Ota
Benga
How
does an evolution worldview or a creation worldview impact the way that human
life is valued?
One of
the most fascinating and heart wrenching stories regarding the effects of
evolutionary beliefs on human relations is the story of Ota Benga, who was a
short African man (from a group of people described as pygmies) who was put on
display in a zoo as an example of an evolutionarily inferior “race.”
This event shows the racism of
evolutionary ideology and the extent to which an evolutionary worldview has
gripped the hearts and minds of most scientists as well as with many people in
general. Although nearly everyone today understands that this ideology is wrong,
prejudices still take place and was birthed much more so after the evolutionary
idea was birthed in itself and much of it is still based on evolutionary
concepts. “Biological arguments for racism may have been common before 1850,
but they increased by orders of magnitude following the acceptance of evolution
theory.”[1] People
such as John Scopes, a teacher who was put on trial for teaching evolution in
Tennessee schools derived his teachings from, what was known as the Hunter’s
Civic Biology, which teaches that the highest type of race is the Caucasian;
which are represented by the civilized white inhabitants of Europe and America.[2]
In
conclusion, Ota Benga’s life was not valued as an equal with others because of
his genetic skin color. Race became a stumbling block that has and still is
affecting the value of human life. The Bible teaches us in Acts 17:26: “From
one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth;
and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should
live” There is no reason for anyone to assume they are more valuable than the
next person when God specifically said that we were all created in His image
(Gen 1:27). The only race, is the human race; the race in which God Almighty
created!
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