John
Scudamore, the guy who runs (and apparently believes everything written on)
whale.to is British (Herefordshire), so unfortunately he has to be disqualified.
CSSMWI and
its leader Jay Seegert are Milwaukee-based, however. CSSMWI stands for
“Creation Science Society of Milwaukee”. Their website is here. Now, societies like
cssmwi exist throughout the US and there is probably nothing particular about
this one. This entry should thus stand as a representative for all such pockets
of denialist lunacy anywhere.
In any case,
CSSMWI is your typical Reversia stronghold where the idea of science is literal
interpretation of the Bible and rejecting all evidence that cannot fit smoothly
with the reading of the Bible that Seegert and his crew think best fit their
preconceptions. They have helpful subsites on “Evolution is Religion, not
science”,
“Genomes project data indicate a young human race”, “radioisotope dating” (they have absolutely no clue) and the standard canards and fallacies generally
promulgated on sites like this.
Jay Seegert
is their ringleader; he is the President & Principal Lecturer for the Creation
Education Center, as well as a national speaker for Creation Ministries International (the world’s largest creation organization). Yes, it’s all about lectures and
reaching out to the children; the “research” part of science seems to have been
lost on them: their website has a lot on Seegert’s background as a minister;
none on his research work, rather unsurprisingly.
Their other
speakers include:
- Keith A.
Robinson, who’s written a novel about the origin of life and the universe as he
sees it and is therefore a qualified researcher.
- Kitty
Foth-Regner, whose scientific data for creationism comprise revelation, wishful
thinking and appeal to emotion.
- Ken Bahr,
high school teacher “prepared to teach your kids in church and at school”.
- Russ
Hanson, who has a bachelor’s degree in science.
- Gary
Locklair, a professor of Computer Science at Concordia University and probably
the most dangerous of the lot.
- Jerry
Frye, who is president of an employee benefit brokerage firm.
- Nathan
Jastram, head of the Theology Department at Concordia University who has worked
on the Dead Sea Scrolls, which “demonstrate the extreme accuracy of the copying
of Biblical manuscripts, contrary to the assumptions of evolutionary scholars
and others.” Yes, those dastardly evolutionary scholars; they always threaten
to oppose Jastram’s firm confirmation bias.
Diagnosis:
Overall, these people are actually really dangerous, and do a lot of harm by
spreading denialism, ignorance and lies. There’s really nothing cute about
them, despite their rather helpless take on reality.
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