The Watchtower's Half-Century Crusade Against the Germ Theory

The Reasons for Opposition to the Germ Theory

Notice the arguments the Watchtower uses to try to discredit the germ theory:

Do you know the germ theory has never been proven? And it cannot be proven, either. If it had been proven, it would not be a theory. It has been truly said that 'knowledge without evidence is superstition'; and that applies to the germ theory also. It is a leftover superstition of a past age, when men feared that the earth was inhabited with hideous monsters that were hiding everywhere, in the air, in the sea, in the darkness, etc., always ready to jump out and devour him or make life otherwise miserable for him (Dresden 1931: 404).

The Watchtower adds that in ancient times hideous monsters, goblins, and dragons and the like "were really feared by the entire civilized world and spoken of only with greatest respect" and that

now that we have come into this enlightened age, we have discarded the hideous monster superstition for want of positive proof, but we are still just as foolish as our forefathers of old. We have turned from a gigantic monster theory, to the germs, which are so small that we cannot hear, see, feel, smell or taste them. Yet they are just as ferocious as the monsters of old, 'lurking everywhere, ready to attack man and send him to an early grave.' According to the inventors of this preposterous idea, the germ's only aim in life is to make life miserable for man. But fortunately for all of us, it is only an idea (Dresden 1931: 404).

Interestingly, the Watchtower's interpretation of "the life is in the blood" was straight forward in 1926--food is ingested, and the body absorbs certain portions which make their way through the thoracic duct into the veins on the left side of the neck. Thus the food is life which ends up in the blood, invigorating every part of the body if the proper food is ingested (Dodge, 1926:623). This is a drastically different interpretation than the Watchtower developed later, namely their modern almost mystical view that equates blood with a mystical life force, negating their previous interpretation that life is in the blood only because it carries nutrients which sustain life.

Another reason used to support their opposition to the germ theory includes noting that malaria varies according to whether a person is Chinese or white. Since a mosquito is no respecter of persons, why would this difference exist? It is understood today the difference exists simply because immunity sometimes varies according to race and nationality as well as past exposure which also varies according to race (Campbell 1933: 633). Native peoples typically have built up resistance against the disease, and when foreigners move into that area they are often far more susceptible to certain illnesses.

The germ theory was also opposed in other areas. The Golden Age stated that TB tests are "the biggest fraud practiced in the milk business" because it "claims to be a great benefit to the milk-consuming public. (This is the way the Devil always operates)" (Ritchie 1930: 49). This article concludes that TB testing of cows is "one of the biggest deceptions practiced on the human family at this time, so far as their food is concerned." The reason is that TB testing means only that a herd has had "poisonous serum pumped into their blood stream from time to time until their systems become so thoroughly saturated with this deadly poison that they become immune to it." The author adds that TB tests kill off the healthy cows, and cows which are in the last stages of TB are "invariably passed by this so-called test and left on the farm." This is due to not just the Devil's evil machinations, the Golden Age concludes, but is a profit scam as well.

The Watchtower concludes that "germs do not cause disease as most. . . people have been led to believe," and this idea exists only because "it has been advanced by the medical profession . . . [and] the medical monopoly has the public under absolute control, so that it has been considered next to a mortal sin to contradict them." The Watchtower did not deny the existence of bacteria but taught that "germs are benevolent creatures and the fear of them has no foundation . . . germs are not the spreaders of disease, not the dangerous creatures the masses have been led to believe they were" (Dresden 1931: 406).

The Watchtower explains that germs play a necessary housecleaning role for various body processes. Allowing garbage to accumulate at your back door soon produces flies and eventually a cesspool of fowl-smelling filth. The flies do not cause the problem, the garbage accumulation does. The solution is to remove the garbage and the flies will leave also. Likewise, germs are scavengers like flies and when the filth in the body is removed, the germs have no favored breeding place and are again under control. The whole solution to illness is not killing germs, but avoiding poisons such as aluminum and eating right, which produces a healthy body. A poor or glutinous diet produces an accumulation of waste matter in the body and, his is the problem that causes disease, the Watchtower taught.