An honest evolutionist once said:
"I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning, consequently assumed it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption . . The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics; he is also concerned to prove there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do . . For myself, as no doubt for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom."
—Aldous Huxley, "Confessions of a Professed Atheist," Report: Perspective on the News, Vol. 3, June 1966, p. 19
(read "the philosophy of meaninglessness" as evolution)
Aldous Huxley was the grandson of evolutionist Thomas Huxley, Darwin's closest friend and promoter and brother of evolutionist Julian Huxley. Aldous Huxley was one of the most influential liberal writers of the 20th century.
Your reference indicates that Aldous Huxley was the author of "Confessions of a Professed Atheist" when he was not. The quote is taken from his book "Ends and Means". The real author of the article was Dennis Helming. The article was "Interview with God" and "Confessions of a Professed Atheist" was the heading for the paragraph with the quote. I figured you might want to fix your reference to more correctly indicate where you got it.
Since Aldous Huxley was talking about the rising atheist/humanist philosophy in the 1920's, mentioned nothing about Darwin or Origins, and you, quite obviously, have not read "Ends and Means", what is your reasoning for determining that Huxley's phrase, "philosophy of meaninglessness" equates to "evolution"?
Did he mention evolution in any other part of the book?
Was Aldous Huxley an atheist at the time that he wrote "Ends and Means"?
Was the theme of "Ends and Means" a promotion of humanism or atheism?
here is a quote from page 308 of "Ends and Means":
Reality as actually experienced contains intuitions of value and significance, contain love, beauty, mystical ecstasy, intimations of godhead. Science did not and still does not possess intellectual instruments with which to deal with these aspects of reality. Consequently it ignored them and concentrated its attention upon such aspects of the world as it could deal with by mean of arithmetic, geometry and the various branches of higher mathematics. Our conviction that the world is meaningless lends itself very effectively to furthering the ends of erotic or political passion; in part to a genuine intellectual error -- the error of identifying the world of science, a world from which all meaning and value has been deliberately excluded, with ultimate reality.
(emphasis mine)
or page 312:
Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know. It is our will that decides how and upon what subjects we shall use our intelligence. Those who detect no meaning in the world generally do so because, for one reason or another, it suits their books that the world should be meaningless.
(emphasis mine)
It sure doesn't look like Aldous Huxley is supporting or promoting the "philosophy of meaninglessness".
I am sure you can find plenty of good quotes from shallow individuals that will easily fit your requirement to relate the theory of evolution to some sort of philosophy of meaningless. This "Aldous Huxley quote" is incorrect in so many ways that it does nothing to support and is actually detrimental to your cause.
On another note: I fail to see how the relationship between Aldous and Thomas is of any worth in this context. Should we assume that you have taken on ALL the beliefs of your grandfather?
