. I give Darwin a higher score because he still continues to be presciencent.

  • Posted By: Wolfdaughter @ 02/14/2009 11:22:52 PM

    Usernamenewsweek:

    I trust that you are aware that human beings share 98% of our genome with bunobo chimps?

  • Posted By: UserNameNewsweek @ 02/14/2009 10:57:59 PM

    Lincoln didn't have to "claim" that God was on his side because every thinking person KNOWS he surely was seeking God's will as written over and over again in the Bible. Darwin, on the other hand would probably be a thrilled Believer today once he marveled at the complexity in the discovery of DNA alone. He could finally join his wife in her passion for God.
    DNA is what "changed the world" as some have commented, not Darwin really. Darwin himself struggled DEEPLY with notion that Man was just a by-product of a synthesis of unproven "happenings" commonly known as natural selection. Just read his 4th chapter to see his agony with his own theories. A few birds and fish morphings was hardly enough to close the book on God as time would tell.
    Many rational thinkers and observers see the science community as an arrogant elite group who have become vehement and SEEK to only to disprove the existence of God above all else. Unfortunate surely, since it is through their discoveries that we are now privileged to witness the marvel of a "planned creation" that is so sophisticated and intricate that even the "evolve over time" equation is more than many scientist can now stomach anymore. Letting go of something so revered as Darwins "evolution" is a gut wrenching thing for the majority of scientists today. It's hard to admit that it's time has run it's course.
    The advent of DNA is now proof positive that even if you give natural selection billions of years, the most sopisticated species on the planet (man) didn't just "evolve" but was a supremely engineered creation. It is precisely these flawed but fascinating theories that over the decades disprove themselves and, leads us to the unshakeable reality that there must be a Creator. The fact that God teaches us how NOT to live like animals is a bonus.
    I am saddened that such gifted and great thinkers in the science community have lost the ability to be humbled and thankful for God's immensity. As a believer myself I would be thrilled to talk today to such a great thinker and seeker like Mr. Darwin.





  • Posted By: meghanhar1 @ 02/14/2009 7:54:52 PM

    As my Prof says, you should consider scale. What Lincoln did affected America, what Darwin did affected the world!

  • Posted By: meghanhar1 @ 02/14/2009 7:53:36 PM

    You conclude that Lincoln was the greater man. However, as my Prof says, its all about scale. What Lincoln did affected USA, what Darwin did affected the world!

  • Posted By: Divya @ 02/12/2009 10:06:15 PM

    each one of them contributed a lot.thus we cannot judge them because we are not of the same level as them.hence it won't be fair if we say that one is better than the other because they both were geniuses!!!

    • Posted By: Bill Smith @ 02/12/2009 10:11:59 PM

      Lincoln has contributed nothing. Only a foolish government educated sheep thinks so. Darwin was just another quack.

      • Posted By: Kristenn @ 02/13/2009 1:30:03 PM

        And you Bill Smith are a rebel without a cause or a clue.

        • Posted By: Bill Smith @ 02/14/2009 3:53:08 PM

          Care to elaborate with facts?

  • Posted By: Alexisnexus @ 02/12/2009 8:05:56 PM

    Happy Birthday Dawin and Lincoln

    More footprints of Darwin and Lincoln today at:

    http://familyforest.wordpress.com/2009/02/12/happy-birthday-darwin-and-lincoln/

    • Posted By: Bill Smith @ 02/12/2009 10:10:40 PM

      I am glade that Lincoln continues to rot in Hades. He is an evil racist that deserves his torture.

      • Posted By: THE neo-RAVEN @ 02/14/2009 12:35:38 PM

        I agree with you, Bill. Oh--not the torture and rot in hades stuff--( I couldn't care less) but he was a racist. Those who claim to admire him so much are either ignorant to his views concerning blacks (He wanted to deport them, among other thoughts), or they prefer to ignore it--like they ignore the racism that continues to this day, regardless of Obama's victory.

  • Posted By: plutocrat @ 02/13/2009 11:54:18 PM

    why would darwin repent he only posted his findings and oservances darwin never refuted any thing ----i wonder why some people prevaricate about som e one they know nothing about

  • Posted By: malam @ 02/13/2009 10:16:43 PM

    one cannot compare darwin and lincoln. One belongs to the good ol' US of A. The other, he is of the ages.

  • Posted By: Puuda @ 02/13/2009 6:19:59 PM

    The whole "repentance" by Darwin is complete bull. The only place I have ever read that was in an extreme right magazine. Not to mention that the magazine also discussed "evidence" that the Holocaust was exaggerated....

  • Posted By: cntkaneeryah @ 02/13/2009 6:08:46 PM

    Darwin himself at the end of his life on his death bed repented of the nonsense that he perpetuated in this theory of evolution. So for that reason alone am I able to say he was a great man. He was able to recognize the nonsensical foundation upon which he built the worlds largest misconception of the truth. His greatest contribution to mankind was to refute his own theory.

  • Posted By: victory10 @ 02/13/2009 8:04:16 AM

    Consider the Butterfly Effect, should there be a more or most important person? Are we all equal?

  • Posted By: victory10 @ 02/13/2009 8:00:54 AM

    Consider the Butterfly Effect, there should not be a more, or most important person-every one of us is equal.

  • Posted By: Bill Smith @ 02/12/2009 4:47:02 PM

    http://www.lneilsmith.org/abelenin.html

Reply

Report Abuse

Enter comments if any for reporting abuse