#1299: E. Theo Agard

E. Theo Agard is a medical physicist with a PhD from the University of Toronto, and a former director of the Flower Hospital Oncology Center in Ohio. Agard is most notable for being a signatory to the Creation Ministries International’s list of scientists today who accept the Biblical account of Creation. According to Agard, his subscription to creationism can be “largely summarized” by ignorance about whether the chicken or the egg came first (only lightly paraphrased, and no; follow the link from the rationalwiki page; I won’t link to AiG). Agard also observes that there are gaps in the fossil record. Therefore, God must have created the Earth in six days and the Flood and Adam and Jesus, so there. 

Diagnosis: I am not sure Agard has accomplished much as a creationist proponent, but he does subscribe to the idiocy and does have a legitimate degree. Thus, Agard is among the very unimpressive group of “many” “real scientists” who support creationism that creationists like to claim exists, apparently in abundance.    

(And yes, there is a serious objection to creationism behind the last sentence: Problems with evolution - especially imagined problems, but real problems as well if there are any - are not evidence for creationism. Evidence for creationism can only come through testing the novel, correct predictions not made by the alternative theories that creationism makes; thus far, all novel predictions creationism makes have been falsified, and it is frankly hard to see how continuing to subscribe to the idea is compatible with intellectual honesty.)