... it is not unusual for homicidal maniacs to cite great writers when seeking to justify their crimes. The Chicago spree-killers Leopold and Loeb (the models for Hitchcock’s 1948 film, Rope) claimed Friedrich Nietzsche as their muse, as did the Moors murderer Ian Brady. Other deranged misfits have nominated Albert Camus, Jean Genet and André Gide. But it may take a keener intellect than was possessed by Harris, Klebold or Auvinen to negotiate such a reading list. The basics of evolution are much more accessible and are taught in every high school, so it should not be surprising that Darwin seems to be emerging as the inspiration for the more dim-witted schoolboy sociopath.
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It does, of course, also pick up on the ideas I explored in my talk Darwin, Dawkins and Dictatorship.
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How many people have killed in the name of a god??
ReplyDeleteDarwin got lots of things wrong (he was human and fallible after all). The greatest biological theory, however, will stand the test of The Times, methinks.
As for your talk; my thought is, more podcasts, fewer sermons - let the populous decide rather than the geographically and time-rich blessed. No need for edifices, only a PC, true democracy.