#1385: Phillip Bishop

Having scientific credentials is an indicator but no guarantee of scientific literacy, and Phillip Bishop is a case in point. Bishop is a Professor of Kinesiology at the University of Alabama, and has some publications in that field. He is, however, also a religious fundamentalist, and his commitment to fundamentalism has led him to reject science, reason and evidence as factors that will inform what he chooses to believe.

Bishop is, for instance, a creationist. He is a signatory to the feeble Discovery Institute petition A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism, but is most famous for his practice of teaching “optional” classes with a “Christian perspective” for his exercise physiology students, where he would promote creationism in particular. When his employers at the University asked him to stop, Bishop promptly  took them to court and lost. Of course, Bishop’s court case has subsequently (but of course) been widely used by creationists as a limitation of Academic freedom, since it is obviously a matter of academic freedom when a professor is denied the opportunity to use his classrooms to forcefeed his students his particular religious fancies.

He has also written a series of truly inane anti-science screeds for various fundamentalist venues (e.g. here).

Diagnosis: And as usual, the denialists promote their denialism through subversion, dishonesty and lying. Bishop may not be among the most influential, but he is anti-science, and uses whatever means he can to convert others to his cause.