ג׳ אב ה׳תשפ״ה | July 28, 2025
Shocking Study Exposes How Scientists Deceive the Public
A shocking new study in a scientific journal exposes how scientific institutions lie or ignore facts to maintain public trust and urges widespread education to end the “naïve” view of science as infallible. In countless letters, the Rebbe warned of this popular misconception and the unreliability of “science.”
A shocking new study in a scientific journal exposes how scientific institutions lie or ignore facts to maintain public trust and urges widespread education to end the “naïve” view of science as infallible. In countless letters, the Rebbe warned of this popular misconception and the unreliability of “science.”
By Anash.org writer
A revealing study released this month by philosopher of science Dr. Byron Hyde, Honorary Research Associate at Bangor University, exposes hidden and shocking truths about dishonesty in science.
Published in the journal Theory & Society, the paper argues that to maintain public trust, scientists are open about successes but hide when things don’t work out. Hyde reveals how scientific institutions are actively choosing to be less than fully honest, as a way to preserve public confidence.
“Science isn’t perfect,” Hyde bluntly says. “Scientists are just as biased and equally as liable to make mistakes as everyone else.”
He suggests that instead of focusing solely on facts, science education should also explain how science works – its processes, limitations, and uncertainties. The goal, Hyde says, should be to eliminate the “naïve” view of science as infallible.
Of course, this should come as no surprise. Science is, after all, just theories, possibilities, and probabilities, and scientists have personal interests. Yet, it’s interesting to hear this publicly recognized in scientific circles.
Long before this study, the Rebbe warned of science’s inherent flaws and its tendency to mislead. In countless letters (as well as numerous sichos), the Rebbe wrote to scientists and other truth-seekers that science is at most “a theory of probable phenomena.”
In one letter dated 1 Sivan 5721, written to Professor C. Domb of King’s College in London, the Rebbe speaks to the “popular misconception as to what science is” and writes that science – even “exact sciences” – are “at bottom nothing more than assumptions, working hypotheses, and theories which are only “probable.””
The Rebbe goes on to provide many glaring examples of scientific theories in the past which “had been accepted as ultimate [but] have been swept away ‘absolutely’ and categorically, to the extent that science can be ‘absolute.’”
In a similar letter, written on 18 Teves 5722 – which was circulated at the time as the Rebbe’s official response to scientific difficulties regarding the age of the uiverse and the story of creation as described by Torah – the Rebbe again explains that it all lies “in a misconception of the scientific method or, simply, of what science is.”
The Rebbe describes science as “speculative ‘science’, dealing with unknown phenomena, sometimes phenomena that cannot be duplicated in the laboratory.” And writes: “At best, science can only speak in terms of theories inferred from certain known facts and applied in the realm of the unknown.”
The Rebbe also speaks to the second issue that scientists and science often lie, misrepresent, ignore, or distort. In the above 5722 letter, the Rebbe points out how, when advancing certain scientific theories, “they blithely disregard factors universally admitted by all scientists.”
In a letter to Dr. Velvl Greene, dated 15 Elul 5724, discussing speculative theories on evolution, the Rebbe writes: “If such speculations are represented in textbooks as ‘facts,’ then it is a gross and unscientific misrepresentation.” The Rebbe continues, describing how certain theories “are ignored in discussions … not only on the high school level, but even in specialized studies of astronomy and physics in colleges and universities.”
The Rebbe describes a conversation he had with a scientist, asking why he doesn’t teach certain non-mainstream theories. The scientist answered that if he did, “he would lose his standing in the academic world,” since he would be at variance with the prevalent legacy from the 19th century. “I countered,” says the Rebbe, “ ‘What about the moral issue?’ The answer was silence.”
The only truth, the Rebbe writes in his letter to Professor Domb, is Torah. “Only the Torah, Toras Chayyim, … gives certitude to human deductions arrived at in the proper way, giving them the stamp of truth not only within the rational and sensible world, but also in a transcending way.”
COMMENTS
Please publish or link to the Rebbe’s letters referenced here.
Thank you!
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/435104/jewish/The-Rebbe-on-Science.htm
You can find all these letters on the Rebbe Responsa app (and more), by those dates or under the tag “science”.
Most people on Anash don’t have smartphones in line with the rabbonim’s guidelines on using technology.
When will your website launch?
https://rebberesponsa.app/
Nice Rebbe Responsa still around!
A while back, you would publish booklets, which I would look forward to downloading and reading every Shabbos. It was very informative and inspiring.
I would love it if you could start making them again.
You can sign up to receive the weekly booklet here: https://rebberesponsa.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6e195a164c55dc5efd83aef75&id=9e95c2325c
They still are published every week without fail.
These quotes seem to be taken out of context to prove the authors point. Agreed: science is not infallible or even comparable to the truth of Torah. The Rebbe did however tell people to listen to doctors and follow the medical opinion as Torah requires. The Rebbe advised to use medicine over other unverified practices as a whole.
1) The Rebbe said that the reason is because TORAH says they have ability to heal.
2) As in any area, you need to be an educated consumer. You need not follow blindly anything said by someone with a degree (does Torah mention a degree?).
3) If there is a supposed bias, you need to be extra wary. That is why the Rebbe recommended asking a “rofei yedid” – a doctor who is a friend.
Regarding “Yes, but” wrote in point 2 – “does Torah mention a degree?”.
The Halacha is that if a casualty results from a mistake by the doctor, the doctor is responsible unless the doctor has Reshus Beis-Din to practice medicine.
Acharonim Paskin that today Reshus Beis-Din would apply if the doctor has a degree or not.
So yes, according to Torah a degree in medicine does carry weight.
A proof the Rebbe often uses (in a number of areas, including letters about shleimus haaretz) that Torah lends more credence to science that science itself does, as we consider it pikuach nefesh enough to break Shabbos on the suggestion of a doctor.
Instead of accusing others, ensure that your claims are actually based on what the Rebbe says and not your preconceived notions.
Anonymous (why exactly?) author,
With all due respect, what exactly is the point of this article (for Anash or anyone)?
That some (probably unknown to most readers) scientists said something which is in line with similar statements made by the Rebbe is meant to bring out what point exactly?
There were other scientists (and laymen) as well who said/wrote similarly. So what? The Rebbe’s words on the topic are logical and stand on their own, even for a non-Chossid, and bringing to the attention that also some guy out there agrees with these truths is utterly meaningless (at best).
Pesach Schmerling
Rabbi, you’re my hero. thanks for speaking sense!!
If you just want the truth, you wouldn’t be reading the news… Hashem runs the world and most news that is reported doesn’t have practical relevance to the reader.
People read news because they are after all affected by olam hasheker. It’s therefore interesting (and perhaps even noteworthy for them) when the velt aligns with the emes of Torah.
so, the point of the article is obviously that Chabad needs to be anti-vax, because saying with conviction of absolute certainty that the world is 13 billion (plus?) years old, isn’t scientific?
one more question: if the sun circles the earth, should i stop taking my prescription medication?
How did you find that in the article? I reread it several times and could not find anything to that effect.
he’s probably referring to the over-generalization in the article, attacking this big boogie man called…”SCIENCE”. no distinctions were made between the natural science, social sciences, and the formal sciences.
its very hard to get the Nafka-Minah this way…
If you look into the Rebbe’s responses to medicines….. the Rebbe says “once it’s been proven safe” not to be the guinea pigs, the Rebbe also instructed to do research and that research by the manufacturer (ie nogeah bdavar) is not credible and that drs don’t have the time to do the proper research and therefore the consumer needs to do the research.
“Other practices” may indeed prove to be safer and being that we have a mitzvah of vnishmartem es nafshosechem it would be smart to be an educated consumer.
“Science is, after all, just theories, possibilities, and probabilities, ….” You really need to reconsider this statement. It is just patently wrong. Notwithstanding that Hashem runs the world in all its intimate detail, the modern world, in all its intimate detail, runs on a regime of physical systems and individual inventions that have been developed over centuries and continue to be developed based on scientific principles.
While nature runs on certain principles (which are also subject to change according to need – hence schar v’onesh: rain, brachos, etc.), science are theories about those principles. Some of those theories have been well established over time, but many others are relatively new and are updated and debunked every few decades.
Scientists try to convince us that whatever they say is “science” and factual, but we know that isn’t the case.