By Emmett Smith

An article titled, "The science of evil", in Thursday's Baltimore Sun presented an interesting history of the "science" of eugenics. The article was written to coincide with the opening of an exhibit at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. This discussion of eugenics, "raises frightening issues", and, "The essential question is the same now as it was then: How will the science be used?", according to author Michael Ollove.

The exhibit examines the coining of the term eugenics by Sir Francis Galton in 19^th-century Britain. Galton was Charles Darwin's cousin, and undoubtedly embraced Darwin's racial theories. Most people these days are probably unaware that the title to Darwin's original printing was The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection — or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Actually, there was great excitement among the so-called "favoured races" during those early years of Darwinism.

Many prominent eugenicists lobbied for various government actions dictated by eugenics. Forced sterilization laws had been on the books of some U.S. states as early as 1907 (35 states had such laws by 1933), and were enforced into the 1970s. "Racial hygienists" proposed their theories about which cranial characteristics and skin colors represented the human ideal. The Nazis' policies were modeled on eugenics. Infanticide and euthanasia were intermediate steps leading to the infamous "final solution". And it should be lost on none of us that these policies were merely the logical end product of eugenics.

The article warns that the history of eugenics should inform the current discussions of genetic advancements and increasing medical costs. I would add that the current debates about abortion, cloning and stem cell research should also be so informed.

That eugenics is demonstrably false from a Biblical perspective is easy to establish. Paul told the learned crowd at Mar's Hill that God ".. hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;" (Acts 17:26). The KJV rendering of "one blood" simply reinforces the medical fact that, so long as the types are compatible, any of us could receive a transfusion from anyone of any "race".

Actually, a few unfortunately eugenics-tainted translations notwithstanding, the concept of race is not Biblical. The Bible is clear that all humankind sprang from one original pair, named Adam and Eve. Further, today's humanity all came from those "eight souls" who were "saved by water" (1 Peter 3:20). It's bad enough that so many non-Christians were taken in by Darwin's fraud. What's even worse are all the "Christians" who abdicated their belief in scripture because of perceived conflicts with "science"!

True science and scripture always agree. Science literally means knowledge.

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction." (Proverbs 1:7)