Because of such advances, many people view science with an almost worshipful awe. The successful moon landings by astronauts reinforce this feeling. As a result, the ideas expressed by scientists in other matters are also highly respected by many people. And it is a widely held belief that whatever problems the human family faces will eventually be solved, with science and technology leading the way.
This prevailing view was summed up a few years ago in a report published in connection with the 200th anniversary of the founding of the well-known J. R. Geigy pharmaceutical corporation in Basel, Switzerland. One of the commentators, German physicist Professor C. F. von Weizsäcker, is reported as having stated:
“Science today is the only thing in which men as a whole believe: it is the only universal religion of our time . . . The scientist has thus got himself into an ambiguous position: he is a priest of this new religion, possessing its secrets and marvels; for what to others is puzzling, strange or secret is plain to him.”
But is such confidence in science justified? Not according to von Weizsäcker. He notes that any scientist worthy of the name should realize “that what he knows is only a fraction of what he needs to know if he is really to be fit to carry responsibility for the lives of men.” He should appreciate that even in his speciality there is so much he does not know. And honest scientists understand that while science has produced things improving life, it has also done the opposite. It has been responsible for producing things that have made life miserable for millions of people.
The bloodshed and destruction of this century’s world wars are an example. World War II alone is reported to have taken over 50 million lives. Many of these victims died in horrible ways due to the inventions of science and technology: explosives dropped on many peace-loving civilians by speeding aircraft, rockets, tanks, flamethrowers, automatic weapons, torpedoes, atomic bombs and other engines of death. These, too, were the products of scientific and industrial “advancement.”
In more recent times science and technology have shared responsibility for making and using things that have resulted in pollution, noise, congestion and tension. All these facts should make scientists more modest in their claims, and other people more careful as to where they put their confidence.
Problems with Chemicals
Even men of science generally devoted to improving man’s life have awesome problems to face as we can see, for instance, in the drug industry. New drugs are constantly appearing on the market, but the supervision and testing of such drugs have not always been thorough enough.
What happened in West Germany (as well as on a minor scale in Sweden, Canada and Brazil) a few years ago demonstrates the tragic results that can come from the misuse of drugs. The drug Thalidomide was widely used as a tranquilizer. Expectant mothers also used it. But some of them found, to their horror, that upon their giving birth their babies were malformed because of the drug. Thousands of these children were physically or mentally retarded, and remain so to this day. Of these children, the West German news magazine Der Spiegel said:
“They are the victims of a catastrophic mishap, brewed together in the test tubes of a scientifically persuaded generation; the ones forced to suffer because of a mysteriously effective mechanism built into one tenth of a gram of white substance; into the sleeping pills Thalidomide.”
Der Spiegel noted that 310,000,000 dosages of the sedative had been sold between 1957 and 1961. It had been advertised as “nontoxic,” “harmless,” and “completely nonpoisonous.’’ The magazine added: “Nine men were indicted. Not indicted is the willingness of a scientifically persuaded generation to consume medicines by the ton, although scientists in most cases do not know even today just how these affect the human organism.”
Since that time drug procedures have been tightened. Yet the quantity of drugs pouring out of factories is staggering. People all over the world are consuming billions of various drug pills each year. And newer ones are continually being put on the market. The damage to health may appear only after a long period of usage, as proved in the case of cigarette smoking. That is why H. Weicker, professor of human genetics at Bonn University and one of the leading medical experts called to testify at the Thalidomide trial in West Germany, said: “A disaster such as the Thalidomide catastrophe can again overtake us at any time.”
Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau (Natural Science Review) of West Germany, in its September 1975 issue, stated: “Not only the feared Thalidomide, but apparently many other medicines could also cause deformities in newborn babies if taken by their mothers during the first six weeks of pregnancy, when the embryo is especially sensitive.”
At the School of Public Health in Berkeley, California, L. Milkovich and B. J. vanden Berg studied the effects of drugs in 19,044 newborn babies. Those whose mothers took no tranquilizers during the first 42 days of pregnancy had an average of 2.7 percent deformities. Where the mothers had taken a popular tranquilizer (Equanil), the deformity rate of the newborn babies was 12.1 percent. In the case of another popular drug (Librium), the deformity rate was 11.4 percent. Mothers who took other tranquilizers had about twice as many deformed babies as the mothers who took no drugs at all.
In the book Thalidomide and the Power of the Drug Companies (1972, p. 279), authors H. Sjöström and R. Nilsson declared: “In spite of all warnings, we shall evidently have to wait for a ‘genetic’ disaster to occur before the authorities and the chemical industry wake up. When this occurs owing to the failure to control the properties of some widely used chemical to induce hereditary change, we shall certainly hear from the authorities and from industry that ‘nobody ever thought of such a possibility,’ that ‘this catastrophe was unavoidable.’”
Yet, away back at the beginning of this century scientists were able to induce malformations in lower animals by the use of chemicals. And in spite of all the knowledge and experience gained since then, the load of chemicals (the effects of which on the human body when consumed over years are not yet fully understood, and which are introduced into pills, as well as food, drink and air) continues to mount. Although further factors are also involved, it is no wonder that so many ailments, such as cancer and heart disease, are on the increase.
These few examples from the history of medicine and pharmacy suffice in showing that blind and absolute faith in scientific “progress” is not justified.
This is certainly the case, too, in another field of science, where gullibility is even more pronounced and unjustified.
Tracing Man’s Origin
In the past century, the theory of evolution has been widely accepted and promoted by most scientists. This is the belief that humans have evolved from apelike beasts over a period of millions of years. Although some scientists reject the evolution theory and believe the Bible account that man was created directly by God, the majority of scientists speak as if evolution were a fact proved beyond dispute.
But that is not the case at all. If it were so, many scientists would not still be spending much of their time trying to prove it. They would not be devoting years to crawling around on their hands and knees in the heat of Africa and other places trying to find fossils to prove their theory.
But many evolutionary scientists are guilty of very unscientific procedures in being dogmatic on little or nonexistent evidence. Worse, they have at times been guilty of gross deceptions to try to convince the public that they are proving their theory.
For example, there was the infamous “Piltdown man.” This was asserted to be a vital “missing link” between man and beast. It was “discovered” by Charles Dawson at Piltdown, England, early in this century. But decades later it was exposed as a hoax, a fake. It turned out to be the skull of a modern man combined with the jawbone of an ape that had been “doctored” with chemicals to try to make it look ancient.
One of the broadcasts last year of a West German radio program dealing with science and education was entitled “Forgers in Science”; it told of more recent frauds. An interesting example was of a corpse that came to the attention of the Belgian Royal Academy of Science in 1969. The corpse was preserved in ice and appeared to be a first-rate scientific sensation. Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans, a zoologist and member of the Brussels Academy, said that it was a proof of the evolution theory. He submitted to the Academy the opinion that the apelike creature was a “missing link” between man and ape.
The creature was located in a freezer in the United States, in Minnesota. The zoologist spent days observing and appraising this supposed ancestor of man lying in icy armor. But after examinations, it was discovered that this apelike creature had been on ice, not for millions of years, but for only a few years!
What did Dr. Heuvelmans and other scientists conclude? Not that it was a fake. Instead, they concluded that in our modern era there must have been a remnant of pre-historic man living upon the earth! In a bulletin from the Belgian Academy of Natural Science, Dr. Heuvelmans tried to document his presumptuous theory with extensive illustrations. He even gave the creature the “scientific” name of homo pongoides, that is, “apelike man.”
However, the Academy was perplexed and suspicious. Further extensive and difficult investigations were made. With what conclusion? Was this the biological discovery of the century? The German radio program related: “By no means. Once again forgers had made fools of the scientists. The public was presented with a comedy which was difficult to see through, but it was very evident that it was well staged. The main characters, although unwillingly, were zoologists, anthropologists, paleontologists and other scientists.”
W. R. Lützenkirchen, who wrote the script for this radio program, said: “The ‘missing link’ between man and anthropoid ape is a swindle, a clear forgery. The primitive man . . . came out of the bag of tricks used in the film industry in Hollywood.” He noted that “trick specialists . . . brewed up the ‘missing link.’”
Other Frauds
While this forged “prehistoric man” was one of the more spectacular fakes in recent years, it was not the only one. The program commented on the discovery of supposed works of art of ‘prehistoric Neanderthal man’ in Dithmarschen, a rural section bordering on the North Sea in the northernmost German state of Schleswig-Holstein. North German historians felt that they had a sensational find. In the Dithmarsch State Museum in the city of Meldorf a display of these artifacts was quickly organized.
What happened next? Says Mr. Lützenkirchen “The well-known professor, Herbert Kühn, who specializes in pre-history and is an expert in pre-historic cave paintings, spoke at the opening of the display in Meldorf of a ‘climactic moment of archaeology.’ In exuberance and with euphoria the scientist announced ‘discoveries’ which could ‘compete with that of Galileo Galilei.’ In reality he was caught in a forgery comedy.”
The discoveries had been dated as being from 100,000 to 180,000 years old. But it was found that these works of art, supposedly Neanderthal, had been produced just recently! Responsible for the whole affair was a sales clerk from a village named “Albersdorf.” That was an appropriate coincidence, since in the German language “albern” means “silly.” The clerk had taken old wood and bones from animals and cleverly worked them over.
Some of such forgeries were discovered after only a few months. But others, such as the Piltdown fraud, took decades to uncover. And another example, which took years to expose, had to do with the ‘tools’ that the allegedly primitive ‘Steinheimer man’ was supposed to have used. Until recently these have been in museums and display cases.
In the publication Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde (Stuttgart’s Contributions to Natural History), May 1974, evolutionist Professor K. D. Adam, chief curator of the State Museum of Natural Sciences in Stuttgart, stated that the supposed 250,000-year-old artifacts of ‘homo steinheimensis’ were a proof, not of evolution, but of scientific error. He added: “It is stated as a result of the discussed research that none of the countless, ostensible stone- and bone-tools can be proved to be an implement produced and used by man: they are pebbles of limestone, and also subordinated of sandstone and dolomite, as well as bone fragments, mostly indeterminable.”
Where Confidence Can Be Placed
Of course, there are finds relative to man’s origin that are much better documented than the forgeries. These clearly show that the ‘historical period’ of man began some five to six thousand years ago. And there has been solid scientific progress in gathering information about this earth and its life systems. Also in other fields, scientists have made genuine contributions to the welfare of mankind, all of which is commendable and very much appreciated.
But what is also clearly shown in the history of science is that scientists are only imperfect humans. They make mistakes just like everybody else. And often, because of the desire for fame, or because of pride and stubbornness, they will cling to ideas that are not the truth and that can even result in harm to people.
More and more people, including scientists, are acknowledging this. Especially is this the case in our time when the negative fruits of science and technology have become more obvious, and many times these backfire, to the torment of the human family. So it should be apparent that we cannot put total confidence and unshakable faith in humans, be they scientists or others.
There is only one source that merits total confidence and unshakable faith. That source is our Creator, Jehovah God. The Bible writer of Proverbs says: “The eyes of Jehovah are in every place.” (Prov. 15:3) Nothing is hidden from the Creator. Since he originated the universe and all life in it, he certainly knows where man came from and where he is going. He also makes available to those who trust him accurate information about such matters.
It is comforting to men and women of faith to know that their future does not depend upon what mere humans do. They appreciate that the record of human failures in past centuries gives no basis for confidence. Rather, faith in the dependable Creator does inspire confidence in the future. And the future He promises is one without sickness and sorrow. “‘For I myself well know the thoughts that I am thinking toward you,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘thoughts of peace, and not of calamity, to give you a future and a hope.’”
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