#1262: Gordon Wilson

Gordon L. Wilson does indeed have a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Public Policy from George Mason University. Some might notice that this is hardly a relevant background if your main concern is biology, but that didn’t prevent him from being hired by the biology department at the infamous cargo-cult pseudo-school Liberty University, or to sign up for the Discovery Institute’s petition “A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism”, before becoming Senior Fellow of Natural History and Director of Student Affairs at the New Saint Andrews College, an unaccredited conservative Calvinist institution that teaches a “Biblical worldview” to something in the vicinity of 130 four-year students.

A staunch creationist with, to repeat, no relevant scientific credentials, Wilson is also active in the Creation Biology Society and a frequent contributor to the Answers magazine. His specialty seems to be the Origins of Natural Evil in the biological world, and according to Wilson “Many pathogens, parasites, and predators have sophisticated genetic, morphological, and behavioral arsenals (natural evil) that clearly testify to the God’s eternal power and divine nature (Romans 1:20), i.e. they are not the result of mutation and natural mutation [that’s an assertion, not an argument, if anyone needed that pointed out].” He rejects the claim that they used to be “completely benign in all respects but at the Fall the enemy (Satan, et. al.) engaged in post-Fall genetic modification and/or bestiality that resulted in creatures with malignant behavior and morphology,” since that would attribute too much sophistication to the powers of darkness; instead, the malignant gene sets must have been preordained due to divine foreknowledge of the Fall.

Yes, take that, evolutionists. This is what counts as an education in biology at Liberty University.

But here’s the twist. In 2013, the University of Idaho realized that they needed someone to teach microbiology, so they carried out a ‘national’ search for a temporary microbiologist, offering $6-8,000 per semester for a one year position with no promise of a continuation. With an offer like that, what do you think they get? Well, they hired … Gordon Wilson. To teach microbiology. And though he promised not to teach creationism, he would emphasize the bogus creationist distinction between “historical” and “experimental” science.

Diagnosis: Pseudoscience hardly comes most pseudo and less science than the output of Gordon Wilson. He is, I suppose, a relatively minor figure in the grand scheme of things, but his efforts to miseducate young people are nevertheless insidious – and rather successful, it seems.