First used by Thomas Henry Huxley in a review of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species in the April 1860 issue of Westminster Review, it has since become a term used by creationists to poison the well when discussing (attempting to discredit) the theory of evolution. By adding the -ism, they imply a system of beliefs or an ideology, hypocritically equating Darwinism to any other crackpot idea.

Calling someone a "Darwinist" or "evolutionist" is about as ridiculous as calling someone who accepts the fact of gravity a "gravitationalist," or someone who believes the earth is spherical a "sphericist."

Darwinism is wrongly thought by many fundamentalists to be the "religion" of atheists. It's true that most atheists accept Darwin's theory, but that fact is irrelevant to their nonbelief in a deity. They simply see no reason to reject something that's obviously true (i.e., it doesn't contradict some other belief that they refuse to give up).

Darwinism isn't a belief system or an ideology. A person who accepts Darwin's theory (after 150+ years and mountains of evidence in its favor) is merely non-delusional.

Darwinism by Damastikatah January 16, 2009

darwinism

A buzzword that creationists use to refer to the theory of evolution. They use this word to try to equate the theory of evolution with ideologies like communism and fascism.

Such a tactic is dishonest. The theory of evolution is not an ideology. Ideologies are PROSCRIPTIVE--they make value judgments and say what should and shouldn't be done. The theory of evolution, like all other scientific theories like gravity, relativity, etc., is DESCRIPTIVE--it describes and explains facts. Such theories are testable by analyzing them to see what the predictions that they make, and then seeing if those predictions match the facts.

For example, applying the theory of relativity predicts where the stars will be. We look at our hubble telescope and see that lo and behold, the stars are indeed where the theory predicts them to be!

The theory of evolution predicts that the evidence will show that humans and chimpanzees are closely related. We look at human chromosome 2, and see that it's virtually totally analagous to two chimp chromosomes, and lo and behold, human chromosome 2 has a fusion site with telomeres in the middle of the chromosome! (Imagine taking the 2 chimp chromosomes and "scotch-taping" them together--that's what human chromosome 2 looks like).

darwinism is an example of a stupid and dishonest creationist buzzword.

darwinism by Harry_Pothead6009 April 21, 2008

Darwinism

A theory developed by Charles Darwin to explain evolution using natural selection.

Darwinism is a theory developed by Charles Darwin to explain evolution using natural selection.

Darwinism by ThePotatoGuy March 4, 2015

darwinism

A pejorative term used by proponents of creationistic intelligent design in an attempt to undermine modern evolution.

Often used to refer to things far outside the purview of Darwin's theory of evolution, which relied solely on natural selection as the mechanism for change.

Darwinism can't explain the bacterial flagellum, but intelligent design can!

darwinism by creationisticintelligentdesign April 11, 2008

Darwinism

Darwinsm is a religion. Darwinists believe that everyone has 9 lives like a cat. Charles Darwin is the religious leader but he is not a god. Because he only lost one of his 9 lives, he is not dead, but living under water. The holy food of Darwinsm is butter. Darwinists eat at least 2 oz. of butter per meal and eat 5 meals per day. Eating butter is their way to connect to Charles Darwin. They also go to Costco at least once a week and they go to every sample twice. The biggest holiday is on the 4th of July and all Darwinists compete in the hot dog eating contest. Followers of Darwinsm also must go to a fancy pie restaurant on this holiday and when a waiter/waitress asks them if they would care for a slice of pie, they yell their motto, "WE DONT TAKE JUST ONE SLICE OF PIE, WE TAKE THE WHOOLLEEE THING!" Darwinists are fat merlin atheist cats.

Do u practice darwinism?

Darwinism by savso78 May 12, 2011

Darwinism

A semi-scientific philosophy which claims that all life exists as a result of highly improbable circumstances and haphazard mutations a.k.a. "hopeful monsters." Darwinists have a tendency to proclaim that Darwinian evolution can account for everything (frog to a prince) while also appealing to ignorance in the face of massive gaps in their philosophy.

Darwinism is closely related to naturalism.

"The dogmatic apostles of Darwinism are a militant bunch."

Darwinism by scenester December 26, 2005