Wikipedia

Jonathan Wells (intelligent design advocate)

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Steve Dufour (talk | contribs) at 18:38, 4 November 2006 (→"Destroying Darwinism"). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

John Corrigan "Jonathan" Wells is an intelligent design activist, Fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture[1]. He is a prominent supporter of intelligent design and denies the predominant scientific views of both evolution and that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the sole cause of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).[2][3] Both intelligent design and AIDS reappraisal are considered pseudoscience by the scientific community.[4][5][6][3]

File:Jonwells.jpg

Background

"Destroying Darwinism"

In 1964 Wells was conscripted into the US Army and served for two years. In 1967 he was recalled as a reservist, but refused, was court-marshalled and jailed for a year and a half[7].

After graduating from Sun Myung Moon's Unification Theological Seminary in 1978, Wells earned two doctorates - one in theology at Yale University and the other in molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley.

The website Notable Names Database says about him:

Chosen by his church to receive advanced education, Wells began his PhD at Berkeley explicitly for the purpose of gaining credentials for the fight against evolution. He claims to have done research as a developmental biology post-doc at UC Berkeley, but didn't. Instead, his post-doc at Berkeley was an unpaid title arranged by Phillip Johnson. Shortly after getting his PhD he joined the Discovery Institute.[8]

In an essay posted to the tparents.org website, Wells has written:

"Father's [Sun Myung Moon's] words, my studies, and my prayers convinced me that I should devote my life to destroying Darwinism, just as many of my fellow Unificationists had already devoted their lives to destroying Marxism. When Father chose me (along with about a dozen other seminary graduates) to enter a Ph.D. program in 1978, I welcomed the opportunity to prepare myself for battle."[9]

Wells' statement has been used many times by scientists to question Wells's objectivity and to highlight his motivation. The Discovery Institute have stated in response that "Darwinists have resorted to attacks on Dr. Wells’s religion"[10].

Publication history

Wells has published papers not on ID in peer-reviewed scientific journals. In 1985 Wells published a review paper in Biosystems entitled "Inertial force as a possible factor in mitosis"[11]. In 1996 Wells jointly wrote two scientific papers on development in Xenopus laevis which probably arose out his doctoral work. The papers are:

  • Larabell CA, Rowning BA, Wells, J, Wu M, Gerhart JC. Confocal microscopy analysis of living Xenopus eggs and the mechanism of cortical rotation. Development. 1996 Apr;122(4):1281-9. [12]
  • Rowning BA, Wells J, Wu M, Gerhart JC, Moon RT, Larabell CA. Microtubule-mediated transport of organelles and localization of beta-catenin to the future dorsal side of Xenopus eggs. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1997 Feb 18;94(4):1224-9.[13]

Anti-creationists have criticized his credentials on the basis of this low level of output[14]. The Discovery Institute has said that "Dr Wells’s scientific credentials are impeccable and speak for themselves."[10].

Intelligent design

In 2000, Wells wrote the intelligent design book Icons of Evolution, in which Wells discusses ten examples which he believes prove that many of the most commonly accepted arguments for the validity of evolution are invalid. The book's title is a reference to the "March of Progress", one of culture's most recognisable graphic icons. The drawing, by Rudy Zallinger, was published in the Time-Life book Early Man in 1970 and shows the sequence of primates walking from left to right, starting with an ape on the left, progressing through a series of apemen, and finishing with a modern Cro-Magnon male on the right. A version of the drawing adorns the cover of Wells's book, and Wells describes it as the "ultimate icon" of evolution. Wells's assertions and conclusion in the book are largely rejected by the scientific community.

In 2005 Wells published a paper entitled "Do Centrioles Generate a Polar Ejection Force?" in Rivista di Biology/Biology Forum[15]. The Discovery Institute lists this paper as a "featured article" on their list of "Peer-Reviewed & Peer-Edited Scientific Publications Supporting the Theory of Intelligent Design"[16]. Rivista di Biology/Biology Forum is edited by Italian creationist Giuseppe Sermonti and criticized for its publication of research outside the general scientific consensus and viewed by some as pseudoscience[17]. Wells' paper "assumes that [ centrioles ] are holistically designed to be turbines", and goes on to develop a hypothesis of how they work[18].

Also in 2005 Wells attended at taxpayer expense the Kansas evolution hearings, which were boycotted by mainstream scientists. Wells contradicted his earlier testimony by insisting that "I became convinced that the Darwinian theory is false because it conflicts with the evidence." When questioned about the age of the earth, he replied "I think the earth is probably four-and-a-half billion or so years old. ... But the truth is I have not looked at the evidence. And I have become increasingly suspicious of the evidence that is presented to me and that's why at this point I would say probably it's four-and-a-half billion years old, but I haven't looked at the evidence."[19]

In 2006 Wells' book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design was published.

AIDS reappraisal

Wells' view on AIDS has been a source of controversy. Wells, along with fellow Discovery Institute member Phillip E. Johnson, deny the mainstream scientific view that HIV is the cause of AIDS and signed the The Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV-AIDS Hypothesis AIDS reappraisal petition calling for a "reappraisal of the evidence" for the connection between HIV and AIDS.[2]

Books

References

  1. ^ http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=41&isFellow=true
  2. ^ a b The Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV-AIDS Hypothesis
  3. ^ a b Is It Science Yet?: Intelligent Design Creationsim And The Constitution Matthew J. Brauer, Barbara Forrest, Steven G. Gey. Washington University Law Quarterly, Volume 83, Number 1, 2005. (PDF file)
  4. ^ National Science Teachers Association, a professional association of 55,000 science teachers and administrators in a 2005 press release: "We stand with the nation's leading scientific organizations and scientists, including Dr. John Marburger, the president's top science advisor, in stating that intelligent design is not science.…It is simply not fair to present pseudoscience to students in the science classroom." National Science Teachers Association Disappointed About Intelligent Design Comments Made by President Bush National Science Teachers Association Press Release August 3 2005
  5. ^ Defending science education against intelligent design: a call to action Journal of Clinical Investigation 116:1134-1138 American Society for Clinical Investigation, 2006.
  6. ^ Echoes of Lysenko: State-Sponsored Pseudoscience in South Africa University of Cape Town, Centre for Social Science Research. (PDF file)
  7. ^ Reservist Is Jailed By Army for Refusal To Report for Duty New York Times, April 28, 1968 (requires subscription)
  8. ^ Jonathan Wells, Notable Names Database
  9. ^ Darwinism: Why I Went for a Second Ph.D. Jonathan Wells. The Words of the Wells Family
  10. ^ a b The Real Truth about Jonathan Wells from the Discovery Institute.
  11. ^ Inertial force as a possible factor in mitosis - PubMed entry
  12. ^ Larabell CA, Rowning BA, Wells, J, Wu M, Gerhart JC. Confocal microscopy analysis of living Xenopus eggs and the mechanism of cortical rotation. Development. 1996 Apr;122(4):1281-9.
  13. ^ link Rowning BA, Wells J, Wu M, Gerhart JC, Moon RT, Larabell CA. Microtubule-mediated transport of organelles and localization of beta-catenin to the future dorsal side of Xenopus eggs. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1997 Feb 18;94(4):1224-9
  14. ^ Wells as Scientist John M. Lynch. The Panda's Thumb. April 30 2004.
  15. ^ "Do Centrioles Generate a Polar Ejection Force?"
  16. ^ Peer-Reviewed & Peer-Edited Scientific Publications Supporting the Theory of Intelligent Design (Annotated) by the Discovery Institute
  17. ^ Revisiting Revista
  18. ^ http://www.pandasthumb.org/archives/2006/08/wells_vs_tiny_f.html
  19. ^ Testimony, Jonathan Wells Kansas evolution hearings.

Official/creationists

Debates

Criticism

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jonathan_Wells_(intelligent_design_advocate)&oldid=85698237"