Posted on 11/08/2007 5:36:03 PM PST by Mobile Vulgus
"Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind." --Albert Einstein
Secularists today love to frame the religion vs. science debate as one of "superstitions" against fact as if theistic truth, morality and the spiritual aspect of humanity is meaningless fluff not to intersect with the hard fact and incontestability of science. But, as I quoted Einstein, the patron saint of scienceists, there is a part of science that dangerously crosses over into religion's realm of morality even as secularists try to deny that fact. And here is a story that does, indeed, show scientists crossing over into the realm of evil to satisfy scientific curiosity. It is an evil not as bad as that of a Doctor Mengele to be sure, but one that rises to a level of evil that few would expect in today's modern age.
Imagine taking twin baby girls and purposefully splitting them up merely as an experiment to observe their lives as they grew up keeping them from knowing of the existence of each other? Would you find justified this dispassionate decision, this coldly scientific decision, to take away a lifetime of sisterhood just to satisfy a scientific curiosity? Apparently Doctor Peter Neubauer, an internationally renowned child psychiatrist, found no struggle with his conscience over such a scientific experiment because that is exactly what he did to identical twins, Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein, when they were infants. In 1968 Doctor Neubauer used the twin girls for a bizarre and immoral social experiment splitting them away from each other in order to observe how they would progress. They grew up neither knowing that they had an identical twin sister out there.
Nature versus nurture has been a nagging question for scientists for generations. Are we the result of our genes or of our environment goes the raging debate. Apparently, Doctor Neubauer decided to use the lives of these two girls to satisfy his curiosity over the ages old question. And evidently he knew what he was doing would be considered wrong because he ordered that the results of his study be locked in a Yale archive, not to be opened until 2066, long after all concerned should be deceased.
He didn't have the spine to own up to the consequences of his actions, obviously.
After 35 year apart, however, the girls found each other at long last. Of this inhuman experiment one of the girls, Elyse Schein, recently said, "Nature intended for us to be raised together, so I think it was a crime we were separated." Of what had occurred to them, her sister Paula said, "It was like something out of a movie, I broke down in tears."
We all know that the evil scientist who uses his intellectual gifts for evil instead of good is the trope of umpteen B grade horror and sci-fi movies but it isn't just fiction that has worried over the evil science can do. Einstein often worried over such evil as I relayed in the quote that started this piece. It is said that J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the creators of the first Atomic bomb, quoted the Hindi Bhagavad Gita upon seeing the power of the weapon he created: "I become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds." Over the decades, many scientists and inventors have found anguish rewarding them for their scientific experiments that led to weapons inventions, as well. Many say that Alfred Nobel's Peace Prize was his penance for having invented the destructive power of dynamite. The widow of the inventor of the Winchester rifle went mad and spent her enormous inheritance on séances and building and re-building her mansion in odd and unnecessary ways. It turns out that many highly intelligent, even brilliant, scientists have struggled with the fact that science can be used for evil just as easily as it can be used for good.
In the actions of Doctor Neubauer we have a man who gave away his humanity for the sake of a scientific experiment. And, while this particular experiment does not rise to the depths of depravity of Doctor Mengele, famed as the man who performed inhuman experiments in the name of science on live Nazi concentration camp victims, it shows the same sort of unconcern over the ideas of morality and care for their victims. It shows the same lack of human compassion and love that should guide the hand of science.
It shows an utter lack of morality.
But, in the end, that is the road down which science must lead us if it is treated as an end in and of itself. As a creed, as a moral guide, science is insufficient. Science cannot be a moral force for good because it has no provision for considering man "special" enough to safeguard his life, it has no aspect that can make man's existence sacrosanct. Science, as a singular goal, lacks any kind of morality that religion tries to promote. Science is, in fact, amoral. It is not necessarily anti-human, of course, but it has no special care for humanity at all -- neither good nor bad.
And that is just the problem. For, without a soul, science can be used as a justification for the actions of as many Mengeles and Neubauers as it can for Saulks and Madame Curies. Since it has no morality it can be used to justify any use of it despite how dismissive of human life or integrity it can be.
Naturally, religion has been perverted and used to justify any manner of torture and destruction quite unmindful of humanity. This we know. But, at its core, religion always held some group or another as sacrosanct and that is evidence of at least a basic moral code. Religion does not view humanity dispassionately to the point where his very existence is a meaningless cog in an experiment. Some moral system is intrinsic to religion no matter how uneven its observance.
Not so for science. And this is the very thing that Einstein feared when he uttered the quote that began this piece. The uncaring, inhumanity of science must be tempered with the soul of religion before man is reduced to nothing but a pointless collection of chemicals that needs no "rights" and whose existence is placed at the mercy of an ideology that makes of him a mere plaything.
This is a debate we desperately need in an era when science is on the verge of creating the destruction of humanity in new and undreamt of ways. But, we'd best not wait too long to have it, lest it become too late. It is certainly a discussion that neither the evil Doctor Mengle nor Doctor Peter Neubauer ever considered important enough to entertain. And humanity has been diminished as a result.
How does one explain the countless cases of people who believe in religion that have done equally or more horrible things? They just found some way to justify what they were doing and go around morality.
Interesting article. Thanks for posting.
bump
You need to ACTUALLY read the piece. It addresses your question near the end. I love it when people comment WITHOUT even reading the thing!
From what I understand of the situation, it was widely believed that twins would be better off raised separately, because it would allow each to develop as a unique person, instead of being constantly treated as half of a single entity, dressed alike, doing the same activities, etc. (I’m not agreeing, I’m just saying that’s what they thought.) Twins that were put up for adoption were routinely split up until, I believe, the late 1970s or so. These girls were most likely destined to be split up anyway.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
One really does not have to explain such people.
Just because some people violate the law that says "you are not to murder another citizen," or even the one that says "don't break into your neighbor's home and sexually assault his wife" doesn't mean there is something wrong with those laws. And there are few persons convicted of either of those crimes that will not insist to you that they are entirely innocent, law-abiding citizens.
People do not necessarily do the right thing just because they "believe" it's the right thing. Millions of people smoke cigarettes, overeat and abuse alcohol. Most of them will tell you they know they shouldn't be doing what they're doing. But they do it anyway.
How did this guy manage to separate the twins? Essential details lacking, story suspect.
Oh yes, he sounds like a world renowned scientist.
“Nature versus nurture has been a nagging question for scientists for generations. Are we the result of our genes or of our environment goes the raging debate.”
As if it were an all-or-nothing/apples vs oranges proposition.
Where did you get the "widely belived" thing from, Al Gore?
http://history1900s.about.com/od/auschwitz/a/mengeletwins.htm
I despise child abusers and molesters as the lowest form of life on Earth. Children are truly the greatest gift from God and we all need to protect them and care for them, not use them in pursuit of some Godless “scientific” experiment!
Sorry, but that’s the facts. There are loads of studies of twins separately adopted, going back at least to the 1930s, showing that it was common practice. The only innovation of this study was to start the study while they were still at the adoption agency. New York, incidentally, didn’t ban splitting twins until 1980.
There are evil people who cloak themselves with a religion, but that does not make them worthy of emulation. Judas was a disciple, but that does not make me distrust Jesus.
Hi there! First let’s get one thing out of the way. No one was ever burned as a witch in Salem. All those accused as Witches were hanged. The behavior of those who made the false accusations can be arguably called “not Christian.”
And the Inquisition? That was brought to you by the same hypocrites who brought you the sale of “Indulgences.”
The Nazis were particularly Anti Christian. Don’t take my word for it. If you search you can find Hitler’s rewritten bible. It takes out all those annoying references to Jews and puts the center of worship on the State where he believed it belonged.
We also have the Phelps family. Anyone who really believes they are Christians needs to pull their head out of their arse.
The Christians I see behaving horribly tend to be hypocrites and liars.
So what do you use to excuse your evil?
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