Christopher Macosko is a Professor at the
University of Minnesota most famous for receiving Templeton funding (apparently) to “study” intelligent design.
Macosko has a PhD in Chemical Engineering, and no expertise in any field
related to evolution, but promoters of intelligent design creationism take what they can get;
the purpose of funds for studies in any case not scientific inquiry but
outreach.
Macosko apparently became a born-again
Christian as an assistant professor after a falling-out with a business
partner, and for many years he taught the freshman seminar “Life: By Chance or
By Design?” According to Macosko “[a]ll
the students who finish my course say, ‘Gee, I didn’t realize how shaky evolution
is’,” which tells you quite a bit about Macosko’s course and nothing about
the foundations for the theory of evolution (the title, though, tells you a bit
about how poorly Macosko understands that theory).
Since he does possess a PhD, in an
unrelated field, Macosko is also a signatory to the Discovery Institute’s sad and ridiculous petition A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism.
Diagnosis: Pseudoscientist, but unlike most
pseudoscientists, Macosko is affiliated with a real university, which might
give a sheen of legitimacy to his efforts to those who don’t know better. Still
pseudoscience.
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