Richard Weikart

Infobox Person
name = Richard Weikart
residence = Turlock, California
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birth_date = July 1958
birth_place = USA
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known = Historian of modern Germany, Advocate of intelligent design
occupation = Professor of History at California State University, Stanislaus
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religion = Protestant
spouse = Lisa Weikart
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children = Joy, John, Joseph, Miriam, Christine, and Hannah
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website = [http://www.csustan.edu/History/Faculty/Weikart/ csustan.edu/History/Faculty/Weikart/]
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Richard Weikart (born July 1958) is head of department of history at California State University, Stanislaus, and is a senior fellow for the Center for Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute.cite news | url=http://www.discovery.org/a/2247 | title=Senior Fellow Richard Weikart responds to Sander Gliboff | publisher=Center for Science and Culture |date= October 10, 2004 | first=Richard Weikart | last= | accessdate =2008-05-17] In 1997 he joined the editorial board of the Access Research Network's "Origins & Design Journal". [cite news | url=http://www.arn.org/infopage/weikart.htm | title=Meet Richard Weikart | publisher=Access Research Network |date= April 1997 | first= | last= | accessdate =2008-05-17] Weikart's work focuses on the impact of evolution, which he and the Discovery Institute term Darwinism, on social thought, ethics and morality. His work and conclusions are controversial.

He received a bachelor's degree in 1980 from Texas Christian University, a master's from Texas Christian University in 1989, and a doctorate in history from University of Iowa in 1994.cite news | url=http://www.csustan.edu/History/Faculty/Weikart/vita.htm | title=Curriculum Vitae: Richard Weikart | publisher=California State University, Stanislaus |date= January 2006 | first=Richard Weikart | last= | accessdate =2008-05-17] He is married to Lisa Weikart with six children.

Work and publications

As a Christian in the 1970s, Weikart began studying intellectual history on the belief "that much modern thought had debased humanity." [cite news | url=http://www.discovery.org/a/6301 | title=The Dehumanizing Impact of Modern Thought: Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, and Their Followers | publisher=Discovery Institute |date= July 18, 2008 | first=Richard | last=Weikart | accessdate =2008-05-17] Weikart is the author of three books, the first being "The Myth of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Is His Theology Evangelical?" about the relationship of the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (a founding member of the Confessing Church, who was hanged for his involvement in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler) to Evangelicalism. Weikart's second book is "Socialist Darwinism: Evolution in German Socialist Thought from Marx to Bernstein", which contains work from his dissertation. [Peter Arnds Reviewed work(s): "Socialist Darwinism: Evolution in German Socialist Thought from Marx to Bernstein" by Richard Weikart," German Studies Review, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Feb., 2002), pp. 131-132] The book argues that Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, August Bebel, Karl Kautsky and Eduard Bernstein "biologized" social theory for a "scientifically grounded socialist theory." [Andreas W. Daum, Reviewed work(s): " [http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/376035 Socialist Darwinism: Evolution in German Socialist Thought from Marx to Bernstein" by Richard Weikart] ," Isis, Vol. 93, No. 4 (Dec., 2002), pp. 727-728] His third book, "From Darwin to Hitler" has been widely criticized by the academic community, but promoted by Christian creationists (see below). He is currently working on a book about Adolf Hitler's religious beliefs. [ [http://mickelson.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=341046 Mickelson in the Morning May 19th 2008] ; Listen to http://media.libsyn.com/media/mickelson/mickelson-2008-05-19.mp3]

Weikart's other publications include two book chapters, eight journal articles, eight encyclopedia articles, and thirty-six book reviews.

From Darwin to Hitler

Weikart is best known for his 2004 book "From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics and Racism in Germany". [cite book|title=From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany|first=R|last=Weikart|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|date=2004|isbn=978-1403972019] [ [http://www.evolutionnews.org/2006/12/from_darwin_to_hitler_a_straig.html#more "From Darwin to Hitler: A Pathway to Horror (Updated)"] , Jonathan Witt, Evolution News and Views, Discovery Institute, December 15, 2006.] The Discovery Institute, the hub of the intelligent design movement, "provided crucial funding" for the book's research. ["Many thanks also to the Center for Science and Culture (especially Jay Richards and Steve Meyer), which provided crucial funding and much encouragement..." "From Darwin to Hitler", Richard Weikart, page x] Prominent historian and critic of the Intelligent design movement, Barbara Forest, states that the book is tied to the DI's 'wedge strategy' of attacking Darwinian science as morally corrupting. [Barbara Forrest and Paul R. Gross. "". 2004, page 206] This strategy aims to "defeat [the] materialist world view" represented by the theory of evolution in favor of "a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions." [ [http://www.antievolution.org/features/wedge.pdf Wedge Document] scan, [http://www.antievolution.org/cs/ Antievolution website] .]

In 2008, he appeared in "", a pro-Intelligent design movie, which among other claims, strongly implies that Charles Darwin's ideas led to Adolf Hitler's atrocities. [ [http://www.arn.org/blogs/index.php/3/2008/04/21/darwin_and_the_nazis_richard_weikart Post details: Darwin and the Nazis - Richard Weikart] Access Research Network April 21, 2008] In "The Modesto Bee", Bret Carroll, Weikart's colleague in the Stanislaus history department, wrote "That 'intelligent design' is not a scientific theory" and the "Expelled" movie "misuses Weikart's research by mistakenly implying that Darwin led inevitably to Hitler. In fact, scientific theories, even those like Darwin's that address organic life, are morally neutral." [* [http://www.modbee.com/opinion/letters/story/303950.html Intelligent design is not science] "The Modesto Bee", May 20, 2008
* [http://web.csustan.edu/history/Faculty/Carroll/index.html Dr. Bret E. Carroll] California State University, Stanislaus] He also appears in Coral Ridge Ministries' 2006 creationist film "Darwin's Deadly Legacy" in which Weikart claims "Darwinian ideology is the core" of Nazism and D. James Kennedy, therefore, concludes "No Darwin, no Hitler." In addition, Creation Ministries International cites Weikart as "reinforcing the Darwin–Hitler connection." [cite news | url=http://creationontheweb.com/content/view/2658 | title=Reinforcing the Darwin–Hitler connection and correcting misinformation about slavery and racism | publisher=Creation Ministries International |date= 6–7 January 2007 | first= | last= | accessdate =2008-05-17] In the conclusion of "From Darwin to Hitler", Weikart writes:

In Weikart's book he states:

According to talk.origins, this is a common creationist quote mine. [ [http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/quotes/mine/part2.html Quote Mine Project: Darwin Quotes -Quote #2.10] talk.originsOne of their examples of creationists citing this quote is:
*" [http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v21/i3/darwin.asp Darwin’s ‘savages’] ," Answers in Genesis June 1999] In a debate with Weikart in May 2008, Hector Avalos said that the quote is often "misrepresented" in creationist literature, and that Darwin was reporting and criticizing the extermination of people at a time of colonial expansion, rather than promoting it. [ [http://mickelson.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=341046 Mickelson in the Morning May 19th 2008] ; Listen to http://media.libsyn.com/media/mickelson/mickelson-2008-05-19.mp3 at 29 minute mark] In the passage "there is nothing in Darwin's words to support (and much in his life to contradict) any claim that Darwin wanted the "lower" or "savage races" to be exterminated. He was merely noting what appeared to him to be factual, based in no small part on the evidence of a European binge of imperialism and colonial conquest during his lifetime." [ [http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/quotes/mine/part4.html#DarwinRaceQuotes Quote #4.6] talk.origins] Darwin's passage, in full context, reads:

Academic reception

The academic community has been critical of the book. Andrew Zimmerman, a professor of German history, was critical in his review in the American Historical Review, writing "Weikart presents an image of Darwinism at once both too narrow and too broad."cite news | url=http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/531468 | title=Richard Weikart. From Darwin to Hitler | publisher=American Historical Review |date= Volume 110, Issue 2, Page 566–567, Apr 2005 | first=Andrew Zimmerman | last= | accessdate =2007-05-17] Zimmerman wrote, "The German Darwinians who are the focus of the book appear only as advocates of eugenics, racism, and imperialism, although presumably these policies were informed by a broader intellectual project. At the same time, German anthropologists, who opposed Darwinism before the turn of the century (as a doctrine possessing no more empirical foundation than revealed religion does), are lumped with Darwinists, since these anthropologists also supported imperialism and racist hierarchies." Weikart replied to Zimmerman's criticism to which Zimmerman offered a rebuttal saying Weikart "distorts the history of Darwinism and anti-Darwinism in Germany in ways that reflect theocratic agendas in present-day American politics." [Andrew Zimmerman, [http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/110.4/communications.html Response to Richard Weikart] , "American Historical Review" 110 (2005): 1323.] Weikart has written some responses to reviews on his webpage. [cite news | url=http://www.csustan.edu/History/Faculty/Weikart/response-to-critics.htm | title=General Response to Critics | publisher=CSUS |date= 2006 | first=Richard | last=Weikart | accessdate =2008-05-17]

Nils Roll-Hansen, historian and philosopher of 19th and 20th century biology at University of Oslo, also reviewed the work and was critical of it in a review published by Isis calling it "selective" and containing "insufficient attention to historical change-leaving out political, social, and economic factors as well as the role of new knowledge in genetics-make his overall argument unconvincing."cite news | url=http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/501405 | title=Richard Weikart: From Darwin to Hitler | publisher=Isis |date= Volume 96, Issue 4, Page 669–671, Dec 2005 | first=Nils Roll-Hansen | last= | accessdate =2007-05-17] In addition, Hector Avalos, a professor of Religious Studies, wrote an essay "exposing the historical flaws found in the work of Weikart" and argued "that the defense of genocide, infanticide and "eugenics" by creationists actually has a very venerable and lengthy tradition that precedes Darwin." [cite news | url=http://www.talkreason.org/articles/Genocide.cfm | title=Creationists for Genocide | publisher=Talk Reason |date= 2007 | first=Hector Avalos | last= | accessdate =2007-05-17] Sander Gliboff, professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University, criticized the work saying "It is dismaying to see such opinions being passed off as results of scholarly research." [cite news | url=http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=37981105462766 | title=Review: Richard Weikart, From Darwin to Hitler | publisher=H-German |date= September, 2004 | first=Sander Gliboff | last= | accessdate =2007-05-17] Jonathan Judaken, professor of History at University of Memphis, wrote that while it is a "significant study," he "fails to follow the rich nuances of the discourse/practices and institutions that have preoccupied the contemporary generation of intellectual historians, who have paid attention to the continuities and ruptures within systems of thought. So his presentation of racism, for example, reiterates a rationale that does not stand up to the critical scrutiny of intellectual history." [cite news | url=http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=80951126890820 | title=Review: Richard Weikart, From Darwin to Hitler | publisher=H-Ideas |date= June, 2005 | first=Jonathan Judaken | last= | accessdate =2007-05-17] Larry Arnhart, a professor of Political Science at Northern Illinois University wrote "Weikart doesn't actually show any direct connection between Darwin and Hitler. In fact, Weikart has responded to my criticisms by admitting that the title of his book is misleading, since he cannot show any direct link between Darwin's ideas and Hitler's Nazism." [cite news | url=http://darwinianconservatism.blogspot.com/2006/02/review-of-richard-weikarts-from-darwin.html | title=A Review of Richard Weikart's From Darwin to Hitler | publisher=Darwinian Conservatism |date= February 25, 2006 | first=Larry Arnhart | last= | accessdate =2008-05-17] [Larry Arnhart, "Darwinian Conservatism" Imprint Academic (July 2005) ISBN 0907845991 ] In addition, Robert Richards, historian of Darwin and eugenics at University of Chicago, wrote "It can only be a tendentious and dogmatically driven assessment that would condemn Darwin for the crimes of the Nazis." [cite news | url=http://home.uchicago.edu/~rjr6/articles/Ryerson%20Lecture--%20Moral%20Judgment%20in%20History.pdf | title=Narrative Structure of Moral Judgments in History: Evolution and Nazi Biology | publisher=University of Chicago |date= July 2006 | first=Robert Richards | last= | accessdate =2008-05-17]

In "The Journal of Modern History", Ann Taylor Allen, a professor of German history at the University of Louisville, reviewed Weikart's book. She explained that Weikart's talk about "Darwinism" is not based on any careful reading of Darwin himself but on vague ideas by a variety of people who presented themselves as "Darwinian." Moreover, fundamental elements of Nazism like anti-Semitism cannot be attributed to Darwinism since it predates evolutionary theory. Allen concluded:

Besides the academic criticisms, Weikart was criticized by Jeff Schloss, Professor at Westmont College and former Discovery Institute fellow, in the Christian American Scientific Affiliation's publication regarding the "Expelled" film. Schloss wrote that the "ideas that are attributed to Darwin (such as natural selection makes might right in social policy) were actually not advocated but repudiated by Darwin andhis immediate colleagues." [cite news | url=http://www.asa3.org/ASA/resources/Schloss200805.pdf | title=The Expelled Controversy:Overcoming or Raising Walls of Division?," | publisher=American Scientific Affiliation |date= 2008 | first=Jeff Schloss | last= | accessdate =2008-05-17] Weikart wrote a response. [cite news | url=http://www.asa3.org/ASA/resources/Weikart200807.pdf | title="Expelled" and the Darwinism-Nazi Connection: A Response to Jeff Schloss | publisher=Discovery Institute |date= August 7, 2008 | first=Richard | last=Weikart | accessdate =2008-05-17]

Bibliography

*"The Myth of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Is His Theology Evangelical?" San Francisco: International Scholars Publications, 1997. ISBN 1573091499
*"Socialist Darwinism: Evolution in German Socialist Thought from Marx to Bernstein." San Francisco: International Scholars Publications, 1999.
*"From Darwin to Hitler, Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics and Racism in Germany." Palgrave MacMillan, 2004. ISBN 1403965021
*" [http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=13061 Darwin and the Nazis] ," The American Spectator, April 16, 2008

References

ee also

*Wedge strategy
*Center for Science and Culture (part of the Discovery Institute)

External links

* [http://www.csustan.edu/History/Faculty/Weikart/ Richard Weikart] Home page
* [http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=37&isFellow=true Profile of Richard Weikart] from the Center for Science and Culture
* [http://www.talkreason.org/articles/Genocide.cfm "Creationists for Genocide"] , an essay critical of Weikart's thesis, by Hector Avalos (Professor of Religious Studies, Iowa State University)
* [http://mickelson.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=341046 Avalos and Weikart debate (audio)]