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Re: Further Evolution beyond the Human?
Charles Dyer (cdyer@infochan.com)
Thu, 10 Oct 1996 18:18:31 -0500
Theodore A. Holden wrote:
>
> socrates@hunter1.com (socrates) wrote:
[snip]
>
> >Typical response for you Mr. Holden, the facts don't match your preconceptions
> >so avoid the issue and atttack the person!!!
>
> For instance, Darwin's Origin of the Species was published in 1859 or
> thereabouts, while serious industrialism and robber-baron capitalism in America
> began with the arms industry at the time of the civil war and the vast expansion
> of the railroads after the civil war (65). Hence your claim that robber-baron
> capitalism preceeded Darwinism is idiotic. Likewise the opium wars occurred
> around the turn of the last century. Again, learn some facts and then worry
> about interrupting others with them.
Teddy, m'man, as I've pointed out to you at least twice before, the
First Opium was was 1842. Quite some time _before_ the Origin of Species
was published. I then suggested that you learn some history. You have
not complied with this suggestion. Why am I not surprised?
The first railroad magnates in the Americas also got their starts in the
1840s. The American Civil War was won in large part because the North
had lots of railways and could use them to supply and reinforce, while
the South had very few. And what few the South had were deliberate
targets of Northern attack. Both Sheridan (in the Shenandoah Valley) and
Sherman (in Georgia) made a practice of having their troops tear up any
railroad lines they came across, and using the ties to make a fire to
soften the rails so they could be wound around trees. The roadbed would
then be destroyed with pickaxes. Repairing that railroad would mean
rebuilding the roadbed, unwinding the rails or, more likely, replacing
them with new ones, and replacing the ties. The South simply did not
have the industrial capacity to do that. Things got worse for the South
when the Federals realised that troops serving as occupation forces
didn't need cavalry, and they detatched all the cavalry assigned to the
units holding the line of the Mississippi River. Said cav force, under
the command of one Maj. Gen. Wilson, rode from the Mississippi to the
Atlatic, burning as they went. Sherman may have gotten the press, but
Wilson both made a longer march to the sea and did more damage in the
process.
Of course, there wouldn't have been any railroads for Wilson's cav to
destroy if the railroad barons hadn't built them, _before_ the war...
>
> According to several of the alt.atheists, religion was responsible for
> uncontrolled and uncountable murder and evil all through history; you would
> logically expect conditions to return to the natural state of the golden age
> once religion was eliminated, at least amongst the intelligensia. Nonetheless,
> as we have seen, the end of religion and the rise of Darwinism has brought
> with it a series of wars and tragedies the likes of which has never been seen
> since the days of Chengis Khan.
Surely you jest. Personally I can think of several ol' boys who were a)
highly religious and b) mass murderers on a scale that not even Hitler
could have achieved, if all he had to work with were edged weapons and
the like. Adolf the Aryan wasn't even number one for this century; that
honour goes to either Joe Stalin or Mao Tse-sung, depending on whose
figures you believe. And none of them would have been able to get their
score up where they did but for the machinegun, high explosives, and the
internal combustion engine. If you want to blame something for the
killing in the 20th Century, blame the Industrial Revolution of the
19th. And that was created by God-fearing, righteous English
slave-traders. (Where did you think the cash to start the Industrial Rev
came from? The slave and sugar trade, m'man, the slave and sugar trade.
Read up on the history of Barclays' Bank, for instance. Or the ports of
Bristol, London, and Liverpool. See why, just to name one item, the
French thought that they sugar islands of Martinque and Gauadeloupe were
more important than Canada. In other words, learn some history...)
>
> A recent news scene showed the father of a young girl who had been murdered
> telling the murderer to say hello to Hitler and several other such personages
> when he (the murderer) got to where he was going. I'd have included Charles
> Darwin in the little list.
I'm sure you would have, but then you're deranged.
>
> Ted Holden
> medved@digex.com
Where's Spliffy, Ted? I miss him.
--
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" -- 'Ulysses', Alfred,
Lord Tennyson
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