Topic: WorldNetDaily
Drew Zahn's Sept. 12 WorldNetDaily article is ostensibly a review of the movie "Resident Evil: Afterlife," but much of it is a long, misleading digression into "social Darwinism":
Obviously, moviegoers that don't want to see wanton bloodshed, violence and gore, however, aren't going to want to see "Afterlife."
Furthermore, by digging just a little deeper, the film merits another word of caution: "Resident Evil," in the end, is aptly named, for beneath the video game violence and comic book storyline, the film pushes forward an evil that has quietly taken up residence in Western Civilization and rotted it from within, an evil idea sometimes called "social Darwinism."Prior to the late 1800s, when the West abandoned the beginning of wisdom to embrace every form of foolishness (Psalms 111:10), its prevailing philosophy still embraced biblical values. Humans were considered made in the image of God, stamped therefore with an inherent value as the handiwork of a magnificent Creator. The highest value driving these Imago Deis was the expression of the essence of that Creator through relationship, the expression of love (1 John 4:8).
But when Charles Darwin's devotees eliminated the Creator from the equation, the eventual result was the elimination of the innate, God-given value of individuals.
Furthermore, the value of reflecting the Creator's love was replaced with a new set of universal laws, among them natural selection and "survival of the fittest." When applied to humanity in what was derided as "social Darwinism," individuals were replaced by valueless hordes striving to gain supremacy over others – the opposite of love – in a battle for limited resources. Only the strong nations, the strong companies, the strong people survive. The weak are left behind. And somehow, this was deemed not only the law of the universe, but in some cases, a better way to organize humanity.
Here we are now, several decades removed from the heyday of such thought, when social Darwinism fueled the abuses of the Industrial Revolution and spawned the concept of eugenics and Adolf Hitler's "superior race." After witnessing the brutality of the Nazis' "final solution," the emerging postmodern world began to rethink social Darwinism.
But that doesn't mean we're free of it.
Case in point, the underlying themes in "Resident Evil: Afterlife."The zombie film presents humanity as reduced by plague to a faceless mob of undead animals groaning after a limited food supply. They have no value, except as blood-stained splatters for the remaining survivors of the plague.
As for those that escaped the plague, only a few have managed to climb out of this struggle for survival: an elite corporation, genetically enhanced warriors and a lucky band that has outsmarted the horde around them. Just as social Darwinism favored cutthroat businesses and the most "evolved" species, "Afterlife" gives us one, lone business running the world and duking it out with heroes of superior genes and wits.Voila! Social Darwinism's ultimate end, a showdown on who is the fittest to survive.
[...]
Indeed, Western Civilization can't be allowed to go back to social Darwinism. We've seen its consequences, its "final solution."
But return to it we do, in part because the West's prevailing philosophy still denies the truths of God and demands that Darwin holds the keys to the universe. Until we repent and seek real wisdom, we'll likely return to social Darwinism again and again, even as a dog returns to its vomit (2 Peter 2:20-22).
Zahn, as his WND employer has done before, is falsely conflating Darwin's theory of evolution with so-called social Darwinism, a survival-of-the-fittest idea that predates Darwin. That's just a lazy attack on evolution -- and makes for a sucky movie review.
