From Conservapedia

John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science, and Pastoral Advisor at Green Templeton College, Oxford.

Atheism and the suppression of science, as well as atheism and the rejection of science, is one common criticism of atheism, as militant atheists have often suppressed scientific knowledge because it conflicts with a presupposed materialistic worldview.[1] According to Dr. John Lennox, a renowned professor, scientist and Christian apologist of the University of Oxford, many atheist scientists have not been compelled by science to accept a materialistic explanation of the universe; rather, an a priori commitment to materialism causes them to do so.[1] However, this is not Dr. Lennox's own formulation, but a viewpoint made explicit by many atheist scientists, such as Richard Lewontin, a biologist from Harvard University. Dr. Lewontin, in the New York Review of Books, January 9, 1997:31 entitled Billions and Billions of Demons (reviewing the book The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan) states:[2]

“ We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravangant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstatiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It's not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the unitiated. Moreover, that Materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.[2] ”

Christian,[3] Hindu,[3] Jewish,[2] and Islamic[4] scholars have agreed with Dr. Lewontin in stating that his atheism preceded and conditioned his view of science and that this same paradigm applies for many other militant atheists as well.[5] Indeed, many atheist states have promoted the rejection of objective science by conflating it with the worldview of atheistic materialism; for example, the Constitution of Albania in 1976 stated that "The State recognizes no religion, and supports and carries out atheistic propaganda in order to implant a scientific materialistic world outlook in people."[6] To carry out its goal, Albania, with its former policy of state atheism, executed eminent theists or imprisoned them in order to reeducate them, outlawed religious practice, mandated individuals to change their names if they were of a religious origin, and demolished every mosque, church, monastery, convent, religious school, hospital and orphanage, despite the objection of even some members of the communist ruling Party of Labour of Albania.[7]

Rejection of the Big Bang Theory

See also: Atheism and the origin of the universe

In 1931 Rev. Georges-Henri Lemaître, a Christian priest in the Catholic Church, suggested that the evident expansion in forward time required that the universe contracted backwards in time, and would continue to do so until it could contract no further, bringing all the mass of the universe into a singularity,[8] a "primeval atom" where and when the fabric of time and space comes into existence.[9]

According to this Big Bang cosmological physics model, the universe, originally in an extremely hot and dense state that expanded rapidly from this point and has since cooled by expanding to the present diluted state, and continues to expand today.[10] The American Chemical Society holds that the Big Bang theory is "the most widely accepted scientific model for the beginning of the universe"[11] that "explains the observable features of the universe as we know them today."[12]

As a theory which addresses the origins of the universe, the Big Bang has always carried theological implications, most notably, the concept of creatio ex nihilo, which stems from the Genesis creation narrative.[13] This perception was enhanced by the fact that the originator of the Big Bang theory, Monsignor Georges-Henri Lemaître, was a Roman Catholic Christian clergyman.[14] Pope Pius XII, declared at the November 22, 1951 opening meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences that the Big Bang theory accorded with the Catholic concept of creation:[15]

Hence, creation took place. We say: therefore there is a Creator. Therefore, God exists! –Pope Pius XII[16]

Many Protestant Christian denominations , including the Anglican Church and Methodist Church have also welcomed the Big Bang theory as supporting a historical interpretation of the doctrine of creation although other denominations, such as the Baptist Church have contested the theory.Christians in denominations teaching Old Earth creationism or evolutionary creation support the reconciliation of the Big Bang with the Genesis creation narrative.

Young earth creation scientists contest the Big Bang Theory, stating that it is scientifically unsound, and that that sound biblical exegesis points to a young earth and universe.[26] Judeo-Christian theologians who hold to a young earth perspective argue that the Scriptures point to a young earth interpretation.[27]

Christianity, Judaism and Islam teach the concept of creatio ex nihilo, with supporters of the Big Bang theory in these religions pointing to the Divine as being the source of the event.[28] Due to the strong theological implications of the Big Bang, Paul Davies, an English physicist from Arizona State University has even stated "It may seem bizarre, but in my opinion, science offers a surer path to God than religion."[29] William Bonnor, an atheist scientist, rejected the Big Bang theory due to its theological implications, specifically "that it lent support to divine creation."[30] Similarly, in light of the theistic implications of the Big Bang, Fred Hoyle, an atheist scientist, did not accept the Big Bang,[31] preferring a model that did not have a single epoch of creation which would eliminate the need for a creator.[32] As a result, Fred Holyle, Thomas Gold, and Hermann Bondi developed the steady state theory, which appealed to atheist cosmologists because it avoided a creation event and the religious implications associated with one.[33] American astrophysicist Edward L. Wright has pointed out flaws of the steady state theory continuously.[34] Wright and other mainstream cosmologists reviewing Quasi-Steady-State (QSS) have pointed out new flaws and discrepancies with observations left unexplained by proponents of the theory, including Dr. Hoyle.[35] The steady state theory has not only been academically criticised for a lack of scientific evidence but for violating the second law of thermodynamics as well.[36]

Under the state atheism espoused by the Soviet Union, atheistic communists irrevocably opposed the Big Bang as the origin of the universe since it contradicted their materialistic worldview.[37] As such, English physicist and statistical thermodynamicist, Peter Theodore Landsberg, has written that this tension is often seen as that between a Christian-Judaic Big Bang and a communist-atheist steady-state model of the universe.[38] According to the ideology of the Soviet communism, as it was forumulated in the late 1930s, cosmologial models with heat death, and hence a finite upper time scale, were rejected as well because of their theistic implications.[39] In light of this fact, the Soviet government altered the very definition of the science of cosmology in order to support a materialistic worldview: the official definition of cosmology was altered so as to include the word "infinite" in order to support the atheist derived steady state universe.[40] In general, scientists and party philosophers in this nation worked to establish a view of science acceptable to atheistic communism.[41]

According to the Big Bang model, the universe, originally in an extremely hot and dense state that expanded rapidly from a singularity , has since cooled by expanding to the present diluted state, and continues to expand today.

For example, the problematic relationship of relativity theory and quantum mehanics to Marxist–Leninist philosophy was discussed amongst these individuals.[41] In other example, the law of entropy, including its cosmological implications, became a matter of dispute in the Soviet Union, where it was discussed in a variety of ways.[42] To some revolutionary minds, entropy seemed opposed to revolution.[42] Because the cosmological physics finding of the finite widening of the universe as well as astronomical idealism was thought to help clericalism, these concepts were attacked by Andrei Zhdanov, Stalin's chief ideologue, who in regards to Lemaître and his supporters stated that they were:

Falsifiers of science [who] wanted to revive the fairy tale of the origin of the world from nothing ... Another failure of the 'theory' in question consists in the fact that it brings us to the idealistic attitute of assuming the world to be finite. -Andrei Zhdanov, Chief Ideologue of Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union[43]

The atheistic ideological interference with cosmological theory took a new turn during the Cultural Revolution in the militant atheist Mao Zedong's empire, when Big Bang cosmology was declared a reactionary, anti-socialist pseudoscience.[44]

Rejection of Genetics

Table showing how the genes exchange according to segregation or independent assortment during meiosis and how this translates into Mendel's laws.

Atheism was an integral part of Soviet ideology,[45] with the Soviet Union claiming that their "scientific atheism" was "the highest form of atheism" (vysshaya stepen' ateizma) and therefore be propagated as the most the only correct atheism, the orthodox disbelief.[46] In order to promote an atheistic Weltanschauung, the government of the U.S.S.R. established the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.[47] The atheistic science promoted by the Soviet Union sought to destroy the credibility of faith for countless individuals.[48]

Mendelian genetics delineates the transmission of hereditary characteristics from parent organisms to their offspring, and is confirmed at the molecular level by the deciphering of the genetic code.[49] In the late 1940s, Joseph Stalin abolished Mendelian genetics throughout the Soviet Union,[50] using the fact that its founder, Gregor Johann Mendel, was a Catholic Christian priest, to discredit the science.[51]

A photograph of geneticist Nikolai Vavilov with his family.

Rejection of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics

A graph delineating two quantum fields.

In other words, Mendelian genetics was rejected by an atheistic government on the grounds that Rev. Mendel was a product of the Church , which promotes the existence of God , i.e. theism Stalin was inspired to do this after being convinced by an atheist botanist named Trofim Lysenko that classical genetics conflicts with the communist ideology of the state.An entire area of science was suppressed for twenty-five years in which all existing genetic experimentation was destroyed, references to Mendel were removed, and the teaching of classical genetics was suppressed.During this period, hundreds of geneticists who continued to uphold Mendel's genetic theory were imprisoned or executed, the most prominent being Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov , who was starved to death in the Gulag in 1943.Moreover, the Soviet enforcement of Lysenko's genetic theory, also known as, led to agricultural failure in Soviet Russia,as well as what the National Academy of Sciences terms the "crippling of biology for decades."

Under the state atheism of the U.S.S.R., many scientists proclaimed their wholehearted support of those parts of the present communist dogma which reject the freedom of opinion in scientific matters, and insisted on acceptance of officially endorsed theories, even if these were contradicted by unbiased experiments.[58] Historically, another product of atheism is the rejection of relativity and quantum mechanics, which was criticized on the grounds of contradicting atheistic dialectical materialism.[59]

The suspicions of the atheistic communist critics of quantum mechanics and relativity physics were heightened when several prominent Western European philosophers and scientists concluded that the probablilistic approach of quantum mechanics meant the end of determinism as a worldview, while the equivalence of matter and energy postulated by relativity theory marked the end of materialism.[60] Several of them concluded that relativity physics and quatum mechanics destroyed the basis of Marxist materialism.[60] Beginning in 1930 a worrisome danger arose with the appearance of the "Bolshevizers" of philosophy and science, younger militants taking advantage of Cultural Revolution then in progress and calling for the "reconstruction" of physics on the basis of dialectical materialism.[61]

Boris Hessen, a Jewish physicist who was censured and eventually executed under policies stemming from state atheism, due to his defense of quantum theory and relativity, which were declared as being contrary to materialism.

Boris Mikhailovich Hessen, a Jewish physicist,[62] attempted to defend quantum mechanics and relativity, but was denounced as a "metaphysicist of the worst sort," a "pure idealist," and as a deserter of the cause of materialism who interpreted relativity physics in the same spirit as the Western mystic astronomer Arthur Stanley Eddington.[63] He was criticized for paying insufficient attention to the ideas of Engels and Lenin.[63] Particularly mistaken, said his detractors, was his definition of matter as a "synthesis of space and time," a wording that came from one of his defenses of relativity theory.[63] In the final resolution of the conference on the state of Soviet philosophy that was held in 1930, Hessen was censured by name twice, one for his philosophical views on relativity theory and again for his opinions based on quantum mechanics.[63] One of Hessen's critics, Ernst Kol'man, a Czech Marxist, stated that "wreckers" were trying to corrupt Soviet physics as "wreckers" had earlier tried to disrupt Soviet industry.[64] Kol'man stated that the "wreckers" in physics were trying to discredit materialism.[65] On 21 August 1936, Hessen was arrested and falsely charged with involvement in the terrorist activities of a Trotskyist-Zinovievist conspiracy.[64] On 20 December 1936 Hessen was executed by a firing squad;[64] Hessens' promotion of the theory of relativity resulted in his execution.[66]

Hessen's activities from his first major publications in 1928 to his arrest in 1936 can best be characterized by two main concerns: the defense of the relative autonomy of physics against interference in the content of physical investigation from without the positive elaboration of the compatibility and affinity of Marxist materialism with the newest developments in physics as opposed to classical physics.– The Social and Economic Roots of the Scientific Revolution by Gideon Fredenthal and Peter McLaughlin[67]

Rejection of Resonance Theory

Commonly used as an example of resonance, the nitrate ion carries a formal charge of -1, where each oxygen carries a -⅔ charge and each nitrogen carries a +1 charge.

Hessen was rehabilitated in 1955 as he was found to be innocent post-mortem.

According to The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published in March 1953, "Practically all prominent scientists in the Soviet sphere have by now proclaimed their adherence to dialectical materialism, and many have actively engaged in a campaign of defamation of all scientists and scientific theories declared to be inimical to Stalinist faith. Mendelian genetics, resonance theory of chemical binding, the uncertainty principle (and quantum mechanics in general), the cellular theory of life–to name but a few prominent examples–have in turn been attacked as "idealistic" or "metaphysical," and more or less successfully eradicated from Soviet scientific scene–often with the apparently the eager help of representatives of the very disciplines that are most severely hit by these purges."[68]

Resonance is the chemical theory by which the actual normal state of a molecule is represented not by a single valence-bond structure but by a combination of several alternative distinct structures.[69] The molecule is then said to resonate among the several valence-bond structures or to have a structure that is a resonance hybrid of these structures.[69] The energy calculated for a resonance hybrid is lower than the energies of any of the alternative structures; the molecule is then said to be stabilised by resonance.[69] The difference between the energies of any one of the alternative structures and the energy of the resonance hybrid is designated resonance energy.[69] Under state atheism, criticisms of Linus Pauling's resonance theory, as well as of Christopher Ingold's chemical mesomerism theory, surfaced and gained further scrutiny after the Soviet organic chemist Walter Hückel labeled valence-bond resonance hybrid structures as idealistic and imaginary in character.[70] In general, atheistic communist scientists accused resonance of subjective idealism,[71] which presented chemistry with an ideological struggle as it was perceived to be at odds with atheism and its materialistic implications.[72] In Poland, which was located between two ideological curtains,[73] chemists organised meetings in which Pauling's resonance theory was condemned.[74]

A depiction of the mesomeric effect in the phenoxide (phenate) anion.

In 1951, under the Soviet "Report of the Commission of the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences", the theory of resonance was condemned.[75] Pauling himself was vilified by these atheistic communist scientists.[76]

Curricula under State Atheism

According to Harold J. Berman, a Harvard specialist in Soviet law, militant atheism was the official religion of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party was the established church.[77] Scientists and party philosophers in the Soviet Union worked to establish a view of science acceptable to Marxist–Leninist philosophy.[78]

The League of Militant Atheists worked to introduce anti-religious material in the Soviet education system.[79] In 1929, higher educational institutions were purged of believers and anti-religious departments were established.[79] Furthermore, atheist universities began to be founded, with eighty-four by 1931.[79] Under the state atheism of the Soviet Union, university students were presented with the following course descriptions:



Physics: The place of physics in anti-religious propaganda. Connection between ancient myths and the endeabor of man to discover the causal relationship between various natural phenomena. The expression of primitive man's helplessness to establish the true, scientific reason for the phenomena. Scientific method in thinking as the foundation of godlessness.



Chemistry: Its importance for economic life in peace and war, in agriculture, and for working out a correct worldview. The part played by chemistry in the struggle against religious superstition.



Geology: Introduction to the Biblical religious point of view. Methods of geological reckoning of time compared with Church calculations. How old is the earth? Practical work for the study of the earth's surface. Belief in hell under the earth. Rejection of the religious expansion of the causes of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.



Mathematics: Mathematics as a scientific method for studying the phenomena surrounding us....Causes furthering the development of mathematics in antiquity and in our days. The "mathematical numbers" of pagan priests in ancient times. Legends about the supernatural origins of mathematical knowledge. The monopoly of mathematical knowledge demanded by pagan priests to enable them to oppress others.



Biology: A short history of biological science. The importance of biology for working out a dialectic-materialistic worldview. The importance of biology in medicine, technics, agriculture, and other branches of human life. Importance of biology for anti-religious propaganda.



Medicine: How religion looks on the cause of sickness. The modern scientific answer to this question. Contagious diseases. The origin and struggle against them. The founders of modern medicine. Serum, vaccination, and chemical therapeutics. Individual and social prophylactics. Religious ceremonies as a source of contagion.[80]

In addition to the antireligious substance of each course, the curriculum from the universities in the Soviet Union presented scientific findings correct or incorrect based on their supposed ideological positions, not on the objective, applied, and experimental essence of science.[80] Soviet militant atheists also believed science disproved religion because God remained unseen, his miracles were never subject to empirical verification, and certain religious stories were scientifically inconceivable.[81] Bruce Sheiman, himself a leader in the Atheism 3.0 movement, has criticised militant atheists for asserting that science is capable of determining the existence of God.[82]

See also