The Russian Academy of Sciences reacted harshly to the speech of the director of the Institute of General Genetics, Alexander Kudryavtsev, who said that ancient people lived 900 years and that sins were the cause of mutations. Russian media publishes the findings of the RAS Commission for Combating Pseudoscience, the RAS Biological Sciences Division Office, and the Vavilov Society of RAS Geneticists and Breeders.
In March, at the scientific and theological conference “God – Man – World”, organized by the Minsk and Sretensky Theological Academies, Kudryavtsev gave a report in which he shared his ideas on the structure of the world. In particular, he said that in the past, people’s life expectancy reached 900 years. Kudryavtsev referred to a painting that “can often be found on the Internet”, adding that he “constructed it himself”.
Moreover, according to the scientist, the cause of the mutations that cause the genetic diseases of modern man are sins – “original and personal”. He said that the Universe, created by God in the process of creation, fell into “corruption” due to the fall of people, due to which mutations occur in people.
“These are the mutations that geneticists are discovering every day when working with patients…Atheist scientists will tell you that in fact, it’s radiation, it’s pollution, it’s all mutagenic effects. But nevertheless, my personal belief that such destruction is nevertheless initiated by original sin, it is aggravated by ancestral sin, well, personal too,” Kudryavtsev noted.
Anton Novoderezhkin / TASS
The words of genetics have generated a lot of discussion in the scientific community and in the media. They have also been noticed by the RAS Commission for Combating Pseudoscience under the RAS Presidium, which in recent years has made a number of high-profile statements and also published memoranda on pseudoscientific practices such as homeopathy and dermatoglyphs. The commission’s statement was supported by 23 of its members, there were no votes against. In December, the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences decided that the documents adopted by the Commission must now be approved by the Expert Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This approval has been received and the document has been made available to Russian media.
In the press release, the members of the commission, based on scientific facts, recall that the thesis of the director of the institute on the decline in people’s life expectancy is not true.
“In fact, human life expectancy is increasing, both in evolutionary terms and in light of scientific and technological progress. The maximum life expectancy of the closest human relatives – chimpanzees and bonobos – does not exceed 50 years, while the record for human life expectancy is around 120 years, the members of the commission remind. — The average human life expectancy over the past 70 years has increased by 26 years. Even denying the theory of evolution will not save us from the latest empirical fact: we are witnessing progress, not regression. Longer life expectancy is the most important sign of progress.
Members of the commission also criticized the version of “the creation of the world” that Kudryavtsev adheres to. They reminded that mankind did not come from the first two people – Adam and Eve, and that diseases, bacteria and viruses that can cause them existed in the world long before the appearance of man, and hence the so-called “fall”.
“Even five thousand generations ago, the strength, that is to say the reproductive size of the human population, was thousands of individuals. It follows that there was no such creator who would have created the first man by circumventing the mechanisms of biological evolution,” the statement read.
Image from the video “Minsk Theological Academy” / YouTube
According to scientists, Kudryavtsev takes as a fact the reduction in life expectancy, the absence of which is well known to science, and uses mechanisms to explain it, which also do not exist in the form described.
“It is surprising that these two elements cannot be unknown to a person even with school knowledge of biology and genetics … Now we see that in the specialized biological institute named after NI Vavilov, the director was a man who refers to images from an anti-science school textbook written by a creationist, literally interprets the Bible and confuses himself with modern ideas about the causes of mutations,” the statement read.
The Office of the Division of Biological Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences also issued a statement regarding Kudryavtsev’s speech. In it, the scientists noted that Kudryavtsev’s position reflects his private opinion and in no way reflects the position of the OBN RAS or the scientific community in general. “The Office of the Obn.
The Vavilov Society of Geneticists and Breeders of the Russian Academy of Sciences, of which Kudryavtsev is a member of the Presidium, also gave its opinion. In it, the scientists noted that Kudryavtsev made fundamental errors, including a presentation of conflicting scientific data on human evolution and the causes of mutations.
“The mixing of scientific knowledge in genetics with religious dogma cannot be taken as the private opinion of the author, but is inevitably interpreted as the official position of the scientific community, as long as the author, by virtue of his positions , determines the direction of the search. in the field of genetics in Russia … Such a position and its propaganda damage the prestige of genetics, VOGS should dissociate itself from this concept, ”the document states.
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