In a previous article I shared the wonderful contributions of creationists to medicine. In fact, some of the greatest advances in medicine have come from those who love the Lord! In many cases they were even trying to disprove evolution (or its predecessor, Aristotelian “spontaneous generation”).
I think because evolution is the prevailing theory of origins, and it seems that medicine has advanced in leaps and bounds over the last century, that many believe the knowledge of evolutionary principles has led to those advances. But that just isn’t true. Many of the greatest discoveries have happened IN SPITE of Darwinian evolution, or because scientists used elements of creationism/intelligent design in their work — that is, they looked at the world with the view that there was an intelligent design in nature. For example, as they studied the cell, they realized each one was like a factory with a complex design that could be studied.
One example of a person who doubted the contribution of evolution to medicine would be Ernst Chain, who was awarded the 1945 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. He was the scientist who identified the structure of penicillin and isolated the active substance. He is considered to be one of the founders in the field of antibiotics. Concerning Darwin’s theory of evolution, Chain found it to be “a very feeble attempt” to explain the origin of species based on assumptions so flimsy that “it can hardly be called a theory.” (1) He saw the reliance on chance mutations as a “hypothesis based on no evidence and irreconcilable with the facts.” (2) He wrote:
“These classic evolutionary theories are a gross oversimplification of an immensely complex and intricate mass of facts, and it amazes me that they were swallowed so uncritically and readily, and for such a long time, by so many scientists without a murmur of protest.” (2)
Chain concluded that he “would rather believe in fairies than in such wild speculation” as Darwinism. (1) In 1938, Chain came across Alexander Fleming’s 1929 paper on penicillin, and showed it to his colleague Howard Florey. In their research, Chain isolated and purified penicillin. (3)
Philip S. Skell, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, also affirmed the lack of contributions to medicine from Darwinism when he wrote in the August 29, 2005, edition of The Scientist :
1. Clark, R.W. 1985. The Life of Ernst Chain: Penicillin and Beyond. New York: St. Martin’s Press, p. 147.
2. Chain, E. 1970. Social Responsibility and the Scientist in Modern Western Society (Robert Waley Cohen memorial lecture). London: The Council of Christians and Jews, p. 25.
–Philip S. Skell. August 29, 2005. “Why Do We Invoke Darwin?” The Scientist, Vol. 19, No. 16, p. 10.
Finally, Sean B. Carroll, of the Medical Institute and Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, wrote in a 2001 edition of Nature:
– Sean B. Carroll. 8 February 2001. Nature, Vol. 409, p. 669.
It seems to me that the pursuit of truth is what all of us (creationists and evolutionists) should be searching for. If truth (based on the evidence) can be found in the claims of science, then so be it, but if the evidence matches up with the claims of a religion, perhaps that religion may be the TRUTH.
As I look at history, I see many scientific claims that have been completely discredited: scientific racism/polygenism, spontaneous generation, Piltdown Man, Nebraska Man, phrenology, the flat earth, eugenics, the baby in the womb is a blob, the geocentric view of the solar system, Pluto(?), oatmeal is good, oatmeal is bad, and on and on . . .
I also see that Christianity has stood the test of time. It countered scientific racism/polygenism (Acts 17:25). It inspired the greatest scientists such as Newton, Bacon, Boyle, Galileo, etc . . . It inspired many in the medical field, such as Pasteur and Lister. Its followers would discredit hoaxes such as Piltdown Man and Nebraska Man. Believers oppose abortion and would never encourage eugenic experiments on anybody because Jesus told us to love one another.
Evolution is false belief, and if we were to be honest, its greatest contribution to the world of medicine would be eugenics, the quest to improve the overall genetic make-up of the human race. Eugenicists selectively bred biologically “superior” people and forcibly eliminated genetic defects by sterilizing, aborting, or euthanizing “inferior” people. (C) Eugenics was developed by Francis Galton, the cousin of Charles Darwin. He studied and tried to implement evolutionary theory. Of course, while popular at the time, and taught at universities such as Harvard, eugenics was most famously implemented by Hitler and the Nazi regime.