Who's the Monkey?

I ran across this chilling Charles Darwin quotation on William Demski's blog:

“At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world…. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian and the gorilla.” [Just so there is no doubt, the author in particular is claiming that whites will exterminate blacks.]

Perhaps it is the pervsersity of human beings that explains the suprising turns of our history. Who would believe a scenario with the educated elites (the self-annointed "brights") vaunting their relation to apes? It seems silly enough for a Monty Python skit ("No, I'MMM related to a tur-tle!"; "Well, my cousin is a beagle!").

Charles Darwin and Alleged Ancestor
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One has to wonder with whom true wisdom lies: with the "civilized" who denigrade themselves as the trousered-ape detritus of necessity or with the "savages" who believe themselves the beloved offspring of the Almighty?

Although I have lived through much darkness, under harsh totalitarian regimes, I have seen enough evidence to be unshakably convinced that no difficulty, no fear is so great that it can completely suffocate the hope that springs eternal in the hearts of the young. You are our hope, the young are our hope.

Do not let that hope die! Stake your lives on it! We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father's love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son.

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Photo credits: PDPhoto . Dutch Site

Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, 1871, chapter 6.

C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man, chapter 1.

John Paul II, Homily at World Youth Day Mass, Toronto, July 28, 2002.