Darwin, Hitler and Eugenics

The connection between Darwinian theory and Nazi ideology, drawn out in the film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, is still a hot topic in the blogosphere. I wish I had more time to devote to this, and I hope to write a few more posts on this topic.

What has become clear to me in reading comments by various people is that you cannot evaluate this issue unless you have read a significant amount about the history of the worldwide eugenics movement from the late 19th century until 1945, including original sources.

For now, in case it was overlooked because of the title, I simply want to point my readers to my post "Expelled the Movie and the History of the Eugenics Movement" and all the links contained in it.

John Lennon: Imagine is anti-religious, "but because it is sugarcoated it is accepted."

This from an article in Rolling Stone about John Lennon:

The album's title track, in particular, put forth some daring notions -- "Imagine there's no heaven . . . no hell . . . no countries . . . no religion . . . no possessions . . . imagine a brotherhood of man" -- and it did so in a beguiling and haunting way. The song was a prayer, the most radical prayer that ever played widely on radio. "'Imagine,' both the song and the album," Lennon said, "is the same thing as 'Working Class Hero' and 'Mother' and 'God' on the first disc. But the first record was too real for people, so nobody bought it . . . 'Imagine' was the same message but sugarcoated. . . . 'Imagine' is a big hit almost everywhere -- anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic, but because it is sugarcoated it is accepted. Now I understand what you have to do: Put your political message across with a little honey."

"Imagine" is no ordinary song. It is blatantly political and openly anti-religious. It suggests that people imagine the eradication of religion. Can a documentary quote 15 seconds of it (consisting of 10 words) in order to criticize the anti-religious sentiment without violating copyright law? Some say "yes."