#104: Tom DeRosa

Executive Director of the Creation Studies Institute (an outreach of Coral Ridge Ministries), author of “Evolution’s Fatal Fruit” and self-proclaimed loon (well, he hasn’t literally said that, but he explains the fact that the earth is 4.7 billion years old and that this contradicts the Biblical 6000 years away by claiming that God created a 4.7 billion year old earth 6000 years ago, and that pretty much amounts to the same thing). His institute’s website is worth a visit.

Yes, he is a young earth creationist, trotting out the same old, same old – radiometric dating is unreliable, the Flood occurred 4000 years ago, Tyrannosaurus Rex was really a firebreathing dragon (behemoth of the old testament), evolution is solely responsible for all the ills of the 20th century (including, it seems, the travesties of religious fundamentalism – it is a little unclear). And these pieces of untarnished lunacy are typical creationist talking-points, remember. A typical debate is summed up here.

His notability does in part also stem from his own claim that he used to be an atheist who has since seen the light (See here. See also, well, more or less the rest of them, for example this guy). Apparently, DeRosa was the one who lead Pat Boone to creationism – I mean, Boone used to be an atheist, didn’t he? Apparently, Tom has a blog as well, where you can read about (among other things) his profound insight that creation vs. evolution is really the war between worldviews and neither is better than the other (yet his is, somehow, the best and correct one anyway).

Diagnosis: Total moron; impact is uncertain but he shouldn’t be underestimated.

#103: William “Bill” Dembski

Possibly the most influential and cited (though scarcely in peer reviewed publications – though he actually have a couple of those in mathematics) among America’s Intelligent Design creationists – and one of the most tireless, self-aggrandizing and seriously deluded. He is not a stupid guy, but there are things he is just completely unable to grasp, to the extent that it almost suggests some sort of cognitive malfunction (more likely confirmation bias and an inability to realize a mistake). See here, here, here, and here. No, he just doesn’t get it. Perhaps it is because his grasp of information theory is not as solid as it should be, resulting in some completely basic mistakes.

Ok, some background: Dembski has a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Chicago, and in philosophy from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Currently he pretends to teach at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (yes, pretends; his course requirements are, shall we say, dubious). He is quite clear that ID is science, not religion, as his quite clear from his own summary of ID: “Intelligent design is just the Logos theology of John's Gospel restated in the idiom of information theory.” Too bad Dembski doesn’t quite grasp the latter (some examples: here, and here). See also here.

He is closely associated with the Discovery Institute and is the mastermind behind the blog Uncommon Descent (UD, no link provided!); for more on his background, consult this objective article, or this one. He has gathered quite a substantial number of lackeys, including Denyse O’Leary, Dave Scott, Robert Marks, Barry Arrington (who now officially runs UD), Winston Evert, George Montañez and Bruce Gordon (all loons; some will have separate entries).

Most notable for his book “No Free Lunch” (which pretty much dresses Paley’s old fallacies up in math) and the never defined notion of “specified complexity” (here, here, here, and here, and an awesome post on creationist misuse of information theory in in general).

Dembski isn’t particularly good at handling handling criticism either.

Diagnosis: Seriously deluded kook who, despite being obviously intelligent, lets his own preconceptions completely obstruct his view as to how things actually hang together – even on topics related to his field of expertise. Extremely influential nonetheless, and as such extremely dangerous.

#102: Gary DeMar

One of the movers and shakers of the Christian Reconstructionist movement and an open theocrat, DeMar is an author, lecturer and also the president of the cult American Vision, an American Christian organization. The vision of this think-tank is "an America that recognizes the sovereignty of God over all of life and where Christians are engaged in every facet of society." In his own words “[a]ll government requires a reference point. If God is to be pleased by men, the Bible must become the foundation of all their governments, including civil government. This means that Biblical law must be made the foundation of all righteous judgment in every government: personal (self government), ecclesiastical, familial, and civil.” In other words, there is a war going on, a culture war or war between civilizations, and DeMar is firmly on the side of God and the family. And it is “Darwinism [which] secularized everything in America, including our understanding of the Constitution."

As the notable David Barton, DeMar attempts to connect the writings and thoughts of the founding fathers with his organization’s vision, and is not afraid of lying or quote-mining to a ridiculous degree in the process (this is a war, remember); he claims that the sole and clear purpose of the founding fathers was to establish the Kingdom of God in the New World.

Among his more scary-sounding books titles are “Surviving College Successfully” (given his background, you can probably figure out what he means), “Whoever Controls the Schools Rules the World”, “America’s Christian History: The Untold Story” and “America's 200-Year War with Islamic Terrorism”; he has worked with such luminaries as John W. Whitehead, Gary North and Peter J. Leithart, who must be considered just as crazy as DeMar himself.

He has also said that he would execute homosexuals, but since he is such a liberal, the death penalty will only be awarded if they were actually caught engaging in sodomy.

A few, random examples of strategic moves in DeMar’s war.

In fact, there seems to exist a certain tension among the reconstructionists regarding the Constitution - and here is a truly lunatic discussion of the debates within the movement.
Diagnosis: Utter madman. He and his associates have a profound influence on the more religious parts of the Republican Party (for example), however, and must be considered extremely dangerous.

#101: Randy Demain

Randy Demain is seemingly one of ordinary daily life’s amiable, calm and nice guys (well, I imagine that he is). But when he dons his True Christian™ suit he obeys the word of God and … raises the dead. That’s what he claims, literally. He just walks up to a corpse, tells it to get up, and – woosh – up it pops and starts walking around. Apparently Randy does this all the time. To some it seems baffling for some reason, but the whole thing is apparently really easy.

So can he back up his claims? Oh yes. You see, he can tell at least two stories – curiously both took place in Africa –when he raised a woman and a baby from the dead. He admits that it is harder to do it in the West, presumably because westernized Christians have adjusted themselves to a demystified worldview or something, but he encourages all true Christians to give it a try.

The utterly insane bloggers at endtimespropheticwords think Demain is a false prophet. However, I am not sure they count as the voice of reason even in this matter.

His website is here. Demain has also written (at least) the book “Dominion Surges", which, according to the product description “is an equipping manual for mobilizing the body of Christ into an offensive posture, restoring in us a sense of dominion and power over the enemy.”

Diagnosis: Utterly, irrevocably, completely insane; the kind of person you may encounter in an asylum who appears jovial and sane until he opens his mouth. He’s probably harmless, though.

#100: Tom DeLay

a.k.a. “The Exterminator”

Delay is the relatively notorious politician who blamed the Columbine shootings on the fact that the school taught the students about evolution. Seems to be a fair anniversary loon.

DeLay is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Texas's 22nd congressional district until 2006. He was the GOP House Majority Leader from 2003 to 2005, when legal problems forced him to step down (he was charged with but never convicted of criminal violations of state campaign finance laws and money laundering). He claimed that the legal prosecution bears striking resemblances to the strategies of certain infamous regimes: “It’s the same process. It’s the same criminalization of politics. It’s the same oppression of people. It’s the same destroy people in order to gain power. It may be six million Jews. It may be indicting somebody on laws that don’t exist. But, it’s the same philosophy and it’s the same world view.” His nickname stems from his former employment in pest control.

More accurately, DeLay is a huckster, a born-again Christian with a martyr complex, who claims that he and other Christians are persecuted in today’s US. He doesn’t believe that there is anything such as a valid separation between church and state.

DeLay has also given voice to the birfer conspiracy, although one suspects that he doesn’t actually believe it (rather, he panders to the most delusional of GOP’s wingnut supporters). His view of evolution is summarized by his shock that some scientists could claim that man is descended from pond parasites (“Our school systems teach the children that they are nothing but glorified apes who are evolutionized [sic] out of some primordial soup.”). And, as already pointed out, he also claimed that the Columbine shootings were to be blamed on the fact that the school was teaching evolution.

Calls the Environmental Protection Agency “the Gestapo of the government” and rejects AGW for what appear to be religious reasons.

Some quotes here and here.

Diagnosis: Widely renowned for his questionable moral behavior and general punditry, this guy is also a real, unhinged loon (rather than merely spineless like his invertebrate forefathers). He still has some bite, although he can probably be considered relatively neutralized by now.

#99: Vox Day (and his dad)

A.k.a. Theodore Beale (real name)

Computer game designer, published SF writer, arrogant conservative pundit, WorldNetDaily columnist and anti-evolutionist whose main argument against evolution appears to be “I am a member of the SFWA, Mensa and IGDA, and I don’t believe in evolution”. If his credentials are correct, it is good evidence for the claim that critical thinking skills need to be learned; they don’t just come automatically with a high IQ (actually, he applies a genuine ad hominem as well, but I don’t think that helps his case). Day likes to go on long rants without even the slightest hint of an argument. For his other endeavors, look here. We’ll restrict ourselves to documenting his lunacy.

He is, for instance, an anti-vaccinationist loon (parroting the anti-vaccinationist lunacy, again concerning a field he does not know anything about, just like biology). Also, he has actually argued that women shouldn’t be allowed to vote since they are fascists at heart,and that they should be kept out of science because they are a threat to it (this coming from an anti-evolutionist anti-vaccinationist). Atheism is hence a threat to science as well mainly because it apparently leads to introducing equal treatment.

Vox Day’s most famous loony claim, however, might just be his suggestion that we look to Hitler to solve the illegal immigrant problem in the US.

He also rejects AGW, and he seems to do so primarily because science and scientists support it. Vox Day is no fan of science, really, even though he himself thinks he is. In fact, he thinks that materialist science is refuted.

Claims to be a Christian libertarian, but is more or less as libertarian as Chuck Baldwin.

Diagnosis: Exasperatingly ignorant bigot and anti-science loon and lover of middle school level fallacies. In fact, he is the very epitome of a crank. He does in fact have a fair amount of readers, however, and must be considered dangerous.

His daddy, Robert Beale, is actually even more unhinged. He is one of those I-refuse-to-pay-taxes-and-don’t-recognize-the-authority-of-the-courts type. Instead he and his organization seeks to establish "a superior court for the People, original jurisdiction under Almighty Yahweh exclusive jurisdiction in and for confederation-government United States of America."

#98: Lorraine Day

Once a respected academic orthopedic surgeon who has fallen deeply into woo, conspiracy mongering and holocaust denialism. According to her own website, “Dr. Lorraine Day reversed her severe, advanced cancer by rebuilding her immune system by natural therapies, so her body could heal itself.” Her evidence for her therapies? Testimonials – in other words, pure anecdotal evidence and wishful thinking, and Day doesn’t seem to have the slightest understand of why alternative medicine “testimonials” for cancer treatments are inherently misleading.

That makes her but one of many (though still a loon). Dr. Day, however, really stands out for her attempts at combining woo-mongering with holocaust denialism – a leap, true, but one that is understandable given the total lack of critical thinking skills involved in both. An infamous interview can be obtained from here (and a debunking here). The blurb reads: “Dr. Lorraine Day discusses the control over the medical industry by a small group of Jews and Goyim who consider us pawns in their game of world conquest. However, the Jews who follow the Talmud are actually using their Goyim "friends" also” – that should give you an idea.

A telling claim from her website: “[the] term [”Holocaust”] has been ’hi-jacked’ by the Jews who use it, incorrectly, to describe the purported treatment of the Jews at the hands of the Germans during World War II. Actually, it better describes the Post-World War II treatment of the German citizens by the Allies (the U.S., U.K and USSR), who were taking their orders from International ... Very few people realize that the Zionist Jewish version of the "Holocaust", what the revisionists refer to as the Holocaust Hoax, is the CENTERPIECE of the Zionist Jews' Plan to destroy all nations, control the entire world, slaughter most of the population of the earth, and reduce the rest to slaves.”

More on her antics can be found here (oh yes, it is all there: drugs don’t cure diseases, they only cover up the symptoms; chemotherapy doesn’t cure cancer; Dr. Day has glorious credentials; natural fallacies and so on and so forth).

She is also a 9/11 truther and religious whacko.

Diagnosis: One of the most unhinged, insane crackpots out there; utterly lacking in critical thinking skills, sanity and rationality. Must be considered dangerous.