#619: David DeWitt

Dr. David A. DeWitt, a neuroscientist with some background in biochemistry, is nevertheless on CMI’s list of scientists who accept a Biblical account of creation. Those who suspect a modicum of compartmentalization, dishonesty, and self-delusion are thus in for some easy predictions. DeWitt is a frequent contributor to Answers in Genesis, and responsible for a lot of AiG’s most egregious bullshit on evolution. He has also had some publications in Answers in Genesis’s House Journal, Answers, and his work has been used as a source in Ray Comfort’s legendary “Evolution: A Fairy-Tale for Grownups”, which is not something good people would mention on their CVs.

So where do you take your career when you have a real degree but no real understanding of the method of the field in which you have your degree? Yes, DeWitt is no less than the Director of the Center for Creation Studies at Falwell’s Liberty University, and teaches their mandatory “creation studies” course. You can see a report from an “advanced section” of his class (for biology majors) here, where he uses the movie “March of the Penguins” to illustrate that the penguins that get eaten are the ones who are unlucky (or, more likely, evil), not the ones who are less adapted. Hence evolution is false. Duh.

His book, Unraveling the Origins Controversy, is reviewed here. The reviewer (Rosenhouse) had to take issue with some examples of quote-mining, dishonesty, and distortions. Who would have suspected.

DeWitt and one Jed Macosko were also biological advisors to the free webgame CellCraft, and it sort of shows, in a rather subversive manner. He was also credited in Frank Peretti’s novel Monster, which really tells you all you need to know.

Diagnosis: Standard, zealous fuckwit, responsible for churning out shitloads of ignorant addleheads through his classes at Liberty U, and hence a significant negative force in the world these days.

#616: Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Nancy Leigh DeMoss is a hardcore dominionist wingnut and author of Lies Women Believe: And the Truththat Sets them Free, which has apparently sold some copies worldwide. The purpose of the tract is to identify (40) lies that have been told to women. Among the obvious ones are the lie that women have rights, as well as any claim that religion is not the be all – end all for women, or that continuous, daily prayer is optional. The whole rag is really just a more fundamentalist religious rewrite of this one, and other notable lies include:

- “A career outside the home is more valuable and fitting than being a wife and mother.”

- “If I submit to my husband, I'll be miserable.”

- “Sometimes divorce is a better option than staying in a bad marriage.”

- “It's up to us to determine the size of our family.”

- “Children need to get exposed to the ‘real world’ so that they can learn to function in it.”

- “I shouldn't have to suffer.”

In short, Satan – who controls most of the media – has managed to implement his grand schemes (birth control, in particular) in modern culture, leading – according to DeMoss – to acceptance of infanticide. Using contraception is furthering Satan’s grand plan. Indeed, trying to avoid suffering and achieve fulfillment is inherently Satanic lustfulness and should be dealt with accordingly.

DeMoss also appears to be behind Answers In Genesis’s quiz about modesty. You can guess the drift; the designated “correct” answer for “I can't help it if guys struggle morally because of what I wear. It's up to the guys to control their minds. I shouldn't have to change the way I dress just because they can't control themselves” is “false”).

DeMoss also appears to lead the True Woman movement, whose goals are to lead women back to the kitchen where they belong, in accordance with the Bible or DeMoss’s deranged, psycopathic lunacy. It is a little striking that their heroes seem to be the notoriously un-kitchen-bound  Michele Bachmann and Phyllis Schlafly, but then again I suppose few expected coherence from this gang.

Diagnosis: Pure evil, hatred, and Taliban mysogyny packed in cupcakes, fire and brimstone. Despite appearances I wouldn’t quite count them off as a threat to human advancement and well-being. 

#600: Bill Cunningham

Bill Cunningham is, essentially, a slimmer and possibly slightly dumber version of Rush Limbaugh. He hosts a couple of conservative radio shows as well as his own national TV show. He is also a commentator/contributor for Fox News, and fits their profile rather perfectly. Cunningham is, for instance, a perceptive and profound critic of Obama (and what he allegedly takes to be Obama’s plans to revive the Holocaust). In 2008, for instance, Cunningham discussed the life of Obama's father, remarking that “his father was a typical black father who, right after the birth, left the baby. That's what black fathers do. They simply leave.” He also weighs in with facts and reason on redistributive justice, arguing for the position that poor people are poor because they “lack values, ethics and morals,” and advocates “beat(ing) the hell outta homeless people” as a measure to solve the problem of homelessness – if they just take a good beating once in a while they’ll probably stop being homeless.

Of course, this is what wingnut talkshow hosts say. They simply spew nonsense and vitriol. Are such comments sufficient to qualify Cunningham for an entry in our Encyclopedia? Well, Cunningham – a local hero in the dimmer parts of Cincinnati, Kentucky – has made some efforts to settle that question, in particular with his furious attacks on the Cincinnati Zoo for pulling out of a promotional partnership with the local Creation Museum, probably realizing that teaming up with such a monument to anti-science wouldn’t help their credibility. In Cunningham’s mind, however, the zoo “buckled under” when faced with “intolerance of Christianity”. It is worth quoting Cunningham at some length: “We cannot put up with a religiously based discriminatory organization and the bigots at the Cincinnati Zoo who would do this to the Creation Museum. It's not necessarily about the museum; it's about publicly practiced bigoted racial discrimination against individuals who have a different faith set. Whether it's race discrimination or religious discrimination, it cannot stand.”

Yes, Cunningham is qualified for an entry.

Diagnosis: At least he doesn’t buckle in the face of reason, reality and sanity. His impact is probably limited to those already in the grips of Rush Limbaugh, but Cunningham should be watched nonetheless.

#594: Daniel C. Criswell

Keep ‘em coming. Daniel C. Criswell is yet another creationist associated with the Institute for Creation Research, and just like the recently covered Charles Creager, he qualifies for an entry primarily through his contribution to the Answers Research Journal, the house journal of Answers in Genesis. To Vol. 2 Criswell contributed the bizarre article “A Review of Mitoribosome Structure and Function Does not Support the Serial Endosymbiotic Theory”, a review of the literature on the serial endosymbiotic theory (SET) (one that creationists have tried to criticize before), before suddenly pulling out irreducible complexity, therefore God, at the end. The justification for the latter move seems to be: see, I know the literature; therefore what I pull out of my ass must be taken seriously as well.

He has also written vol.3 of Science Education Essentials, a creationist curriculum supplement series that “covers” vital topics in the various science disciplines from a thoroughly biblical viewpoint (vol.3 is “Human heredity: teacher supplement”), which is directed at the homeschooling market, and which again illustrates the fact that creationists are most concerned with getting Jesus to children, not to engage in scientific research.

Diagnosis: Same as always. Really.

#592: Charles Creager jr.

Charles Creager has a bachelor of science degree from BobJones University and is thus a well-qualified creation scientist. His main claim to fame is his publication in the first volume of the Answers Research Journal (the house journal of Answers in Genesis) titled “Mars, a Testament to Catastrophe”. In this delightful article Creager claims to present evidence that Mars had a global flood as well. (Come on: it wouldn’t be consistent with the Bible if God only flooded the humans and not the Martians, would it?) He presents no new data, but insanely twists and tortures existing data from Mars rover missions (see this one) to suit his results. The scholarly references in the article are to press releases and only the pictures on NASA’s website.

Creager doesn’t seem to have contributed much else to science – though he runs his own creationist website, the Genesis Mission and had a paper “Entropy and Applied Energy” published in Creation Research Society Quarterly in 2012 – but the aforementioned paper is alone sufficient to earn him an honored place in our Encyclopedia.

Diagnosis: A rather cute attempt at “we want to do science too” without having the faintest idea what science is.