The Myths of Atheism - Leads to Darwinism

Myth #7: Atheism leads to Darwinism.

It's funny how many of these myths are used by Ben Stein in his new movie, huh?  Well, maybe not funny, more like sad, really.  A lot of people think these myths are true, and it continues to further the stigma about not believing in God.

Today's myth is the charge that atheism is "Darwinism", or that not believing in God will make you accept Darwinism.  What exactly is "Darwinism"?  The way it's used by today's preachers and Republican candidates (are those two things really even separate anymore?), the term is used pejoratively to connote a theory that is only held by its creator and his disciples.  It's used to imply that the theory of evolution is dogmatic, and some may even get the impression that "Darwinism" is a religion.

I don't use the term, strictly because of these ridiculous implications.  I understand what we now know as the fact of evolution.  In order for me to espouse this myth, I'll have to briefly cover evolutionary theory, so get your bibles ready.

Understanding evolution is quite simple.  You must first understand that 1) animals (well, life) produce offspring, and that 2) the offspring are varied.  That shouldn't be too hard; we see it every day.  You're not the exact same copy of your parents, are you?

These two facts are then set against the environment the animal is in.  Notice that all the while, we don't need a God to explain any of this.

Darwin came up with the principle of natural selection.  He noticed that results from human selection (breeding horses, birds, dogs, etc) could produce variations.  His biggest achievement was to realize that nature did the same sort of selecting.

This idea is better illustrated with images than with just words, so I highly recommend watching this video: "Natural Selection Made Easy".  The user that made it does a phenomenal job in explaining evolution and if you have time, watch all of his "Made Easy" series.  Even if you think you understand evolution, please watch the videos.

Since the animals who are best suited to survive in the environment will actually survive, the process simply repeats itself; those animals will reproduce and their offspring will be slightly genetically varied.  The implications of this dangerously simple idea are foundation-shattering to most theists.  God didn't make the butterfly so pretty.  Nature did (and without planning or even knowing it).

Therefore, when believers claim that atheists "believe in Darwin", you should be able to at least draw the connection between the two ideas – the lack of God.  But that doesn't mean that all atheists accept the fact of evolution.  Like I've stated before, the only thing it takes to be an atheist is a lack of god-belief.  Some atheists don't accept evolution.  Some think that alien beings created all life on Earth as-is.

The fact that all atheists are free to make up there minds on any topic should quell this myth, and other similar charges, such as "Atheism leads to Communism/Fascism".  These claims should be ridiculous and you should understand how stupid they sound the moment they come out of your mouth.

Evolution is a fact, independently supported by actual evidence.  It should be no surprise that for those of us who reject outrageous claims based on lack of evidence would therefore be convinced of evolution by natural selection.  But you must keep in mind that all atheists don't accept evolution, atheists don't have to accept evolution, and the claim that atheism leads to evolution or even Social Darwinism is a preposterous myth.

-STA