#1821: Michael N. Keas

Michael Keas is a Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the College at Southwestern (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary), or possibly (currently) adjunct faculty at Biola University. He is also a Senior Fellow at the radical anti-science organization the Discovery Institute, and a creationist. And although he is not a scientist, I guess the creationist horde considers him to be “close enough”; at least Keas is a signatory to the Discovery Institute’s petition A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism. He is also the primary author of the auxiliary materials for the Discovery Institute’s “textbook”, Explore Evolution.

Despite not being a scientist, Keas apparently “leads workshops for science teachers on how to teach about controversial subjects such as Darwinism.” He has even taught an Intelligent Design course, “Unified Studies: Introduction to Biology”, at the Oklahoma Baptist University, which is one of very few such courses that have been taught for credit at an accredited institution (though OBU, where “the general science, education and chemistry programs … take a strong Intelligent Design advocacy position” is hardly a real university in the ordinary sense of “real university”).

Diagnosis: Not among the loudest Intelligent Design anti-scientists, Keas seems nevertheless to wield rather significant influence in the movement. Dangerous.

#1820: Phillip Kayser

Phillip Kayser, who leads the Dominion Covenant Church in Omaha and is associated with something called Biblical Blueprints, is an alleged libertarian and Ron Paul supporter. He is also a theocrat who wants to impose Biblical death penalties on gay people and adulterers. Strange how Ron Paul tended to attract these people (not really; see below); Paul’s 2012 campaign said they “welcome Rev. Kayser’s endorsement and the enlightening statements he makes on how Ron Paul’s approach to government is consistent with Christian beliefs.”

In laying out his vision for society, Kayser emphasizes that “Whereas Hebrews 2:2 gives a blanket endorsement of all Old Testament penology as justice, the rest of the New Testament gives specifics. It teaches that homosexuals who come out of the closet are ‘worthy of death’ (Rom. 1:32). It teaches that juvenile delinquents who abuse their parents can in certain circumstances ‘be put to death’ (Mt. 15:3-9) and that rejection of this provision was to ‘transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition’.” He assures us, however, that justice would be dispersed fairly and equitably in his ideal society: “The civil government could not round them up. Only those who were prosecuted by citizens could be punished, and the punishment could take a number of forms, including death. This would have a tendency of driving homosexuals back into their closets.” Apparently adultery requires the death penalty, too, and having sex with a woman who is menstruating should potentially also qualify, according to Kayser. Apparently giving equal rights to gay people is “a whole lot worse” than the crimes of King George that led to the American Revolution, and should accordingly be opposed with violence if necessary by true Christians™.

The reason Kayser supports Paul is of course that Paul has promised to give the states the freedom to establish theocratic governments and reject the Constitution at will, which is precisely what Kayser is hoping for. At the “Freedom 2015: National Religious Liberties Conference” (attended by the GOP presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee and Bobby Jindal), Kayser also admitted that it may be unrealistic to expect the national imposition of Biblical law at present, but still maintained that it could be achieved at state and local levels. He also stated his support for Kim Davis, calling her “a hero” and claiming that “Magistrates must follow Christ in their interposition,” not secular law (because religious freedom, duh!). In the pamphlet he distributed at the conference he advocated capital punishment not only for gays and adulterers, but also for blasphemers, Sabbath-breakers, apostates and witches. “Christians should advocate the full implementation of all God’s civil penalties in every age… Every Old Testament statue continues on the books, and without those statutes, we could not have a consistent ethnical standard.” Even “pagan” nations are obliged to follow biblical law, he writes, as “God held gentile kings accountable to these civil laws.” The government should also execute murderers (including abortion providers), and those guilty of kidnapping, rape, prostitution and bestiality.

Kayser’s work is promoted on the Theonomy Resources website, which is run by Stephen Halbrook.

Diagnosis: His rabid bloodthirst is pretty impressive for someone living in the 21th century. As with so many radical fundamentalists, Kayser seems to run on pure hate; his impact is probably relatively limited, but several GOP presidential candidates have at least been willing to lend him an ear.

#1819: Peter H. Kay

Homeovitality is a branch of homeopathy targeting genetic causes of disease. Oh, yes. Apparently “[i]n 1997, Prof. Khuda-Bukhsh [affiliation not disclosed] proposed that homeopathic substances have the capacity to interact with the genetic blueprint and deliver their benefits by increasing the expression of genes that synthesise health promoting proteins.” Of course, homeopathic substances are just substances and the homeopathic properties of those substances don’t exist and accordingly have no effect on anything whatsoever. But, yes: the idea is “gene targeting by homeopathic DNA,” no less. “The Homeovitality system uses highly diluted DNA molecules [sic] with precise sequences to target genes that produce the body’s natural proteins that have been proven to promote health as well as protect against and resolve many diseases.” In other words, the practicioners create remedies, expose them to DNA molecules (ones similar to the DNA that are responsible for the symptoms of the disease in question – just think about it), but dilute the remedies (while carefully observing the steps of the magic ritual) so much that they don’t actually contain any DNA molecules, and voila: Homeopathic gene therapy. It sounds like a parody of a kindergarten game of pretense wizardry, but there are actually grown-ups being engaged in this stuff full time and in all seriousness.

Several people promote homeovitality, but it seems to be particularly associated with one Peter H. Kay, who, according to a homeopathy websites, is a “world renowned scientist, molecular pathologist, immunologist and geneticist,” who was apparently responsible for the Homeovitality micro-DNA therapy system, which he developed to allow everyone to enjoy “super health.” Apparently Kay is a pioneer in “homeogenetics” (no, seriously), “the future field of study investigating the interactive processes between the genetic blueprint and homeopathy.” And apparently his ideas are supported by homeopathic provings. (For those not in the know; conventional testing demonstrate that homeopathic remedies don’t work, so of course homeopaths have developed their own system of testing: “provings” are what homeopaths use to “prove” what therapies to use (not whether they work – this is the essence of tooth-fairy science) by giving the undiluted substance to healthy people and get them to write down their experiences. Of course, since the homeopathic remedies are diluted versions of the substance, such provings would be utterly irrelevant to the final remedy even if they ended up showing anything interesting, which they don’t.) In any case, homeovitality researchers have “demonstrated”, through provings, that whole genomic DNA from other species can change gene expression. Therefore, their magic potions let you target specific genetic diseases “safely and effectively”. It’s medieval magic and religious fundamentalism gone utterly unhinged. These people are deranged.

But yes, you can purchase an array of Kay’s homeovitality remedies online, including e.g.:

- Age Well, an antiaging treatment (oh yes, nothing shouts “serious science” louder than pushing anti-aging potions.) The potion is created with IL-7, a “natural cytokine that has the ability to stimulate the production of new immuno-competent cells in the bone marrow.” It can also neutralize toxins, kill viruses and help boost the immune system. Of course, in reality drinking solutions containing IL-7 will do exactly nothing except providing the body with a tiny quantity of nucleic acids. And Age Well doesn’t even contain IL-7, but the magic memory of having been in contact with IL-7.

- Cancer Care, which apparently includes (magic memories of) the cDNA for two tumor suppressor genes, which makes no sense even by homeopath’s own lights: a cancer remedy should use a homeopathic dilution of something that causes cancer, shouldn’t it? Not that Kay seems anything but confused by how his remedies are supposed to work, which I suppose is alright since they certainly don’t.

Here is their homeovitality FAQ. [Update: It seems to have gone missing. Which I guess is OK. If you have questions then these products are probably not for you.]

Diagnosis: Utter nonsense, fuelled by the feverish, deluded dreams and religious revelations of a deranged madman and realized with the sophistication of the kids-cartoonversions of witches’ brews. Kay does have a real degree, though, which makes one wonder whether he actually believes what he is peddling.

Hat-tip for this entry: Respectful Insolence.

#1818: Doug Kaufmann

Cancer quackery is possibly the worst – and most lucrative – form of quackery, and few types of cancer pseudoscience are sillier than Tullio Simoncini’s tinfoil-hat “cancer is really a fungus” idea. Now, Simoncini isn’t American, but he’s got a few champions in the US as well, including Doug Kaufmann, who has published his findings in peer reviewed scientific journals on youtube and various conspiracy websites, and given talk at quack conferences promoting the insanity (such as the annual convention of the Cancer Control Society, a hardcore pseudoscience and conspiracy group). He’s got his own website, too, Know The Cause, where he claims that virtually every chronic disease is caused by fungus, including diabetes, malnutrition, allergies, arthritis, asthma and a host of others (for the details you can, of course, purchase his book, but I think you already see where this is going).

Evidence? Not really, but Kaufmann doesn’t really seem to know anything about medicine, physiology or how to evaluate evidence, so of course he’d think he has some evidence, for instance a study that shows that lung cancer patients turn out to have fungal infections. Well, it’s not a study, but a letter to the American Journal of Roentgenology that points out the dangers of misdiagnoses among lung cancer patients, and that an investigation among patients with suspicious lung lesions showed that some of the lesions actually had other causes (not actual misdiagnosis – just a reminder of the danger of misdiagnoses) – a staggering 0.6% of them fungal infections. To Kaufmann, however (“my take”), this means that it is “impossible” to tell lung cancer from fungal infections, from which he infers (by contradicting his own premise about the impossibility of a diagnosis) that all cancers are fungal infections. Elsewhere Kaufmann is truly overwhelmed by how fascinating70 year old books about cancer are: they even acknowledge the possibility of misdiagnosing fungal infections as cancer, which is, contrary to what Kaufmann thinks, not exactly evidence for his view that it is impossible for doctors today to tell. And the old books are indeed rather different than books on cancer today, for the obvious reason that we have gained staggering amounts of new knowledge of cancer the last couple of decades and much of the old ideas and musings have been falsified. Kaufmann, though, sees a conspiracy: “What did these texts know that today’s medical textbooks really didn’t know?” To which the correct answer is “nothing, of course,” but Kaufmann has already demonstrated that he is systematically going to choose wrong answers.

Kaufmann has apparently heard that some scientists thinks genes may have something to do with cancer but, noting that there are still things we don’t know about genes and cancer, concludes with “I say” that fungus “mimicks cancer” and that “cancer” is a misdiagnosis. Yeah, that’s not how it works. 

In fairness, it is a bit unclear what Kaufmann’s “hypothesis” actually is, but much points to the idea being that fungal DNA fuses with human DNA and causes cancer, apparently mostly in the TP53 gene, which is an idea that is ridiculous in the extreme, given our knowledge of that gene and genetic testing of tumors. In more detail, Kaufmann’s approach appears to boil down to this (hat-tip Respectful Insolence):

- Fungi can produce most of human diseases

- Fungi can cause inflammation, which can contribute to cancer

- Fungus is in our food

- Pathogenic fungi can make Aflatoxin b1, which commonly contaminate the grain supply and is a potential carcinogens

Therefore fungi can cause cancer. It is hard to overestimate how ridiculous that idea is, or how confused and nonsensical the reasoning that goes into it. The scary thing, though, is that there are people who take this nonsense seriously.

Diagnosis: Seriously delusional, but his is a brand of crackpottery that has the potential to do real and serious harm. Dangerous.

Hat-tip for most of this entry: Respectful insolence.

#1817: Joel Kauffman

Back in 2008, avid science denialist, loon and senator Jim Inhofe compiled a list of “650” scientist who reject the scientific consensus that climate change is happening and is largely manmade. The list received ample criticism, not the least from many of the listed scientists themselves, since they did not at all question or deny AGW and would have no truck with Inhofe’s war on science. It is, however, rather interesting to look at some of the figures that made it onto the list. One of them was Joel Kauffman. Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (?). Kauffman thinks that global warming is not manmade, but that “primordial ionizing radiation from within warms the Earth,” which at this point is approximately as dumb as blaming ley lines. His, uh, thoughts on AGW have been published for instance in the Journal of Scientific Exploration (JSE), which is most famous for publishing articles on UFOs and parapsychology. Said thoughts include musings on why scientists tend to subscribe to AGW, and the explanation is – surprise – conspiracy. According to Kauffman, scientists are in a mafia-like conspiracy to promote truth AGW, and also control the media – and he uses that claim to justify his own use of non-refereed sources and conspiracy websites: “Because of the existence of a research cartel and media control in this field (Bauer, 2004), the readers’ forbearance in my use of websites and non-refereed sources is requested.” Bauer (2004) would be Henry Bauer, no less – most famous for promoting HIV denialism, e.g. in the paper Kauffman cites (also published in JSE, it turns out), but also a recognized cryptozoologist (he’s done some important work on the Loch Ness Monster, for instance) and an ESP “researcher”.

The HIV denialist connection is no coincidence. Kauffman also appears on Rethinking Aids’s list of HIV denialists, which, to put it mildly, does not reflect particularly well on him, and has himself published HIV denialist screeds e.g. in the pseudojournal JPANDS, currently most familiar perhaps for publishing Jane Orient’s hilariously inept and utterly delusional thought piece on how Hilary Clinton would be medically unfit for serving as president.

But Kauffman’s pseudoscience is not limited to AGW denialism and HIV denialism. In fact, Kauffman is probably best known as a cholesterol denialist, and has made appearances in, well, spam across the Internet promoting cholesterol pseudoscience – and why not? He has already established that scientists are in a mafia-like conspiracy to squelch pseudoscience and honest intuitions with instruments like evidence, truth and accountability, and that he is therefore free to rely on any hearsay or conspiracy he likes to support his own claims. His cholesterol denialism illustrates Kauffman’s general approach to facts rather well: “Cholesterol is highly protective against cancer, infection and atherosclerosis,” says Kauffman, and “high TC [total cholesterol] and LDL levels are beneficial at all ages.” Let’s hope no one listens to him, since this advice is, shall we say, not conducive to living long and prospering. Kauffman’s source is a paper by cholesterol-denialist guru Uffe Ravnskov, though Kauffman’s changes “may protect” to “are beneficial” without explanation, and just adds in “cancer” for good measure. Details, right?

Diagnosis: Professional crackpot, denialist and conspiracy theorist, and a good example of the power of crank magnetism. Though he’s not among the leaders or most widely recognized authorities in the anti-science movement, he casts his net wide and is likely to cause some real harm somewhere.