NZ's two historians specialised in
Darwin:
The best
account of Darwin's views on eugenics and their development is John H
Greene, Darwin as a Social Evolutionist'. It is reprinted in
Science, Ideology and World View, U. Calif. P.
1981.
The title should say Social Darwinist
rather than Social Evolutionist.
Greene argues that Darwin took up the
ideas of other people and tried them out, but was unable to decide how
far to take the social Darwinist argument. The logic seemed
unassailable but he didn't like the anti-humanitarian conclusions so
he was ambiguous in his statements.
There is
also a note by Richard Weikart in
Isis vol 86, 1995, 609-611 'A recently discovered
Darwin letter on social Darwinism'. Darwin is pro-social
darwinism in this.
Overall he
wasn't a great public advocate of eugenics, but he seems to have been
privately persuaded.
What
with skilful forgeries like the 'Lady Hope' furphy (depicting Darwin
as having regained faith in a big way just before his death), perhaps
someone will challenge this summary. Meanwhile, it seems to be
authoritative. Now how is it relevant to the fight against
"creationism"?
"Creationists" fanatical enough to tell lies for God
would be quite capable of misrepresenting what Darwin said about
eugenics. "Creationism" detests neoDarwinism (as do I,
but on different grounds). It tends 'therefore' to vilify
Darwin. This new attempt to align Darwin with Nazi eugenics is
wrong on several levels, illustrating the depth of dishonesy
characteristic of "creationism".
RM