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Evolution Belief Can Lead To Murder


HappyChristian

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I found this article very interesting. Since I help with Creation Club here, I receive emails from various creation groups. This one is headquartered in England. CMI - Creation Ministries International - has some interesting articles on creation, but this one kind of veers from that.  It is a sad read, chilling, really. But it is interesting...evolution causes folk to believe they are nothing special. And so why not kill or commit suicide or do drugs or on and on...This young man was such a one as to buy into that thought.  I'm quoting the whole article so that if someone can't open the link they can still read it.  (Credit goes to CMI)

 

 

http://creation.com/will-cornick-murders-teacher

 

The Boy Who's Proud to be a Killer 

Will Cornick murders teacher in front of classmates in Leeds, England

by Warren Nunn

 

 

The horrendous stabbing murder1 of an English high school teacher and the comments the perpetrator made afterwards are a potent reminder of the possible effects of evolutionary thinking on impressionable minds.

Some of the sickening comments the teenage student made after the killing included:

“I wasn’t in shock, I was happy. I had a sense of pride. I still do.

“I know it’s uncivilised but I know it’s incredibly instinctual and human. Past generations of life, killing is a route of survival.

“It’s kill or be killed. I did n
ot
have a choice. It was kill her or suicide.

“I know the victim’s family will be upset but I don’t care. In my eyes, everything I’ve done is fine and dandy.”

He had previously said of the teacher on Facebook that “she deserves more than death, more than pain and more than anything that we can understand”.1

The details of the killing make disturbing reading. It happened at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds, England, when the teenager walked up behind a 61-year-old female teacher, winked at fellow students and then fatally stabbed her.

The boy, Will Cornick, has since been jailed, and details of his planned attack and callous attitude were revealed in court. While it’s impossible to know what influences impacted the killer and resulted in such psychopathic tendencies, his statements that “it’s incredibly instinctual and human” and “killing is a route of survival”, have inescapable evolutionary overtones.

After all, at the heart of Darwin’s philosophy that overwhelms the education system and the wider community is the belief that we are nothing more than biochemistry—that all our thoughts, feelings and actions are simply the result of our genes and the environment.2

As well, Cornick’s statements are somewhat similar to those of the notorious American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer who once said: “After all, if a person doesn’t think there is a God to be accountable to, then—then what’s the point of trying to modify your behaviour to keep it within acceptable ranges? That’s how I thought anyway. I always believed the theory of evolution as truth, that we all just came from the slime. When we, when we died, you know, that was it, there is nothing…”3

After the shooting massacre in 1999 in America in which teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves, people were asking, ‘How could they do such a thing?’4 The killers were OBsessed with blood-drenched video games and violent death. They were also fascinated by the German Nazi belief, fueled by ideas of Darwinian struggle, in a ‘master race’.5

Only a moral and legal code based on Christian morality will act as some sort of restraint to such tendencies. But once there is the justification that it’s ‘natural’ to kill, this will happen more. The analogy can be made with depression/suicide; even if depression in a culture remains at a constant level, the percentage of those who then give in to their impulse to self-destruct will be higher when people think life has no meaning and there is no afterlife.

The fact that Cornick’s attack happened at a Catholic college also speaks of the way in which much of the church has embraced evolution over the creation account in Genesis. Science, some churches say, has shown the Genesis account of creation to be wrong, so it is appropriate to take a different view.2

So, even in church-run schools children are told that man is just an animal, that death and violence are a natural part of evolution, and that ‘only the fittest survive’, so it is no wonder that young people are wallowing in utter hopelessness.5

At CMI, we argue that science and Scripture do not collide, and that there is no need to compromise either—a view which numerous articles on this website show to be entirely reasonable.2 The Bible can be trusted absolutely in what it says about earth history. And it can be trusted in what it says about everything else too, particularly that it is wrong to kill another human despite a mindset like that of this troubled individual who subscribes to the notion that ‘it’s incredibly instinctual and human’ to carry out such an act.

 
 

Incredibly instinctual and human....

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And of course, when the Columbine killers were caught, one was wearing a t-shirt that said "Natural Selection", so they were making a statement.

 

Dr Dino, whatever you think about him, has one of his seminar DVD's called The Dangers of Evolution" where he goes into many of these things. Even if you disagree with his view on Behemoth and Leviathan, you'll be shocked at what he talks about on this one.  I recommend it to anyone serious on the evolution vs Creation argument.

 

Edited to add: All of them can be found on You Tube, and there are some sites where you can download them for free, legally, since he didn't copyright his work. I have them all on my laptop, and in fact, tonight I am going to be beginning to show the series on Evening services.

 

Another good tape he did is called "100 Reasons Why Evolution is Stupid", and it is a lot of his info from his seminar in a more condensed form. He goes pretty quick, but its a good introduction. Again, find onlie for free, or on youtube.

 

**Edited again to add:  The fact that the animal kingdom in general does not kill for sport or out of selfish reasons, but for food or territory, in general, removes the idea that something like what this teen did, killing someone just because she was an annoyance to him, tells me evolution is wrong. If you annoy an animal, ie, get in its face, pull its ears, etc, it will attack. BUt if you go away, it doesn't come after you, looking for you, to kill you. This is a distictly human activity. Animals don't seek revenge, only humans. It is a product of sin, not 'nature', not evolution.

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The case they are making in this article--that this kid wouldn't have killed his teacher if only he hadn't been exposed to evolutionary teaching--is a just-so story based on nothing more than assumptions and conjecture, and the authors even acknowledge this in the fourth paragraph. In other words it's a shameless piece of journalism.

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And seriously, the student himself admitted as much as that it was all about how we are wired evolutionarily, so, yeah, don't tell me it had nothing to do with it. Granted, being unsaved, he'd have found another reason for it, but evolution gives him a handy excuse, at least in his own mind.

 

As well, it isn't as though we don't have numerous other examples of people feeling justified in murder because of evolution.

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Not really, Carl. If they hadn't admitted it, it would be shameless. But there is a truth to the fact that being taught we are nothing more than animals causes folk to see life as pointless.  Not everyone. But enough to cause real prOBlems.

 
On the contrary, because they acknowledge they've done it they clearly have no qualms about doing it--hence shameless.
 

And seriously, the student himself admitted as much as that it was all about how we are wired evolutionarily, so, yeah, don't tell me it had nothing to do with it. Granted, being unsaved, he'd have found another reason for it, but evolution gives him a handy excuse, at least in his own mind.
 
As well, it isn't as though we don't have numerous other examples of people feeling justified in murder because of evolution.

 
The student didn't say anything about being wired evolutionarily in the quotes. The authors delared that his quoted statements have "undertones" of evolution talk, which apparently for them is as good as the real thing.
 
I reckon the kid prOBably has been to biology lessons and been taught about evolution, since most kids that age have in the UK. But there's no more reason to think he got his views from his biology lessons than he did from his history lessons (where you learn that killing other people is demonstrably a very 'human' thing to do), or his economics lessons (where you learn things like take what's yours, look out for no.1, nice guys finish last, there's no such things a free lunch, your only duty is to the bottom line etc etc).
 
He could have got his views from any of those places, including his evolution lessons, and a good many more places, and even then they may not have been the main drivers for what he did. Maybe he didn't pick up more than a word here or there in his lessons because he was too busy killing insects. The authors don't have anywhere near enough info to build up a profile of this person and they acknowledge this: "While it’s impossible to know what influences impacted the killer and resulted in such psychopathic tendencies..." In other words, we don't have enough to make the case we are making but we're going to make it anyway.

 

Worst thing about this article is it's attitude to truth. If you think something is false then you need no other reason for rejecting it's purported truth. Granted you might have to state why you think it is false, but 'no, it is false' trumps all other considerations, so long as you and the other party believe in OBjective truth.

 

But this article is taking a completely different approach. They are saying that what is important is the outcome. Irrespective of whether something is true or false, if teaching it leads to bad outcomes then it should be treated as false. And that's relativism.

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“I know it’s uncivilised but I know it’s incredibly instinctual and human. Past generations of life, killing is a route of survival.

“It’s kill or be killed. I did n
ot
have a choice. It was kill her or suicide.

This is standard evolution jargon, what he said. Basically, its nature's fault, don't blame me. In effeect, he was saying that it is hardwired into him-I know he didn't say that specifically, but its what he meant. He is blaming evolution.

 

However, I agree with what you say about relativism, or the ends justify the means. Outcome based. After all, it its a good outcome that matters, cheat on everything and get an A in school. As well, many have used the Bible to try to justify heinous things, which of course causes people to discount the Bible, despite the fact that they are clearly using it wrong.   However, evolution clearly teaches that humans are no more than slightly higher animals, no more, no less, so honestly, why not kill in its name? Abortion is justified by it, so why not "abort" someone when they are 61 years old and offending you?

 

Evolution provides no moral standards, no right or wrong, survival of the fittest, so it opens the door for literally anything. Even murder. Ask Hitler about it, its how he justified murdering the Jews.

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“I know it’s uncivilised but I know it’s incredibly instinctual and human. Past generations of life, killing is a route of survival.
“It’s kill or be killed. I did not have a choice. It was kill her or suicide.
This is standard evolution jargon, what he said. Basically, its nature's fault, don't blame me. In effeect, he was saying that it is hardwired into him-I know he didn't say that specifically, but its what he meant. He is blaming evolution.

 
Yeah, I read that bit and gave my reasons why it don't think it necessarily amounts to evolution talk, as the authors (and you) claim. I agree he could be, but he could be mixing up all sorts of notions and ideas he believes in. For example there's nothing particularly evolution-like about the phrase "kill or be killed". He could have got that from a Hollywood war film even, or a film about street gangs. And the phrase "it was kill her or suicide" sounds like some sort of psychosis--he's saying that if he didn't kill her he would have to commit suicide himself. So i.m.o it's all a bit tenuous and yet the authors hang their argument off it.

 

You say evolution provides no moral standards--I agree. Nor does any scientific teaching. Nor does any economics teaching, or engineering teaching, or maths or PE (well maybe PE does). But the secular culture this kid has grown up in does provide a moral standard, which goes something like: work hard, make lots of money, own lots of stuff, cheat whenever and whoever you need to in order to achieve those things, and have no responsibilities or duties to anyone except yourself. No-one's going to look out for you, so look out for yourself and no-one else. That's what I was taught at school and I'm sure it's not changed much. So if you're looking for outside influences then yeah maybe it was his evolution textbook but pretty much most of modern teaching could pick up the tab.
 

However, I agree with what you say about relativism, or the ends justify the means...

 

Well nothing you said there about relativism, while you may be right, has anything to do with what I said about relativism. I was very specifically criticising the authors for embracing relativism in their article, so unless you agree with me about that then no you don't agree with me, except in a very general "relativism not good" way. :icon_smile: 

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His views could fit the evolutionary worldview but since he doesn't outright say such, and no proof is offered of such, it can't be positively stated he was influenced one way or another by evolutionary teaching.

 

I've heard people, Christians even, make similar comments as they talked about how things were back in OT times. People sacrificing their children to false gods, waging wars of extermination, etc.

 

No doubt, if one takes the evolutionary teaching to its logical conclusion, we are all just evolved animals (nothing special about humans, we weren't created, we are just an evolved animal, the same as all other animals, only with a more advanced brain). Being animals, with no eternal aspect to us, it's all about getting the most out of this short life one can get. There is a limited amount of time to promote oneself, grab all they want, do all they want and try to hoard what they can and enjoy it until they die. ROBbing, raping, enslaving, killing and such things means nothing since there is no eternity, no right or wrong, nothing but that animal drive, that animal instinct to multiply, be the Alpha male, rule the roost, chase off or eliminate enemies or potential enemies, grab all you can for self.

 

While proponents of evolution try to claim part of evolution is man reaching an enlightened state where peace and harmony will rule (liberals typically believe they are near this now and if they could eliminate or control the rest of mankind, the world would be near perfect). However, the evidence suggests man isn't becoming any more enlightened than he's ever been in recorded history. Left unchecked, mans appetite for war, murder, rape, theft, conquest, is as much a fact today as before.

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Long before evolution was taught:

 

 Jas 4:1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
 2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot OBtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

 

 Pro 1:16 For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
 17 Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
 18 And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.
 19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

 

 Rom 3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
 13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
 14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:

 

The ungodly will always look for excuses, while never admitting that the real reasons for this kind of thing are that mankind is totally depraved with no hope outside of the God they deny. We are not the product of our environment, we are the product of a depraved nature inherited from our father Adam.

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Indeed, evolution is merely one more false god wherewith people justify their sin and rejection of the true God of creation. It is full of holes and assumptions, proven by science built with those assumptions as foundational. It spouts set laws, but relies on those laws being broken from the very beginning. A pretty poor god, if you ask me.

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