THE KING’S BUSINESS 97 Prof. Kellogg says “with conviction” that the whole heart of the German attitude toward the war is based upon “a. point of view that justifies itself by a whole-hearted acceptance of the worst of neo-Darwinism, the Allmacht (all- sufficiency) of natural selection applied rigorously to life and society and: Kultur.” In explaining how German ruthlessness came logically and necessarily out of this view point, Prof. Kellogg goes on to say concerning the German professbr with whom he had these talks, that he “Is neo-Darwinian, as are most German biologists and natural philosophers. The creed of the -Allmacht of a natural selection based on violent and fatal competitive struggle is the' gospel of the German intellectuals; all else is illusion and anathema.” He says further, “Natural selection depends for its workings on a rigorous and ruth less struggle for existence.” And further still, “This struggle not only must go on for that is the natural law, but it should go on, so that this natural law may work out in its cruel, inevitable way the salvation of the human species. By its salvation is meant its desirable 'natural evolution. That human group, which is the most ^advanced evolutionary stage as regards internal organization and form of social relationship is best, and'should, for the sake of the species, be preserved for the sake of the less advanced, the less effective. It should -win the struggle for existence, and this struggle should occur precisely that the various types may be tested, and the best not only preserved, but put in a posi tion to impose its kind of social organization—its Kultur— on the others, or alternatively to destroy and replace them.” The natural outcome of this philosophy is, as Prof. Kellogg shows, that both the intellectuals and the mil itarists of Germany believe that “for the good of the world, the_ Germans should win the war, and ,win it completely and terribly” all of which makes it as clear as day that all the worst features of the present war, the most appall ing things, the most revolting things, are the direct outcome of the ¿volutionary •philosophy. When Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer sowed the seeds of '“Natural Selection” and “The Survival of the Fittest,” in scientific and phil osophic thought, they were preparing the soil for their countrymen and all mankind to reap an awful harvest of woe and calamity. And yet even today the head of a Christian university sneers at those theologians who will not do all their thinking in forms of evolution. For a generation now England and Scotland have very largely received their science and philosophy from Germany, and America has received its science and philosophy either directly from Germany or indirectly from Ger many through England and Scotland. We have been sending our brightest university graduates to Germany to study. What Germany had to say in Science, Philosophy or Biblical Criticism was considered the final word, and “the concensus of German scholarship” with many settled every question at issue. But the present war, and the utterances of the leading university pro fessors of Germany regarding the war, have thoroughly discredited German methods of thought and German logic. Sooner or later this discrediting will be applied to the conclusions that have been so universally accepted throughout our country, and to a certain extent with unthinking people are still accepted, and G e r m a n p h il o s o p h e r s a n d s c ie n t is t s d is c r e d it e d BY THE WAR.
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online