#1313: Kerby Anderson

Kerby Anderson is president of Probe Ministries and has for a long time the host of the religious radio program Point of View. He is also author of several political and theological books, including A Biblical Point Of View On Islam and A Biblical Point Of View On Homosexuality. You can sort of identify the contents from the covers. Apart from that Anderson pushes most of the standard talking points of fundie talkshow hosts, usually governed by the standard doomsayer conviction that the US is a nation in decline, despite the fact that virtually all measurable parameters suggest the opposite (but Anderson has rarely been very concerned with backing up his claims with evidence; case in point here). And, according to Anderson, it is all due to “spiritual factors” (i.e. the fact that younger generations tend to have political views and interests that are different from Anderson’s). To bolster his claims, he cites “historians”.

So yes, Anderson has his views on homosexuality and people of other religions than his own. He is also a creationist. Of course, officially he promotes intelligent design (ID), which he claims is entirely different – according to Anderson, ID is not a religious idea, and the Discovery Institute, for instance, is pursuing it as a scientific theory and not as something that should be part of the public school curriculum in its present state. Furthermore, according to Anderson, who is apparently entirely unable to understand that evidence against evolution, even if such should exist, is not evidence in favor of ID – that’s not how science works – intelligent design is a testable, scientific idea. Anderson is, moreover, the co-editor of Creation, Evolution, and Modern Science with Ray Bohlin, which suggests that he is at least dimly aware that his arguments are disingenuous.

By the way, Probe Ministries have their own research associates, including A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism signatory Jan Chatham.

Diagnosis: Standard religious fundie and anti-science champion, though, as most anti-science fundementalists, Anderson would of course be unwilling to categorize himself as such; his claims and actions make the conclusion hard to deny, however. But Anderson is also quite influential.