Anthropologists generally classify people into a small number of main racial groups, such as the Caucasoid (European or ‘White’),2 the Mongoloid (which includes the Chinese, Inuit or Eskimo, and Native Americans), the Negroid (black Africans), and the Australiod (the Australian Aborigines). Within each classification, there may be many different sub-groups.
Virtually all evolutionists would now say that the various people groups did not have separate origins. That is, different people groups did not evolve from a different group of animals.
Batten D., Ham K., Sarfati J., Wieland C., The Answers book
1. Gutin, J.C., 1994. End of the rainbow. Discover, November, pp. 71-75.
2. However, people inhabiting the Indian subcontinent are mainly Caucasian and their skin colour ranges from light brown to quite dark. Even within Europe, skin colour ranges from very pale to brown.
The following article by news reporter Paula Weston, highlights the consequence of belief in the concept of an inferior ‘race’;
The increasing spread of evolutionist doctrine has much to answer for in relation to the way people often treat each other.
Sadly, people rarely recognize that the prejudices which have slowly become ingrained in their psyche have often been a result—directly or indirectly—of evolutionary thinking.
One of the prevalent evidences of man’s inhumanity to man is racism. Put simply, racism is prejudice against people of other ‘races’1 for that reason alone. Stereotypical rules are applied to demean individuals based on their cultural background, skin colour, appearance or accent.
More often than not, these rules allow an unfounded assumption of superiority over that individual, which in turn justifies any feelings of disdain or indifference towards them. In truth, this attitude is usually based on nothing more than fear, ignorance and misunderstanding. The manifestations of racism can be blatant, such as in hatred from the Ku Klux Klan or the oppressiveness of apartheid; it can also be as simple as telling degrading anecdotes or possessing a cold attitude of indifference.
As a result of evolutionary thinking, many in Western society are unable to experience heartfelt sympathy for starving children in poverty-stricken Third World countries. For reasons they could never justify, they believe ‘life’ somehow means less to these strangers with different skin colour and features. Incredibly, I have heard this type of comment from ‘educated’ people!
This misinformed attitude is understandable if people accept the idea of ‘survival of the fittest’, that the rules of the animal kingdom must apply to humans ‘because we’ve all evolved from animals’.
Paula Weston is a journalist with 14 years experience in print media in Australia and currently works as media officer for a local government authority in south east Queensland.
Madonna and evolutionary racism
So-called rock ‘star’ Madonna was quoted as saying she would be unlikely to choose a black partner again. Claiming to have been mistreated when she dated black men, she allegedly said: ‘Maybe a lot of it has to do with the fact that they haven’t had the same chances as we white people have had to be educated or exposed to things that make you more evolved’.
Sadly, millions of young people follow all the antics and comments of Madonna, whose activities scarcely merit a claim of cultural superiority. Madonna’s statement highlights the all-too-common belief that some ‘races’ are less ‘evolved’ than others. Although Madonna may have only been referring to social evolution, in many people’s minds the concepts of social and biological evolution are inextricably related.
In fact, modern molecular biology confirms the biblical view that all the peoples of the world are astonishingly close genetically. For example, it is common knowledge in the medical profession that, when looking for someone as an organ donor for a transplant, the person whose tissue type is most suitable for you (whether you are black or white, for example) may very well be someone of the ‘opposite colour’. In reality, all of us have the same brown-black pigment, melanin, in our skin, simply making more or less of that pigment.