Use of Evolution in Social Science

This was posted on the National Center of Science Education Facebook page. It is a comment to a post by Michael Zimmer. He was informing us of his article in the Huffington Post. I also refer to the sacking of the Israeli Education Minister.

Don’t get me wrong, I accept that life origins on Earth are, at the moment, best explained by evolutionary biology.

The problem is that evolution is being used as a myth. A myth is used to justify some policy or ethic. The only science theory deployed in the humanities and political ethics is evolution. Conservative defenders of capitalism have always invoked evolution. Good examples are Herbert Spencer and his social Darwinism, Fredrick Hayek in his defense of the market, and the modern promoters of so called science of evolutionary psychology. Scientific opponents include Stephan Jay Gould. But early, the opponents were religious. In 19th century Britain they were evangelicals. Gavriel Avital might be a Jewish example of this.