At 12:06 PM -0400 4/16/02, Louis_Schmier wrote:
>Michael, there never is one reason or a single answer.

But some are much more likely than others, as well as more useful.

>Keep in mind,
>evolution was accepted and at the core, the cornerstone of American
>culture until the 1920s.

Evolution has been accepted for centuries.
It's the mechanism of natural selection that is sometimes questioned
(although not by 99 and 44 one hundredths of scientists).
I think that you're talking about 'Social Darwinism'; not the same thing
(call it an illegitimate offspring of Darwinian theory).

>It was use to argue the naturalness of free
>enterprise, individual rights, free competition, various social and
>economic reform movements.  It was the cornerstone of big business,
>organized labor, and all the reform movments.  All of which went under
>such sobriquets as "social darwinism,"

see above.

>it may have been the
>replacement of Newtonian scientific clarity and certainty with Ensteinian
>confusion and relativity;

Relativistic physics did not replace classical (Newtonian) mechanics; it
susumned it under a broader theory.
Engineers still learn classical mechanics since they are still the best
predictors at nonrelativistic (read earthbound) velocities.

>it may have been the aspect of the Cold War
>confrontation between "godless"  communistic Russia and "godly" democratic
>United States; it may be that the United States is still the most
>"religious" country in the western world;  it may be all of the above and
>then some.

Almost anything 'may' ....

* PAUL K. BRANDON               [EMAIL PROTECTED]  *
* Psychology Dept       Minnesota State University, Mankato *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001      ph 507-389-6217 *
*    http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html    *



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