The Darwin Effect Quotes

“Darwinists once widely taught that women were at a “lower level of development” than men because an “earlier arrest of individual evolution” had occurred in human females (Gilmore 2001, 124). Furthermore, women had smaller, less-developed brains, and were believed to be “eternally primitive” and childlike. Otto Weininger even argued that women were “social parasites,” who “must be repressed for the good of the race.” Women not only were considered less evolved than men, but also were regarded by many sociologists as less spiritual, more materialistic, less normal, and “a real danger to contemporary civilization”
― Jerry Bergman, The Darwin Effect

“Darwinists Taught Human
Females Are Inferior to Males Introduction Areview of the prominent late-19th-century writings reveals that a major plank of early evolution theory was the belief that women were intellectually and physically inferior to men.”
― Jerry Bergman, The Darwin Effect

“they believe the “Negro race” is less evolved than Caucasians, and less worthy as humans. The existence of Pygmies, evolutionists felt, made a lie of the Genesis teaching that all men are brothers, all descendants of Adam and Eve. What further proof did they need than a living, breathing, evolutionary link who was clearly not the equal of white men but was more than just a monkey?”
― Jerry Bergman, The Darwin Effect

“Soon some Whites also became concerned about the “caged Negro,” and, in Sifakis’s words, part of the concern was because “men of the cloth feared . . . that the Benga exhibition might be used to prove the Darwinian theory of evolution” (1984, 253). The objections were often vague, as in the words of a New York Times article:”
― Jerry Bergman, The Darwin Effect

“the display lent credibility to Darwinism by mocking the ministers with the following words: “One reverend colored brother objects to the curious exhibition on the grounds that it is an impious effort to lend credibility to Darwin’s dreadful theories . . . the reverend colored brother should be told that evolution . . . is now taught in the textbooks of all the schools, and that it is no more debatable than the multiplication table” (Sept. 12, 1906, p. 8). Yet,”
― Jerry Bergman, The Darwin Effect

“The ministers had “heard Blacks compared with apes often enough before; now the comparison was being played flagrantly at the largest zoo on earth.” In Reverend Gordon’s words, “our race . . . is depressed enough without exhibiting one of us with the apes. We think we are worthy of being considered human beings, with souls” (New York Times, Sept. 11, 1906, p. 2). Furthermore, many of the ministers opposed Darwinism, concluding that “the exhibition evidently aims to be a demonstration of the Darwinian theory of evolution. The Darwinian theory is absolutely opposed to Christianity, and a public demonstration in its favor should not be permitted” (New York Times, quoted in Bradford and Blume 1992, 183).”
― Jerry Bergman, The Darwin Effect

“To Verner, though, no contradiction existed: he was “equally drawn to evangelism and evolutionism, Livingstone and Darwin” (Bradford and Blume 1992, 70, 72). In short, the “huge gap between religion and science” did not concern Verner. He soon went to Africa to “satisfy his curiosity first hand about questions of natural history and human evolution” (Bradford and Blume 1992, 74). Verner concluded that the Pygmies were the “most primitive race of mankind” and were “almost as much at home in the trees as the monkeys” (1902a, 189–190).”
― Jerry Bergman, The Darwin Effect

“The Pygmies also deplored as superstitious nonsense the Negroes’ magico-religious figurines and other so-called fetishes. They would take an equally dim view of churchly huts adorned with doll-like statues of Jesus and Mary. This would be regarded as idol worship by the Ituri Forest Pygmies, who believe that the divine power of the universe cannot be confined within material bounds.”
― Jerry Bergman, The Darwin Effect

“physically agile, quick, nimble, and superior hunters, but the Darwinists did not look for these traits because they were blinded by their evolution glasses (Johnston 1902; 1902a; Lloyd 1899). Modern study has shown the Pygmies in a far more accurate light that demonstrates the absurdity of the 1900s evolution worldview (Turnbull”
― Jerry Bergman, The Darwin Effect

“On the last page of his book The Descent of Man, Darwin expressed the opinion that he would rather be descended from a monkey than from a “savage.” He used the words savage, low and degraded to describe the American Indians, the Andaman Island Pygmies and the representatives of almost every ethnic group whose physical appearance and culture differed from his own. . . . Charles Darwin labeled “the low and degraded inhabitants of the Andaman Islands” in this book The Descent of Man. The Ituri Forest Pygmies have been compared to “lower organisms”
― Jerry Bergman, The Darwin Effect

“The Influence of Evolution The many factors motivating Verner to bring Ota to the United States were complex, but he evidently was “much influenced by the theories of Charles Darwin” a theory of evolution which, as it developed historically, increasingly divided humankind into arbitrarily contrived races (Rymer 1992, 3). Verner also believed that the Africans were an “inferior race” (Verner 1908a; 10, 717). Hallet shows that Darwin also felt Pygmies were inferior humans:”
― Jerry Bergman, The Darwin Effect

“Hornaday and other zoo officials had long been subject to a recurring dream in which a man like Ota Benga played a leading role . . . a trap was being prepared, made of Darwinism, Barnumism, pure and simple racism .”
― Jerry Bergman, The Darwin Effect