John West on Darwin’s Culturally Corrosive Idea

Intelligent Design the Future

Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture

Science, Philosophy, Astronomy, Society & Culture, Life Sciences

4 • 993 Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

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Summary

On this ID the Future from the vault, catch the first half of a public talk by political scientist John West on how Darwinism has poisoned Western culture. In the lecture, delivered at the Dallas Conference on Science & Faith, West explores how Darwin’s purely materialistic theory of evolution has drained meaning from nature, undercut the idea of inherent human dignity, and fueled the rise of scientific racism in the twentieth century. West is author of Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science. This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Look for Part 2 in a separate episode. Source

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to ID the Future, a podcast about intelligent design and evolution.
0:13.9	Hello, this is Tom Gilson, and today we're pleased to bring the first half of a talk given at the 2020 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith.
0:23.0	The speaker was John West, Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture,
0:28.8	and author of Darwin Day in America. The title of his lecture, Darwin's Corrosive Idea.
0:37.4	It was 10 p.m. at night, and I was standing with my teenage daughter and son
0:43.3	outside the historic lodge at Mount Rainier in Washington State.
0:48.3	The sky was so clear that we could actually see along the spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy.
0:56.0	And for someone like myself who lives in a suburban area where artificial lights
1:00.0	really makes it very hard to see lots of the night sky,
1:05.0	the experience was awe-inspiring.
1:08.0	And it gave me a feeling that we as human beings are part of something greater than we can usually conceive.
1:14.6	Maybe you've had an experience like that. I think many people have.
1:19.6	Nearly two centuries ago, a young Charles Darwin had a similar experience. The year was 1831. Darwin was 22 years old, recently graduated from college.
1:34.3	He wanted to explore the ecosystems of the world.
1:37.3	So he joined the expedition of the HMS Beagle in its voice to South America and beyond.
1:43.3	Two months later, he was walking
1:46.4	in the midst of a Brazilian rainforest confronted by the beauty. Darwin experienced an overwhelming
1:55.0	sense of awe. Surely, he thought, man was more than just an animal, and there was some greater purpose behind nature than mere physical survival.
2:07.6	Unfortunately, Darwin's sense of awe about nature and about human beings did not last.
2:15.6	Fast forward to the ending chapter of his life as he wrote his autobiography.
2:22.3	Reflecting on his earlier sense of awe in that rainforest, Darwin wrote that now not even the grandest
2:30.3	scenes in nature would inspire such a view. Why?
	...

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