The Tyranny of ‘Science’ Falsely So Called

“A lot of what you’re seeing as attacks on me, quite frankly, are attacks on science.” That is Dr. Anthony Fauci’s description of Dr. Anthony Fauci, from a June interview. “Because all of the things that I have spoken about, consistently from the very beginning, have been fundamentally based on science. … [I]f you are trying to, you know, get at me as a public health official and a scientist, you’re really attacking not only Dr. Anthony Fauci, you’re attacking science.”

Anthony Fauci is an alumnus of the College of the Holy Cross and a doctor of Cornell University Medical College. He has received 50 honorary doctorates from universities in the United States and other countries. According to a government website, he is the 132nd most-cited author of 992,000 authors in general and internal medicine, the 32nd most-cited living researcher, the 20th most-cited author of 2.4 million in the field of research and experimental medicine, the ninth most-cited author out of 2.5 million immunologists, a presenter of major lectures around the globe, and a recipient of the National Medal of Science, the George M. Kober Medal, the Mary Woodard Lasker Award, the Albany Medical Center Prize, the Robert Koch Gold Medal, the Prince Mahidol Award, the Canada Gairdner Global Health Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor awarded by the U.S. government. He is also the highest paid of all the government’s 2 million-plus employees.

By all these measures, Dr. Anthony Fauci is a success. This is why he has come to the forefront of the government in its response to the covid-19 outbreak. And apparently, this is why he equates the field of scientific study to himself.

Yet well-paid, award-winning, extensively cited, doctor-times-50 Anthony Fauci is also the man who initially helped fund the lab where covid-19 likely originated, then opposed the lab-leak theory; who initially said the outbreak would likely remain minor, then promoted “15 days to slow the spread,” and later advocated unprecedented lockdowns for more than a year. He is the man who initially advised that masks were unnecessary, then claimed that he had been misleading people so that they would leave enough masks for health-care workers, and still later said that the effectiveness of double masks was “common sense.” He is the man now telling the world that he has spoken “consistently from the very beginning,” and has, at the same time, “evolved” his advice.

Some people advance through the educational, medical, political or other systems of our societies and become what we consider elite, wise, high-minded. Yet this does not immunize them from being wrong.

The Apostle Paul wrote this about some people in his day: “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22). Look at the elites in the news today. Don’t these words apply to them?

Trusting Experts

The scientific community is probably the second-most-trusted institution in America, after the U.S. military. Only 20 percent of Americans say they trust the government, but 44 percent say they have a great deal of confidence in the scientific community.

Faith in scientific experts has remained steady for the past 50 years—even after the drastic Fauci-recommended, government-enforced, covid-19 lockdown measures. A survey of more than 20,000 Americans conducted by Prof. David Lazer found that both Democrats and Republicans trusted scientists and doctors to handle the covid-19 pandemic more than any other individual or institution, including state governments and the federal government.

This faith has remained despite repeated misjudgments by scientists and public health experts over the past two years that have demonstrated that they do not really know how to deal with this pandemic. Claiming their decisions were “backed by science,” health experts have recommended a labyrinth of contradictory rules and insisted on phenomenally oppressive measures that have shuttered businesses, devastated education, upended millions of lives, and created far more grievous problems than they have solved.

This is to say nothing of the fact that scientists, including Dr. Fauci himself, almost certainly caused the pandemic.

One of Dr. Fauci’s many articles was published in 2012 by the American Society for Microbiology. There he explicitly wrote that “gain of function” research on bat coronaviruses was worth the risk of a pandemic if it increases our knowledge of diseases. The government nevertheless banned “gain of function” research only two years later. But Dr. Fauci and his colleagues at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases found a loophole. They now admit to U.S. lawmakers that, under Fauci’s guidance, the National Institute of Health earmarked $600,000 for the Wuhan Institute of Virology and funneled it to the Chinese lab through the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance. This money was used to study whether bat coronaviruses could be transmitted to humans. Now even leftists who recently scoffed at the lab leak as a conspiracy theory admit it is likely a fact.

If it is true that covid-19 originated in a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, then Dr. Fauci may have directly contributed to the development of the covid-19 pandemic by funding this research.

Yet for many, their devotion is unshaken. Mask mandates, social-distancing measures, school closures, business lockdowns: Millions have submitted to and been subjected to these acts of “faith in Fauci.” Americans have taken on $6 trillion more in debt and sacrificed their economy before a priesthood of scientific experts for salvation from a pandemic that those experts likely caused!

Consequences

There is no evidence that covid-19 is substantially more contagious or deadly than a normal flu, which infects some 9 to 45 million Americans each year. There is no evidence that wearing a paper or cloth mask stops the spread of a 20-nanometer coronavirus particle. But scientists, flanked by leftist politicians and progressive media, pushed these drastic, catastrophic interventions with stunning self-assurance, quashing any dissenting concerns about the broader consequences.

Those broader consequences were colossal. In addition to the financial and economic disruptions, and the physical and mental health problems caused by compulsory social isolation, these lockdowns helped politicians push last-minute changes to mail-in ballot rules that helped throw the 2020 presidential election into chaos.

Is it a coincidence that the dire predictions pushed by scientific experts have had major political ramifications? Is it a coincidence that the solutions demanded by the press and the political left are massive socialistic interventions? Or is it more reasonable to think that the scientific community is just as fallible—even biased and politically motivated—as every other government institution?

Consider the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recent series of mixed messages about who should wear face masks. In early 2021, as more people were vaccinated, many wondered when mask mandates would be lifted. If the vaccine was as effective as the experts claimed, why wear the mask? In May, the cdc revised its guidelines, prompting Joe Biden to announce, “If you are fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask.” Just two months later, however, the science again changed. In July, the cdc discovered that vaccinated individuals could still contract, carry and spread covid-19. Back to the masks! Are you following the science?

Anthony Fauci defended the cdc, saying they weren’t flip-flopping. “They’re dealing with new information that the science is providing,” he said. But on the day that the cdc reversed its mask-wearing guidance, they did not publish any new research. Even the Washington Post asked, “Where’s the data?”

After the cdc’s flip-flop, a reporter called out Joe Biden: “You said if you were fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask.” Biden’s response: “I didn’t say that.”

Even when the experts are plainly wrong, they’re still right! To criticize them is to attack science—and truth.

And the same week that the new cdc guidance came out—effectively showing that vaccines do not prevent people from contracting and spreading coronavirus—Joe Biden announced strict new measures cracking down on all unvaccinated federal workers. The contradictions are head-spinning.

This pandemic is a massive and painful case study proving that Americans’ faith in the scientific community is misplaced.

In reality, science stands exposed as a false messiah.

An Exact Description

The Bible describes our situation perfectly. It prophesies of the society that would exist “in the last days.” It says that among those who are “lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers” and even “traitors,” there are those who are “highminded” (2 Timothy 3:1-4). These verses apply to the “perilous times” of our generation. This perfectly describes many of the educated elites behind the covid-19 pandemic.

God also inspired Paul to write this insightful admonition to his assistant: “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith” (1 Timothy 6:20-21).

Science falsely so called!

The New King James Version translates verse 20, “avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.” The Greek word for “science” in this verse is gnosis, which means knowledge.

True science is true knowledge. Our Creator intends us to receive true education, engage in true scientific study, and acquire true knowledge about the creation around us. But there is such a thing as science falsely so called. In fact, science falsely so called dominates our society. And in recent months, it is increasingly turning into a tyranny!

Why is this?

In these “last days” of human civilization, scientists so called assume the nonexistence of the Creator. They are almost all taught and trained to reject revelation from God and God’s Word and to deny God’s existence. This rejection of God is the very foundation of human knowledge production.

Scientists scorn the idea that creation came from a Creator and are thus compelled to devise explanations for how creation came about on its own. Ignoring and suppressing all evidence to the contrary, they accept as absolute fact the alternative faith of godless evolution. Unable to support that theory with any of the proof they insist on in all other scientific inquiry, they contradict their own standards and the foundation for true science. Nevertheless, they thereby anoint themselves—along with their high-minded observations and reasonings—as the highest authority in the universe!

This is why science and academia are so prone to, as the New Living Translation renders it in verse 20, “godless, foolish discussions.” Scientists and other experts have knowledge, but much of it is false knowledge. It is filled with authoritative pronouncements that conflict with other statements of irrefutable fact. We are floating in a flood of information that is truth mixed with error, good mixed with evil.

The Traditions of Men

Read what the Bible says about knowledge and so-called experts, and ask yourself if it doesn’t perfectly describe the intellectual arrogance motivating the authoritarian scientific regime increasingly dominating our society.

Paul wrote that those who reject God’s truth are conceited, ignorant and passionate for controversy and argument, which leads to envy, dissension, insults and insinuations (1 Timothy 6:3-4). He decried “[p]erverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness”—and concludes with the sage counsel: “from such withdraw thyself” (verse 5).

During Jesus Christ’s day, the governing elites were knowledgeable, highly acclaimed, wealthy and powerful. They even believed in God and devoted much of their lives to their religion. They excelled within that system. They gained status, respect and much more. Yet religious as they were, they were steeped in intellectual vanity. They and others supposed they were godly—yet when they encountered knowledge from the very Son of God, they wanted to destroy it and destroy Him!

In Mark 7:7-9, Christ said, “Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men …. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.”

In Matthew 11:24, Christ gave this shocking warning: “[I]t shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.” My father quoted this remarkable passage in “The Fatal Flaw in Modern Science” and wrote, “Intellectual vanity is more dangerous than the sexual sins of Sodom!” (Trumpet, January 2018).

In verse 25, Jesus thanked God the Father for hiding the truth from the elites and revealing it to the lowly.

These people were not Satan worshipers, as we usually think of the term, yet Jesus Christ told them to their faces, “Ye are of your father the devil …. He … abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him …” (John 8:44). What a revealing statement! The devil doesn’t just inspire “satanic” people—he influences everyone (see 2 Corinthians 4:4 and Revelation 12:9).

For someone who has excelled in the tradition of men, who holds 50 honorary degrees, it is easy to assume that he is like a god. That is how he can say, I am science! I am the truth! while he deceives people who face a society-wide life-and-death situation.

This is deeply ingrained in human nature. Paul encountered it in Athens among the intellectuals of Greece: “[A]ll the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing” (Acts 17:21). These thinkers devoted their lives to gaining new knowledge. They were amazed by the human mind, but they worshiped it rather than worshiping God and building God’s character. As Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in “The Modern Athenians in Today’s Universities,” our educational system worships the human mind!

Our system of education is founded on this belief. It exalts knowledge and science falsely so called. It worships it as if it were a messiah! This is why, despite producing amazing advancements, it has also propagated egregious evils. Being smart and being good are two different things. Many very intelligent people have done very evil things!

How deep does this fatal flaw go?

The Origin of the Scientific Method

Genesis 3 records Satan the devil subtly reasoning with the first woman ever created. The ultimate choice Adam and Eve had to make was this: Whom would they believe? God gave them the choice to believe Him and obey Him. Satan gave them the choice to reject God, promising, “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (verse 5).

That is an appeal to the human mind and intellect. It is an appeal to disbelieve and disobey the God who created that mind and intellect. It is an appeal to decide good and evil for yourself, to experiment as you see fit, to set your own boundaries.

Verse 6 says, “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”

“They pioneered in deciding for themselves what is right and what is wrong—what is righteousness and what is sin!” Mr. Armstrong wrote in The Missing Dimension in Sex. “And humanity has been doing what seems right in its own eyes ever since. And how did they do it? They 1) rejected revelation, 2) used observation, 3) used experimentation and 4) used human reason. And that is precisely the ‘scientific’ method used by modern science today!”

The false “scientific method” started with the first human beings! They rejected revelation from God and relied instead on their own five senses and human minds. This marked the foundation of the world as we know it! Human beings have continued to build civilization by rejecting God’s revealed truth and relying on observation, experimentation and human reasoning. And what we have constructed is increasingly unstable—and ready to collapse!

What a powerful insight from the Bible. God is not the only spirit being out there. The same spirit being that gave Adam and Eve false education is still educating people today. That is why our society is the way it is!

Philosophy and Pride

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Colossians 2:8). Philosophy means “love of wisdom,” but this field is just as fallible, flawed and self-contradictory as science and education.

“Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men …” (1 Corinthians 3:18-21). This is wisdom so called, that is, “the wisdom of this world” (e.g. 1 Corinthians 2:6).

Our carnal human minds naturally resist believing, honoring and obeying God. “For although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened” (Romans 1:21; Revised Standard Version). Human beings can think deeply, but if we don’t repent humbly toward God, we worship the self and consider the self the final authority. All our thinking, wisdom and expert opinions based on that is ultimately futile.

Scholars in science and other fields pride themselves on pursuing knowledge. What always bubbles to the surface is pride. Intellectual vanity breeds pride in our trifling accomplishments, contempt for God, and other evils.

Verse 22 states: “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” The Bible repeatedly warns against trusting our own reasoning. Proverbs 28:26 says, “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.” The Prophet Isaiah wrote, “Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!” (Isaiah 5:21).

“God is emphatically not opposed to knowledge and understanding,” Mr. Armstrong wrote in 1978. “But modern ‘scholarship’ speaks a language all its own. … It is not only a manner of speaking and writing. It is a way of thinking—an attitude. And I will say bluntly it is injected by Satan. It is a form of intellectual vanity! … [O]nce a ‘scholar’ he will seldom change his mind. He is right—he knows he is right—others are wrong—his intellectual vanity will not let him admit error.”

An honest mind that is free from Satan’s self-glorifying influence recognizes the obvious, inescapable truth that we were made by a Creator, that we are fallible, and that we need education from Him.

“Today the truth appears as mere foolishness to the highly educated in this world!” Mr. Armstrong wrote in a Nov. 29, 1946, co-worker letter. “None but the fool says ‘there is no God.’ Yet surveys show most college graduates say it—educated fools!”

God Chooses the ‘Foolish’

In this same letter, Mr. Armstrong announced that he was establishing a college to support the work of the Church, later writing, “God showed me the time has come to establish an educational institution based on truth, on God’s revelation of truth, supplemented with those facts of natural and exact sciences which man has been able, himself, to discover—and all based on, and explained by, and in harmony with, the Bible.”

God’s truth is a “mystery” and “hidden wisdom” to the natural human mind that has chosen to reject revelation from God (1 Corinthians 2:7), which, sadly, almost every human mind has done since the very first humans. But actual understanding, true education, the wisdom of God is open to those who believe and obey their Creator!

“[T]he foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25). Intellectuals find God’s revelation—of what human beings are, the laws of cause and effect, our purpose—to be foolishness. Then they dedicate their lives to intellectually dishonest pursuits like pridefully pressuring others into believing there is no God!

“For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called” (verse 26). God has not called into His Church many professors, lawyers, judges, politicians or elites. That is because most of the “wise” turn away from God rather than repenting of their own vanity.

“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are” (verses 27-28). God calls the lowly of the lowly. Then it is up to each person to yield his mind and his life to God and His truth.

“The Almighty God is not impressed by the mighty of this world,” my father writes. “Until they bring God into their lives, they amount to nothing. Their talents and riches are chaff. Should God’s servants be impressed with and awed by very talented people? If we don’t evaluate with God’s mind and with the depth of His thinking, it is easy to become too impressed with things that truly do not matter. God wants people who are rich in faith” (The Epistle of James).

An honest, humble, open, firm pursuit of the truth leads you straight to the Creator! It leads you straight into His Word. And it leads you straight into a time for choosing. Will you too cling to your own so-called right to choose what is good and what is evil for yourself? That is what human beings, including the experts, have been doing from the beginning. Only a few surrender to God and let Him give them a true education. Will you?