The Watchtower Society
is well known for their many forays into quack science. False cancer
cures, blaming aluminum for causing all sorts of maladies, condemning
vaccines, and concluding that the heart is the literal source of the
mind, are some of their more infamous fiascoes. Indeed, they have in
their history embraced one quackery after another. The blood transfusion
prohibition is still a hold out--now rivaled only by vaccines in terms
of the number of deaths it has caused (Bergman, 1994). They once argued
that "vaccination is a direct violation of the everlasting covenant
that God made with Noah after the flood" (The Golden Age,
Feb. 4, 1931:293) and staunchly refused to change their rigid position
on vaccination for years. Altering their stance only in the 1950s, now
the Watchtower is laudatory about the wonders that vaccines have
achieved in dealing with disease. In the 1930s they even claimed that
much of the looseness in our day along sexual lines may be traceable to
vaccination (The Golden Age, Feb. 4, 1931 p. 293). They have even
published articles condemning the germ theory and medicine.
One of the more enigmatic quack science ideas that this author has
stumbled upon was the Watchtower's seeming support of Hitlerian
eugenics. Eugenics is the idea that humans evolved from apes, and are
still evolving. The factors that produced our evolution can, if applied
today, cause evolution to continue--and by this means we can cause
humans to evolve as far as humans of today have evolved from the apes of
the past. The key to this evolution is the application of natural
selection to humans, a field called eugenics, a word that literally
means well born.
It was once held by many non-theistic scientists that we could apply
evolution to humans so as to produce a superior race. Its most direct
application implies that we should prohibit those individuals who are
judged by society as inferior from reproducing, and concurrently
encourage those who are judged superior to have more children. Eugenics'
most devastating effects resulted from its deadly application to humans
by Nazi Germany during World War II. Actually, eugenics was the main
driving force behind Hitler's efforts to produce a "superior
race"-- and the conclusion that this race be produced by preventing
inferior races from "polluting" the superior ones. In the case
of Germany, those groups that they judged inferior included the Jews,
Slavics, Negroes, and many other races. The frustration of enforcing the
policy prohibiting interbreeding eventually resulted in the
establishment of ghettos, then concentration camps, and finally the
"final solution" known as the holocaust.
The Watchtower Society, which claimed to be creationists at this
time, and taught that all humans descended from Adam and Eve--;making
all races brothers--would seem to eschew any eugenics thinking.
Creationists in general were then openly opposed to eugenics, and many
atheistic evolutionists were generally supportive. Yet, the fact that
the Watchtower delved into eugenics and at one time evidently supported
the movement is a striking commentary on both their scientific and
scriptural naivete.
For example, an article published in The Golden Age authored
by a Mr. MacArthur, the secretary of The American Eugenics Society, was
written at the Watchtower's request. The Watchtower expected that this
article would meet "with hearty approval by many of our
readers." It begins by noting that many social problems exist--;and
in spite of laudatory efforts to alleviate these, "we do not seem
to be making very marked progress." The solution, the author
concludes, is not because we are at the end of the system of things, an
answer one might expect from a Watchtower publication, but because
"modern science has put into our hands [the] means of preventing
much of this suffering. The study of human heredity reveals the
possibility of... eugenics, the science which deals with the conscious
direction of human existence" (1930:80). The author concludes that
we can take a lesson from domestic animals and the fact that "blood
tells." All we have to do is identify the "families cursed
with a hereditary of shiftlessness, lack of foresight, and indifference
to the rights of others" and then do something (such as forced
sterilization) to prevent these families from producing a "horde of
inferior human beings" (1930:80).
The author then cites the case of the Jukes family which allegedly
"cost the state of New York something over two million
dollars," because "nearly all of its representatives have been
drunkards, paupers, prostitutes, and criminals." Of course the
"Jukes family" myth was exposed years ago--and obviously the
eugenicist's enthusiasm for their program forced them to uncritically
accept studies which were produced by researchers who were somewhat
unabashedly endeavoring to find support for a theory that they already
made their minds up was correct. The way to achieve "a golden
age" the author recommends, was not Christ, but
"eugenics." The author recommends various methods "of
restricting less desirable human stocks" such as segregating them
in colonies and surgical sterilization, so that society can rebuild a
"kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy" by eugenics. A
reason that Rutherford may have embraced the author's ideas was because
he opposed the religious organizations that "believed that their
best men and women should remain celibate as part of devotion to
religious life," namely, the Roman Catholic Church. A 1931 article
agreed with almost the entire article, but "two or three
points" (Saddlemire, 1931:247).
Another Golden Age article (Nov. 12, 1930:116) noted with
approval the fact that fifteen states had passed laws providing for the
sterilization of feeble minded parents. They add that since the law was
passed in 1909 "5,820 men and women have been dealt with" in
California (p. 116). They conclude that "without doubt blood tells
in men, good blood and bad blood. There are families in which criminal
traits predominate, as there are others in which the traits of man's
original nobility are clearly discerned as surviving."
Other articles periodically appeared in The Golden Age on
eugenics--such as the one on Russia's allegedly spending $51-million to
"consider man from every angle, from genetics and eugenics through
education and all its branches to the adult functioning of the human
body" (The Golden Age, June 6, 1934:559). Many readers
likely were appalled at these eugenics discussions and some evidently
wrote protesting.
Admittedly they quote "the other side" such as an article
from The Britannica which stated that there is little "scientific
data... to establish on any firm basis our knowledge of the inheritance
of mental stability" (The Golden Age, Nov. 12, 1930:116). It
would seem that they should have taken this advice and been more
objective in their articles that concluded eugenics could create a
paradise on Earth. The Watchtower readers back then must have been more
intelligent, as well as more vocal than the readers today. In response
to this article, a Mr. West quoted Saddlemire who stated, "Surely
the eugenists would not want some of their fellow men to attempt to
deprive them of their own selves, of one of the inalienable rights that
God gave them" (The Golden Age, May 27, 1931:560). On the
other hand, even this critic concluded, "Eugenics would surely help
the race to more intelligently use the measure of life with which it is
endowed" adding that eugenics cannot solve all human problems, but
that "God has arranged for a kingdom on earth; and through it most
assuredly the ideals of eugenicists will be more than realized" (p.
561).
The Watchtower eventually openly backed down on their support for
eugenics--as they have had to over and over in so many areas (Shelton,
1931). One article first condemned doctors, then lambasted the
"misnamed 'science of eugenics'" on the basis that it was
based on medical science, which is demonism! (Golden Age, 1930.
Feb. 5, p. 311).
West... defends a part of the eugenics program on the ground of
necessity, the plea that has always served tyrants in abusing their
subjects and robbing them of their rights and liberties. He compares
enforced eugenics to the isolation of a case of so-called infectious
disease which we submit to, "not because we enjoy it, but for the
good of others." This is an apt comparison. We submit to
quarantine, not for the good of others, but because superstition,
brought down to us from remote antiquity, tells us that there are
contagious diseases that we can "catch" from another. We will
submit to compulsory eugenics for the same reason: because ignorance...
[that] leads us to believe that there are hereditary diseases (Shelton,
1931:727).
They later noted the work of Dr. Huskins who concluded that if all
the feeble minded persons were sterilized, this would decrease the
proportion of the feeble minded in the population by only 11% in the
first generation--and it would take many generations to decrease the
number by 20%, and we could never decrease the rate any more than 50%
"no matter what steps were taken" (1934:559).
By 1942 they had completely reversed their stand--partly because it
became clear that, determining who should be sterilized or prevented
from interbreeding was very difficult (Consolation, Oct. 28,
1942:12). They even admitted that the Nazi techniques were "very
much like the breeding and raising of of livestock" (p. 12) and
likely were appalled at this degradation of humans. When the Nazis began
to sterilize women who had every imaginable problem--even color
blindness--the Watchtower finally realized how anti-Biblical the
philosophy advocated by many eugenicists was. They then realized that
"demons, not men," pursued policies that they themselves once
approved of! (Consolation, Oct. 28, 1942:13). The Watchtower also
recognized how inconsistent even the German policy was--noting that the
Germans allowed the "master race" to become
"contaminated" with Polish blood in order to further the war
machine. Ironically, they again in 1951 discussed eugenics (Awake!,
Nov. 22, p. 21) partly reversing their stand--concluding that
"couples desiring to marry, with other obstacles cleared, are not
likely to let a few genes stand in the way." They concluded that
eugenicists do not have an infallible cure for human ills--and some of
their ideas are downright wrong.
Nonetheless, they did not stop dabbling into more new pseudoscience,
even concluding that if the first woman, Eve, remained perfect, and only
Adam sinned, "Adam could have fathered perfect children by a
sin-spoiled Eve." This astonishing conclusion, they concluded, was
"verified in the case of Jesus' perfect human birth from the
imperfect virgin Mary" (Awake!, Nov. 22, 1951 p. 24). They
then argued that this is true because males play a "more vital
role" in reproduction in spite of the fact that half of the
chromosomes are supplied by the female!
The basis for this wild generalization included several studies which
discuss the influence of the X and Y chromosome on various human traits,
such as the sex-linked traits. They then add the erroneous and
irresponsible conclusion that "not all of the parental genes affect
the offspring, but only the dominant ones." Since blue eyes are the
result of recessive genes, brown eyes of dominant genes, they are thus
implying that blue eyes are an imperfect trait, and brown eyes a perfect
one. In fact, most genes are incompletely dominant--and most traits are
determined by several genes, not by a simple pair of dominant or
recessive ones. Partial dominance is extremely common, and often
recessive genes are simply a non-working copy of a so-called dominant
gene.
They then add the erroneous idea that "perfect genes would
dominate imperfect specimens," erroneously concluding that if
Adam's genes were perfect and Eve's were imperfect, their child would be
perfect! While many cases exist that support the Watchtower's conclusion
that disease is caused by recessive genes, many are caused by various
combinations of dominant and recessive genes, and dominant genes alone
can cause disease, such as neurofibromatosis (the elephant man disease)
Williams syndrome, and Huntingtons chorea. The incredibly dangerous
nature of the foolishness advocated by the Watchtower is best
illustrated in the following quote:
Mr. West mentions so-called "syphilis." Why does he not
prove that there is such a disease? He simply accepts the existence of
the protean monster on faith.... We do well to bear in mind that among
the drugs, serums, vaccines, surgical operations, etc., of the medical
profession, there is nothing of value save an occasional surgical
procedure. Their whole so-called "science" grew out of
Egyptian black magic and has not lost its demonological character. By
their own admission, more deaths are caused by their practice every year
in this country than from any other cause. We shall be in a sad plight
when we place the welfare of the race in their hands.
Readers of The Golden Age know the unpleasant truth about the
clergy; they should also know the truth about the medical profession,
which sprang from the same demon-worshipping shamans (doctor-priests) as
did the "doctors of divinity." ... These readers know the
truth about the politicians, who also descended from the same line of
"children God" or "children of the Sun" as did the
priests and medicine men. Hippocrates was the grandson of Apollo, and...
medicine originated in demonology and spent its time until the last
century and a half trying to exorcise demons. During the past half
century it has tried to exorcise germs. Its methods are the same in both
efforts at exorcism, and instead on injuring the demon or the germ, the
injury is often to the patient (Shelton, 1931:727-728).
The use of primarily popular, non-scholarly references to write this
article, such as those published in Life and Pageant, are further
evidences of the naivete of Watchtower scholarship. It is truly amazing
that so many inept articles have been published in the Society's
literature, which, remember, are held as being quasi inspired "food
from the faithful and discreet slave, dispensed in due season" by
the faithful. This is not to say that evolutionists have not likewise
expounded foolish ideas, as persons who reject God might be expected to.
Those who accept the veracity of the Scriptures, though, and have a deep
knowledge of science will be spared many such embarrassing discussions
as contained in this Nov. 22, 1951 Awake!
The Watchtower scholars have neither much biblical history background
or theological sophistication, nor in-depth scientific knowledge, and
consequently they are guaranteed to make many extremely foolish and
outright dangerous statements -- as they have with vaccines, organ
transplants, and blood transfusions. Many commentators have argued that
the Watchtower's evil is more because they are ignorant than evil.
Nonetheless, the effect is the same. How appalling some of these ideas
are becomes fully apparent only when we look back at those articles that
are a decade or more old. Indeed, will not their stand on blood
transfusions be seen as more foolish (although far more tragic) in the
future than the effect of the articles discussed above?
References
Anonymous. 1930. "Sterilization of the Unfit." The
Golden Age, November 12, p. 116.
.... 1934. "Will Spend $51,000,000
Studying Man." The Golden Age, June 6, p. 559.
.... 1942. "Mass Production of Man
Power." Consolation, Oct. 28, p. 12.
.... 1952. "Do You Take These
Chromo- somes...?" Awake!, November 22, pp. 21-24.
Bergman, Jerry. 1994. Blood Transfusions; A History and Evaluation
of the Religious, Biblical, and Medical Objections. Clayton, CA:
Witness, Inc.
Huskins, C. Leonard. 1934. "Sterilization Overrated." The
Golden Age, June 6, p. 559.
MacArthur, K.C. 1930. "An Essay on Eugenics." The Golden
Age, Oct. 29, pp. 80-81.
Saddlemier, Paul. 1931. "Eugenics all Right Except." The
Golden Age, Jan. 7, pp. 247-248.
Shelton, Herbert. 1931. "Eugenics and Barbarism." The
Golden Age, Aug. 5, pp. 727-728.
West, A.J. 1931. "Once More Into the Breach--Eugenists," The
Golden Age, May 27, p. 560.
