Social Darwinism is a belief, popular in the late Victorian era in England, America, and elsewhere, which states that the strongest or fittest should survive and flourish in society, while the weak and unfit should be allowed to perish.

The theory was chiefly expounded by Herbert Spencer, whose ethical philosophies always held an elitist view and received a boost from the application of Darwinian ideas such as adaptation and natural selection.

The number of people who have embraced social Darwinism is quite revealing. One of the most prominent was no less than Adolf Hitler.

Social Darwinism tries to justify the oppression and suppression of the weak by the strong and the powerful, claiming that it improves the human race in general if the strong succeed and the weak just die off. Thus, the human race leapfrogs ahead and becomes the "übermensche," or Superman, envisioned by Friedrich Nietzsche.

Although she would never have admitted it, this was the very philosophy that was espoused by Ayn Rand.

And she proudly proclaimed herself to be an atheist.

Don Firth