Arthur Ernest Wilder-Smith

Arthur Ernest Wilder-Smith (born December 22, 1915 in Reading , England, † September 14, 1995 in Bern ), better known as A. E. Wilder-Smith , was a British chemist , pharmacologist , drug expert and advocate of Christian creationism .

Wilder-Smith held various chairs at European and American universities and in the meantime worked as a general drug advisor for NATO . He is the author and co-author of more than 70 scientific publications and more than 20 books that have been translated into many languages ​​- some on creationist theses and Christian topics. In addition, he emerged through several public disputes and debates with evolutionary biologists, in which he defended his Christian-creationist point of view against the theory of evolution .

Life and Academic Work

Origin and school time

Wilder-Smith grew up in the country. His father came from a family of landowners and was a farmer, his mother was a qualified teacher from an engineering family. They had three daughters and two sons. The father was very hostile to the Anglican Church because of the compulsory tithing and rejected Christianity . The 15-year-old Arthur was with his younger brother Walter to miserable notes on the Grammar School ( High School sent) to a boarding school. He graduated with honors and was admitted to Oxford .

Study and first research work

In 1933 he began his studies of botany , zoology and chemistry at the University of Oxford and completed the first public examination with "Good" . During this time he met an English general who introduced him to the Christian faith. Soon afterwards he gave up his atheism and became a Christian, which shaped his further life very much. In 1936 he had to move to Reading University because he lacked financial means. In 1938 he became a doctoral student in physical-organic chemistry. During the Second World War , as part of his dissertation at the chemical company Imperial Chemical Industries , he researched new nitro compounds that were to be used for medical purposes, which resulted in over 40 patents worldwide and a number of scientific publications. Since Wilder-Smith conscientious objection to military service , a case was initiated against him. During the court hearing of the highest court in York , which was attended by more than a thousand people , he was acquitted on the basis of an unexpected testimony. For health reasons, Wilder-Smith had to break off his work with nitro compounds and worked in cancer research at the University of London until 1946, where he became a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry .

Social work in Germany

Wilder-Smith was involved in Christian social work with German prisoners of war in England, whereupon he received a request from the British Department for Religious Affairs to work on reconciliation projects between Germans and the victorious powers. From 1946 onwards he had numerous stays in Switzerland and Germany, gave lectures at German universities and conducted research in the chemical industry at the same time.

family

Wilder-Smith married Beate (née Gottwaldt) in 1950, the daughter of a German pastor whom he had met in Germany. The marriage produced three sons and one daughter, all of whom became physicians .

University career

From 1956 he lived in Geneva and worked at the École de Médecine , where he received his doctorate for the second time in 1964 . In the same year he obtained a further doctorate in natural sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich with a thesis in the field of chemotherapy . In the following years he was visiting professor at the University of Bergen (Norway), at the University of Illinois in Chicago (USA) and for two more years professor of pharmacology in Ankara (Turkey).

NATO drug advisor

Rapidly growing drug abuse among NATO forces prompted senior officers to hire Wilder-Smith as drug experts. He worked from 1970 to 1977 in the rank of three-star general of NATO in Europe, developing anti-drug programs for the military and giving lectures in which he demonstrated the effects of drugs.

Lecture tours

Wilder-Smith became known in the following years for his seminars, interviews, publications and films, which were broadcast in various countries. By 1990 he made over 20 lecture tours around the world.

Publications

Wilder-Smith published a total of 45 of his own scientific publications and wrote 23 books in German and English. Like many books, his ORIGIN films have been translated into several languages.

Some passages from his apologetic books are critically examined in Reading Christian Books .

End of life

In 1991 Wilder-Smith had to undergo his first brain operation in Bern. It was successful and he was able to resume lecturing. In 1994 a second brain operation was necessary. His health deteriorated. He died in Bern the following year.

Evolutionary criticism

Wilder-Smith is known, among other things, for his publications against the theory of evolution. In his books he covered both theoretical and experimental problems of Neo-Darwinism and formulated objections. He also considered spontaneous abiogenesis after the Miller experiment on the origin of life to be impossible for several reasons:

• According to the law of mass action , the synthesis of polypeptides from amino acids does not go forward, since the resulting water maintains the equilibrium on the side of the starting materials. That is why he considered spontaneous biogenesis in large amounts of water, especially in the primordial ocean, as it was in many textbooks, to be not only improbable, but impossible.
• Furthermore, Wilder-Smith saw the emergence of the racemate mixture because of the stochastic chemistry in the synthesis of amino acids as a significant obstacle in the biogenesis according to Miller . The equimolar content of left-handed and right-handed amino acids (see chirality ) is of no use for the composition of living protoplasm , since only L-amino acids form proteins for life and racemates are not suitable and are often toxic. In Pasteur's work on spontaneous biogenesis, Wilder-Smith saw confirmation of his considerations in the experimental field.

John Maynard Smith

From the end of 1982 to the end of 1983, Wilder-Smith held a dispute with the German geneticist Carsten Bresch in the magazine AGEMUS-Rundbrief on the subject of "creation and / or evolution". 1986 Wilder-Smith debated together with the creationist and physicist Edgar Andrews against the biologists Richard Dawkins and John Maynard Smith as part of the Huxley Memorial Debate on the problem of biogenesis and took up the old topic of the debate by Samuel Wilberforce and Thomas Henry Huxley from the year 1860 (see Huxley-Wilberforce debate ) again.

bibliography

dissertation writing

• 1964: Preparation de quelques nouveaux derivés d'oxadiazolone et etude de leur activité anti-mycobacterienne . Juris-Verlag, Zurich 1964 (dissertation at the University of Geneva).

English language fonts

• Urinary elimination of synthetic oestrogens and stilboestrol glucuronide in animals. In: Biochem J . 1948; 42 (2), pp. 253-257.
• The isolation and properties of the monoglucuronides of stilboestrol, hexoestrol and dienoestrol. In: Biochem J. 1948; 42 (2), pp. 258-260.
• Preparation of some new 4-substituted derivatives of p-amino-o-hydroxyphenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazolone-5 and study of their mycobacteriostatic activity. VII. In: drug research . 1967 Jun; 17 (6), pp. 768-772.
• Some tuberculostatic 1,3,4-oxadiazolones (-5) and 1,3,4-oxadiazolthiones (-5). II: Biological spectrum in vitro and activity in vivo in relation to resistance emergence. In: drug research. 1962 Mar; 12, pp. 275-280.
• The excretion of synthetic estrogens as ethereal sulphates and monoglucuronides in the rabbit and in man. In: Biochem J. 1949; 44 (3), pp. 366-368.
• The Action of Phosgene on Acid Hydrazides to Give 1,3,4-Oxdiazolones of Interest in the Treatment of Tuberculosis. In: Science . Volume 119, Issue 3094, p. 514.
• Metabolism of Synthetic Estrogens in Man. In: Nature . 160, (6 December 1947), pp. 787-787.
• MB Sahasrabudhe, AE Wilder Smith (1947) The determination of dienoestrol. In: Biochem J. 41 (2), pp. 190-192.
• THE INSTABILITY OF OESTROGENS IN SOLUTION. In: J Endocrinol. January 1, 1946 5, pp. 152-157.
• Preliminary screening of some new oxadiazol-2-ols with special reference to their antipyretic, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory properties. V. In: drug research. 1963 Apr; 13, pp. 338-341.
• with E. Frommel and RW Morris: Effect of Local Anesthetics on Barbiturate Sleeping Time. In: Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology . 11 (1959), pp. 600-606.
• with Hans Brodhage: Biological Spectrum of Some New Tuberculostatic 1,3,4-Oxadiazolones with Special Reference to Cross-Resistance and Rates of Emergence of Resistance. In: Nature. 192, 23 December 1961, p. 1195.

German publications

• The creation of life. Evolution from a cybernetic point of view . 1972, ISBN 3-7751-0077-6 (English: The Creation of Life .).
• Origin and future of man. A critical overview of the scientific and spiritual principles underlying Darwinism and Christianity . 1972, ISBN 3-7751-0070-9 (Original title: Man's Origin / Man's Destiny .).
• Cause and treatment of the drug epidemic . Hänssler, Neuhausen (Stuttgart) 1974, ISBN 3-7751-0139-X (Original title: The Causes and Cure of the Drug Epidemic .).
• Does the Christian take up arms? 1978, ISBN 3-87739-516-3 .
• The resignation of scientific materialism . 1979, ISBN 3-7751-0201-9 .
• Whoever thinks must believe . 1980, ISBN 3-7751-0519-0 (Original title: He Who Thinks Has To Believe .).
• The natural sciences know no evolution, experimental and theoretical objections to the theory of evolution . 1981, ISBN 3-7965-0759-X (Original title: The Natural Sciences Know Nothing of Evolution .).
• AGEMUS , Rundbriefe 4/1982 to 4/1983: Dispute between Carsten Bresch and Arthur Ernest Wilder-Smith on the subject of "Creation and / or Evolution"
• Evolution in cross-examination . 1983, ISBN 3-7751-0577-8 .
• AIDS - secret facts . 2nd Edition. Schwengeler Verlag, Berneck 1988, ISBN 3-85666-730-X .
• Why does God allow it? 1990, ISBN 3-7751-0115-2 ( clv-server.de [PDF] Original title: Why Does God Allow It? 12. Paperback edition 2002).
• Is that a god of love? 1991, ISBN 3-7751-0076-8 (Original title: Is This a God of Love? ).

swell

1. ↑ AE Wilder-Smith: It was a rich life. Hänssler Verlag, p. 116.
2. ^ Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer : Read Christian books critically. A textbook and workbook for training your own judgment based on excerpts from conservative Protestant non-fiction books . Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft, Bonn 2008, ISBN 978-3-938116-59-3 (About Wilder-Smith, pp. 25–32, 51–54, 59, 62).
3. ↑ AE Wilder-Smith: The sciences know no evolution. 5th edition. Verlag Schwabe, 1985, p. 24.
4. ↑ AE Wilder-Smith: The sciences know no evolution. 5th edition. Verlag Schwabe, 1985, p. 27.
5. ↑ AE Wilder-Smith: The sciences know no evolution. 5th edition. Verlag Schwabe, 1985, p. 8.
6. ↑ Carsten Bresch , Arthur Ernest Wilder-Smith: Creation and / or Evolution. In: AGEMUS . Issues 04/1982 to 04/1983, Freiburg im Breisgau.
7. ↑ Beate Wilder-Smith, AE Wilder-Smith: Fulfilled Journey - the Wilder-Smith memoirs. Word for Today Pub., 1998, ISBN 0-936728-75-2 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Arthur Ernest Wilder-Smith in the catalog of the German National Library
• Lectures and books by Arthur Ernest Wilder-Smith to download, listen to and read