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AR 25:14 - Darwinianism: "more cultural/ideological than scientific"
In this issue:
ORIGINS - "a masterly job of amassing evidence of the tactics used by Darwinians"
SOCIALISM - unpacking the message and methods of today's socialist Left
Apologia Report 25:14 (1,471)
April 7, 2020
ORIGINS
Flight from the Absolute: Volume II, by Paul Gosselin [1] -- Why highlight this 2013 book? Because the reviewer is Louis Markos, Professor of English and Scholar in Residence at Houston Baptist University. (Those unfamiliar with Markos may wish to visit <www.bit.ly/2nkojhr> to learn more about him from our past issues.)
He begins: "Over two and a half decades have passed since Phillip E. Johnson kick-started the intelligent design (ID) movement in America [and] exposed the numerous flaws in Darwinian evolution and the near irrationality of those who continued to defend it in the face of mounting evidence against it. In the intervening years, two seemingly contradictory things have happened: the evidence against macro-evolution has continued to mount up; and the defenders of macro-evolution have gotten increasingly shrill and censorious, asserting more and more loudly the false claim that the evidence for Darwinism is overwhelming and indisputable.
"Thankfully, the Darwinian backlash has been skillfully countered, not only by such Christian ID theorists as Michael Behe, William Dembski, Jonathan Wells, and Stephen Meyer, but also by popular apologists like Lee Strobel and Nancy Pearcey, and by passionate secular critics like Ben Stein and David Berlinski. As an avid reader of all things ID, I thought I had educated myself in all the basic arguments, examples, and perspectives - that is, until I read Paul Gosselin's Flight from the Absolute: Cynical Observations on the Postmodern West, Volume II....
"Though Gosselin's English translations of both volumes [from the original French] have been available for five years, they remain relatively unknown in America." Gosselin reveals the "often insidious worldviews that lurk beneath the theoretical and ideological systems of Darwin and Derrida. Gosselin's Flight from the Absolute is a good place to start.
"In Volume I, as Gosselin explains in his preface to Volume II, he 'examined the assertion that postmodernism is actually an invisible religion, a religion in fundamental denial of its own religious nature.' ... Even when postmoderns critique the monolithic hegemony of Western science, they avoid questioning the 'fact' of natural selection acting on genetic modification.
"In Volume II, a stand-alone book that can be profitably read on its own, Gosselin zeroes in on the subject of evolution, presenting it as the origin myth of both modern and postmodern man and tracing its history and function as both an 'ideologico-religious system' (118) and a 'total and integrated scientific answer . . . for all aspects of reality.' By marshalling a vast yet carefully selected array of quotes from key writers on all sides of the evolution debate, Gosselin makes it clear that 'the Darwinian revolution was more cultural and ideological than scientific.' ...
"Gosselin does a masterly job of amassing evidence of the tactics used by Darwinians to intimidate, marginalize, ridicule, or crush all opposition. ...
"To these tactics, Gosselin adds a subtler one. Although intense peer (and tenure) pressure prevents most scientists from publicly highlighting weaknesses in Darwinian evolution, some scientists occasionally slip up and air their doubts - especially, Gosselin documents, after they have retired and need not fear academic censure. ... When this happens, the gatekeepers pull out one of their best tricks: rather than engage the critic in debate, they accuse him of quoting the retired scientist out of context.
"Many readers will be aware of these tactics; far fewer will be aware that such tactics are stronger and more pervasive in the French-speaking world than in America and the UK." Gosselin quotes many passages to "substantiate this resistance," and Markos includes significant examples. Touchstone, Mar/Apr '19, <www.bit.ly/33JCCxn>
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SOCIALISM
United States of Socialism: Who's Behind It. Why It's Evil. How to Stop It, by Dinesh D'Souza [2] -- the publisher says: "For those who witnessed the global collapse of socialism, its resurrection in the twenty-first century comes as a surprise, even a shock. How can socialism work now when it has never worked before? ...
"D'Souza argues that the socialism advanced today by the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, Ilhan Omar and Elizabeth Warren is very different from the socialism of Lenin, Mao and Castro. It is 'identity socialism,' a marriage between classic socialism and identity politics. America's typical socialist is not a working-class union man but a Black Lives Matter activist, a transgender militant or a prophet of environmental apocalypse. Today's socialists claim to model themselves not on Mao's Great Leap Forward or even Venezuelan socialism but rather on the 'socialism that works' in Scandinavian countries like Norway and Sweden.
"This is the new face of socialism that D'Souza <www.dineshdsouza.com> confronts and decisively refutes with his trademark incisiveness, wit and originality. He shows how socialism abandoned the working class and found new recruits by drawing on the resentments of race, gender and sexual orientation. He reveals how it uses the Venezuelan, not the Scandinavian, formula. D'Souza chillingly documents the full range of lawless, gangster, and authoritarian tendencies that they have adopted.
"United States of Socialism is an informative, provocative and thrilling exposé not merely of the ideas but also the tactics of the socialist Left. In making the moral case for entrepreneurs and the free market, the author portrays President Trump as the exemplar of capitalism and also the most effective political leader of the battle against socialism."
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - Flight from the Absolute: Cynical Observations on the Postmodern West, Volume II, by Paul Gosselin (Samizdat, 2013, paperback, 566 pages) <www.amzn.to/3amK3gu>
2 - United States of Socialism: Who's Behind It. Why It's Evil. How to Stop It, by Dinesh D'Souza (All Points, June 2020, hardcover, 304 pages) <www.amzn.to/3btbFQS>
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