The Nonsense of "Communist Science"
Because Lysenko rejected the laws of genetics for the the theory of evolution, Soviet agriculture remained backward for decades. |
Science was another field that received a great blow from Communism. Stalin's regime, along with inventing the concept of "proletarian art," also proposed the idea of "proletarian science." According to this theory, there is bourgeois science and there is proletarian science. The differences between the two will lead to different results. We might compare this to Nazi Germany's rejection of findings by Jewish scientists-Einstein, among others.
Proletarian science is actually nothing more than science corrupted according to the exigencies of materialist philosophy. One obvious demonstration was the "Lysenko affair," which put its stamp on Stalin's Soviet regime.
Trofim Denisovich Lysenko was educated in various agriculture schools in the Soviet Union. He came to Stalin's attention in the 1940s and assumed the total domination of Soviet policy in agriculture and biology. Most importantly, Lysenko rejected the laws of genetics discovered by the Austrian priest-botanist Gregor Mendel at the end of the 19th century and demonstrated by further experiments in the 20th. Lysenko dismissed Mendel's laws as "bourgeois science" and instead supported the thesis of the 18th century French evolutionist biologist Lamarck on the "inheritance of acquired traits."
Lysenko's idea was based on no scientific proof. But because the Soviet Union was experiencing a major agricultural crisis in the 1930s, Lysenko began to attract attention. He promised that implementing his theory would ensure a much larger and efficient grain production than other biologists believed. He claimed, for example, that when grown under the proper conditions, wheat would produce rye seeds-and he made preparations to achieve this. (This is like saying that dogs living in the wild will eventually bear litters of foxes-a claim that's totally contrary to science, of which no instance has ever been observed.) In 1940, Stalin put Lysenko at the head of the Institute of Genetics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and he held this chair for twenty-five years. Lysenko also headed the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences, one of the Soviet Union's most important institutions.
Lysenko (top right) explains to Soviet experts the agricultural project based on "proletarian science." |
In 1948, it was forbidden to be educated or do research in the area of classical genetics. Those geneticists who rejected Lysenko's evolutionist thesis, and continued to support Mendel's genetic discovery, were secretly arrested and executed.
Meanwhile, Lysenko's agricultural policy created widespread lack of productivity. For example, he claimed that putting seeds in cold water for a while before being sown, would make them gain resistance to cold weather conditions. To test this hypothesis, he had tons of seeds immersed in cold water and then sown on the Siberian steppes. Of course, none of the seeds sprouted. Similar experiments all ended in disaster, but these failures were never spoken of until the 1960s. Finally, in 1964, it was officially acknowledged that Lysenko's theory was wrong. Great efforts were expended to have Mendel's genetic discoveries taught and applied again. Russia moved to the American type of mixed hybridization management, using dung to fertilize the fields. Even though their nonsensical thesis had dealt such a great blow to Soviet science and agriculture, Lysenko and his supporters didn't abandon their ideas. In fact, they maintained their positions and titles in the Soviet scientific establishment.
Generally, modern evolutionists make no mention of the Lysenko affair, a historical documentation of the great damage that can be inflicted by a blind attachment to materialism and the theory of evolution. When they do speak of Lysenko's ideas, they dismiss them as a dogmatic form of Lamarckism. But he and his supporters were not only Lamarckists, they were also Darwinists, regarding Lamarck and Darwin as two complementary evolutionist theoreticians.
Here, Lysenko's nonsense theories are explained in detail to Russian peasants who are forced to implement them. The result was a huge fiasco. |
When Lamarck's theory of "inheritance of acquired characteristics" was abandoned as baseless, they realized that left Darwin's theory with no foundation. Therefore, they blindly continued to support Lamarck.
In his article "Darwinian Evolution and Human History," the Marxist and Darwinist thinker Robert M. Young comments:
Moving nearer to our own time, the belief that society and nature followed laws which were both evolutionary and communist led to one of the most disastrous episodes in the Stalinist regime in the 1930s and 1940s-Lysenkoism. Nature's laws were said to be dialectical, and any biologist who adhered to non-orthodox views lost his job, often his liberty, and sometimes his life. Lysenkoism was an evolutionism which ignored or opposed the interesting developments in genetics in the rest of the world. But this was done in the name of Darwinism…56
The resistance to the laws of genetics that Soviet administrators of Lysenko's time displayed is just one example of materialist fanaticism. In the same way that Lysenko and his supporters refused to accept the laws of genetics, many of today's materialists also close their eyes to the "design" (that is, intentional creation) that science has discovered in all living things just because of their own ideological prejudices. To produce a viable opposing theory, they have squandered millions of dollars and many years of labor on research that has come to nothing.
Communist Ideology's Effect on Social Life
Communism is a regime of fear. The people are continually intimidated by stern-faced uniformed officials looking down from above. |
In the 20th century, Communist fanaticism has had very negative influences on the social life in countries under their regimes, forcing on people a hellish life devoid of compassion, denying the existence of God, alienating them from religion and discounting all spiritual and moral values. It has imprinted on societies a mentality that thinks of human beings as chunks of matter that will perish after death, establishing one of the most inhuman institutions in history. The Communist system-as observed in the Soviet Union, the Eastern Bloc countries and Red China-intends to create model societies that regard their citizens as herds of animals, just as the materialist-Darwinist theory intended.
Some of Communist society's basic tenets can be listed as follows:
* Darwin's theory of evolution and Engel's "natural dialectic" regard human beings as an advanced species of animal. Therefore, the idea that society is a herd of animals is expressed at every level. Communist regimes produce a cheerless, spiritless, lifeless person, somewhere between a human and a machine.
The special Djzhernsky Unit, used to suppress public demonstrations in the Soviet Union. |
* The Communist system places no value on individuals. Since there are so many in the herd, the loss of one cannot matter. The disabled or those who cannot work are expelled from the herd and left to die. Those in ill health are regarded as detriments. Because there is no forgiveness, mercy, or sense of loyalty, everyone fears old age and death. The aged receive no attention, pity, or respect in the suggestion that they should be like "elephants that go to the graveyard before they die."
* As with animals in a herd, society is composed of one kind of person only. Clothing, cars and houses are all the same. The whole of society is dominated by an intense monotony, with no sense of esthetics. Athletes, artists, academics and workers all share the same of lifestyle. Houses are constructed like shelters for livestock, and clothing is tailored like a pelt to keep off the cold.
* The system is founded totally in the material concept of "labor and production." What is most important is not an individual citizen's qualities, but the contribution he can make to society. The ideal person is a hardworking laborer or hardworking villager. The guiding idea is that "production strengthens the herd." No attention is paid to humans' moral values, intentions, or spiritual condition.
The eastern side of the Berlin wall before it was torn down. With its barbed wire, mines and tanks, the wall was a symbol of Communist despotism. |
* Seeing life as a struggle of existence, this way of thinking has no problem with doing away with the weak. On the contrary, this is regarded as necessary. Just as there is a brutal struggle for survival among animals, everyone considers himself first, and so there is no advancement. Because human beings lack compassion, society cannot possibly attain peace and well-being. Lack of compassion and mercy coupled with fear for the future, cause hopelessness and pessimism to dominate.
* Due to "herd psychology," people from the lowest to the highest live in a constant state of fear and quickly react fearfully to everything. They fear the man at the door wearing an overcoat; they fear being called before the authorities. But the source of their fear is not clear, and no one can define it.
* In place of the fear of God, there are various "fear centers." In the Soviet Union, for example, the KGB (and secret services like Checka and NKVD before it) tried to instill mortal fear throughout society. Millions can be sent to their deaths without trial or defense. The conviction that these organizations hear and see everything dominates citizens' minds. Such organizations develop a system of selective cleansing, based on the law of the jungle.
* Because fear of God is systematically eradicated, individuals repress their deepest urges insofar as they fear the system. If the system did not detect or could not punish, they would commit thievery, corruption, embezzlement and every kind of illegal act.
* Anxiety, fear and panic occasioned by the environment they live in put people under stress. They cannot sleep at night and in the daytime, everything makes them anxious. They quickly lose bodily strength. Intense pressure and difficult living conditions exhaust men and women at an early age and sometimes cause their premature death. Because of hopelessness, they cannot enjoy the good things in life, but tranquilize themselves with alcohol and live their hellish lives in a state of intoxication.
* Believing that they will perish after death, people hold on to life tenaciously. In their struggles for life, they regard everyone else as a rival, if not an enemy, and begrudge every act as a slight against themselves. They experience socialism's basic tenets, such as "mutual aid" and "support," only in slogans. In fact, everyone regards others with a suspicion that condemns them to a life of loneliness.
* Because the individual has no faith in God, he can't attach himself to anyone in a meaningful, trusting relationship. The Darwinist-Communist system always crushes individuals, who are hostile to one another, since everyone may at any moment take away what they have. In a Communist state, the only one an individual can trust is himself. But because he knows he is weak, he doesn't trust even himself and is dominated by intense hopelessness. Therefore, he is forever complaining about his life, but cannot try to change it.
* Because people in a Communist society have closed minds, there are defects in every aspect of their lives, whether at school, at home, or in entertainment. They can act only in accord with what they've been taught, and so cannot come up with any original ideas to deal with new issues that confront them. If they do, in fact, they are answered with violence.
* Unthinking people have unorganized minds and can't use resources productively. They waste resources on utopian fantasies, as in the case of Lysenko.
* Communism destroys families, the basic unit of society. There are no marriages in the true sense of the word, only mating and propagation. Marriage is not entered into for the sake of morality; its purpose is the continuation of the species. Families do not look after their children; the state or those appointed by it perform this function. A child is seen as a new addition to the herd and is trained to fight for it and protect it. Because the mother hates her home and environment, she passes her harshness on to her offspring. Children growing up deprived of family love become pessimistic and aggressive. In the place of love and respect in the home, hostility reigns. The child has no one to trust.
* In a society with no concept of marriage, fidelity, or chastity but only a mating mentality, prostitution becomes widespread.
* The police-state oppression controlling Communist society cannot take the place of conscience and the fear of God. For this reason, the crime rate soars; thievery is rampant everywhere. People steal from factories, farms and cooperatives collectively as a matter of course.
* However much Communist ideology may claim otherwise, racism is widespread in Communist society. In the Soviet Union, for example, there was antipathy to anyone who was not Russians, especially Muslims. Quietly adopting the racist Darwinist theory, Russians regarded various Muslim minorities and other minorities as "ethnic groups that were not completely evolved" and subjected them to mass slaughter, under the name of deportation. Communist ideology thinks of murder as "natural dialectic"-a natural component of evolution.
* Communism sees human beings only as productive animals. It reserves a special hatred and loathing for villagers. Marx called villagers inferior "potato sacks." As we saw earlier, Lenin and Stalin murdered millions by deliberately letting them starve. To them, villagers were only herds of animals that produced grain and cotton. Confiscating what they produced (collectivization), including the honey from their beehives, was seen as legitimate and reasonable.
These generalizations are only a broad sketch of a society without religion. In nations where disbelief prevails, no matter what they call themselves, this way of life must unavoidably prevail. People are not respected as worthy beings whom God created and endowed with spirit. With people regarding one another as advanced animals that will perish with death, a society cannot experience well-being, peace, security, cooperation or brotherhood. No one considers anyone else's comfort, health, or well-being. Moreover, in such societies removed from religion, it is impossible to find just administrators and people who work on behalf of all. Everyone looks out for his own interests and tries to profit as much as he can.
