Although Albert Gotch has a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, his understanding of and appreciation of science is sorely lacking. Gotch is a young-earth creationist, board-member of the Kansas-based fundie creationist organization Citizens for Objective Public Education (COPE), Director of the Stark County Home School Association, and at some point Executive Director of the Akron Fossils & Science Center, a small roadside creation museum (not the famous one) in Ohio. Now, we’ve covered COPE before, but as a brief reminder: the group received some attention in 2013 for filing a suit challenging Kansas’s science standards because they include the teaching of evolution, which COPE claims is a religion on the de facto grounds that it conflicts with their religious views.
Gotch himself has been a tireless campaigner against science in public schools for decades. In 2004, for instance, he was a signatory to a creationist petition to get Ohio to adopt lesson plans for public schools that would “teach the controversy” over evolution that creationists imagine exists over evolution. Given his general attitude toward facts, it is hardly surprising that Gotch’s name also appears on Frederick Seitz’s Oregon Petition in support of climate change denialism.
Diagnosis: Denialist dolt and conspiracy theorist. Back in the days, we would have spent much more time on delusional nonsense clowns like Gotch … and maybe we should have, for idiotic nonsense like Gotch’s has found new champions on today’s wingnut circuit. Gotch himself, however, is little more than a doddering old fool.
