Russia’s science and higher education ministry has dismissed the head of a prestigious genetics institute who sparked controversy by contending that humans once lived for centuries and that the shorter lives of modern humans are due to their ancestors’ sins, state news agency RIA-Novosti said Thursday.
Although the report did not give a reason for the firing of Alexander Kudryavtsev, the influential Russian Orthodox Church called it religious discrimination.
Kudryavtsev, who headed the Russian Academy of Science’s Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, made a presentation at a conference in 2023 in which he said people had lived for some 900 years prior to the era of the Biblical Flood and that “original, ancestral and personal sins” caused genetic diseases that shortened lifespans.
It’s embarrassing that he even got that far.
Mixed feelings, on one hand it’s good he is out, on the other hand it is shameful they let him get to such an incredibly high level of authority and left him there for so long.
Some people go bonkers later in life
wow, that headline is a whole journey
Christians will cite this as an example of them being persecuted. Guaranteed.
It’s already there in the summary of the article. They’re calling it religious discrimination.
I guess I should have added “around the world.” I was going to say “in the US,” but then I remembered some of my religious family in other countries who would definitely say this, too.
It’s the church. They call it religious discrimination when they aren’t allowed to discriminate others. Or murder. Point is they cry and get super hard when they can play the victim.
This story could also title “East European State under Western duress had to fire Christian top scientist with life-prolonging ideas” /s
a ‘christian’ ‘scientist’ that actually read
the first bits of the biblea few wikipedia pages on early biblical persons; and decided it was factual historical accounts.
It’s like a fetish for them. They want to be oppressed so bad.
Am I on Lemmy, or the SCP wiki?
Bit of a tangent, but from what I can tell the language barrier (and cold war history) really doesn’t do Russia any favours. Because so many Russians speak poor English, they’re effectively cut off from the English speaking world.
Obviously, the Anglosphere has more than enough weird conspiracies, and there is some bleed through, but Russia has surprisingly popular stuff like Fomenko’s New Chronology. For those wondering:
Phantom time conspiracies are my favorite kind of dumbass conspiracies.
In the 80s and 90s people were so confused they believed in all kinds of scams. Charged water before the TV, gave money to financial pyramids, believed their kids dead in Afgan and Chechnya could be brought to life for a little donation, even japanese death cult Ayum Sinrikyo was filmed staying with Brejhnev and USSR got more of his followers than Japan itself. Some of these ceased to exist but some are still there, including that idiot, Dugin and others. One of the top programs on the TV in the 10s was an initially sceptical challenge show of self-named witches, mages, extrasensorically gifted people, that run for many seasons, and with time charlatans themselves started to use it as a kind of promotion to their services kek.
From all of them, at least Fomenko is too absurd to most and genuinely funny in how he intertwines random historical events and his own marasm. But all of them should go to court to be honest. Their success is just a symptom of bigger problems, but they further enable people’s idiotism and live in luxury extorting them.
Charged water before the TV,
Hah, i know at least one American preacher and one Dutch medium who did the same nonsense. Seems like it was quite the fad.
Whoa, that’s a fun one! Thanks for sharing! I love reading about these really different conspiracy theories.
A rare time I agree with Russia.
Saw recent Russian plan to solve road accidents, by having Russian Orthodox priest spread holy water on roads to bless them. This story seems inline.
Might even make the problem even worse. People who are sick and know they are being prayed for show slightly worse outcomes. The theory is that they are less inclined to follow doctor advice since they think the problem will be solved for them. Maybe drivers would be more inclined to take more risks.
How long until this guy finds his way to Florida?
Lyskenko LIVES!
Although the report did not give a reason for the firing of Alexander Kudryavtsev, the influential Russian Orthodox Church called it religious discrimination.
Yeah, I don’t think they care.
Anyone else find it funny how the values bleed over in both directions? It’s westerners that would complain about discrimination, in Russia, that’s just life. Life is hard, so no whining, more or less. Off to the front lines with you.
why do i need to hear about Kacapstan, they’re irrelevant