Written by Bo Winegard.
There is, however, no doubt that the various races, when carefully compared and measured, differ much from each other…
— Charles Darwin
When Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection was first forwarded, it challenged a suite of sacred values. Primarily, it challenged the notion that an omnipotent and benevolent god specially created humans. Today, Darwin’s theory challenges a different suite of sacred values, of which perhaps the most important is that all human populations have roughly the same distribution of socially valued traits. Now, as then, the clash of science and sacred narrative is causing a cacophonous dispute that is often divisive and unenlightening. Authors have written books denouncing scholars who strive to understand human variation, accusing them of having malignant motives and of, ipso facto, promoting racism. A new term (or an old term appropriated for new purposes), “race science” has been used to denigrate the study of human diversity.