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Communist China's Policy of Oppression in East Turkestan

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Life Comes From Life<br />

276<br />

In his book, Darw<strong>in</strong> never referred to the orig<strong>in</strong> <strong>of</strong> life. The primitive<br />

understand<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> science <strong>in</strong> his time rested on the assumption that<br />

liv<strong>in</strong>g be<strong>in</strong>gs had a very simple structure. S<strong>in</strong>ce medieval times, spontaneous<br />

generation, which asserts that non-liv<strong>in</strong>g materials came together<br />

to form liv<strong>in</strong>g organisms, had been widely accepted. It was<br />

commonly believed that <strong>in</strong>sects came <strong>in</strong>to be<strong>in</strong>g from food leftovers,<br />

and mice from wheat. Interest<strong>in</strong>g experiments were conducted to prove<br />

this theory. Some wheat was placed on a dirty piece <strong>of</strong> cloth, and it was<br />

believed that mice would orig<strong>in</strong>ate from it after a while.<br />

Similarly, maggots develop<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> rott<strong>in</strong>g meat was assumed to be<br />

evidence <strong>of</strong> spontaneous generation. However, it was later understood<br />

that worms did not appear on meat spontaneously, but were carried<br />

there by flies <strong>in</strong> the form <strong>of</strong> larvae, <strong>in</strong>visible to the naked eye.<br />

Even when Darw<strong>in</strong> wrote The Orig<strong>in</strong> <strong>of</strong> Species, the belief that<br />

bacteria could come <strong>in</strong>to existence from non-liv<strong>in</strong>g matter was widely<br />

accepted <strong>in</strong> the world <strong>of</strong> science.<br />

However, five years after the publication <strong>of</strong> Darw<strong>in</strong>'s book, Louis<br />

Pasteur announced his results after long studies and experiments, that<br />

disproved spontaneous generation, a cornerstone <strong>of</strong> Darw<strong>in</strong>'s theory.<br />

In his triumphal lecture at the Sorbonne <strong>in</strong> 1864, Pasteur said: "Never<br />

will the doctr<strong>in</strong>e <strong>of</strong> spontaneous generation recover from the mortal<br />

blow struck by this simple experiment." 91<br />

For a long time, advocates <strong>of</strong> the theory <strong>of</strong> evolution resisted these<br />

f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs. However, as the development <strong>of</strong> science unraveled the complex<br />

structure <strong>of</strong> the cell <strong>of</strong> a liv<strong>in</strong>g be<strong>in</strong>g, the idea that life could come<br />

<strong>in</strong>to be<strong>in</strong>g co<strong>in</strong>cidentally faced an even greater impasse.<br />

<strong>Communist</strong> Ch<strong>in</strong>a’s <strong>Policy</strong><br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>Oppression</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>East</strong> <strong>Turkestan</strong>

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