Everything about Duane Gish totally explained
Duane Tolbert Gish (born
February 17 1921) is an
American biochemist who is one of the most prominent and outspoken members of the
creationist movement. Gish was formerly vice-president of the
Institute for Creation Research and the author of numerous publications on the subject of
creation science. A strong critic of
Darwinian evolution and proponent for the
teaching of creation science in schools, he's been a
peripatetic advocate, touring throughout the United States and other countries, to deliver lectures and participate in public debates with supporters of
biological evolution.
Biography
Gish, a twin, was born in
White City,
Kansas, the youngest of nine children. He received a B.S. degree from
UCLA in
1949 and a Ph.D. in
biochemistry from the
University of California, Berkeley in
1953. He worked as an Assistant Research Associate at Berkeley, and Assistant Professor at
Cornell University Medical College performing biomedical and biochemical research for eighteen years, joining the
Upjohn Company as a Research Associate in
1960.
In 1971 Gish became a member of the faculty at
San Diego Christian College working in their research division, before accepting a position at the
Institute for Creation Research (independent since 1981). He is the author of
several books and articles espousing the tenets of
creationism. His best known work,
Evolution: The Fossils Say No!, published in 1978, has been widely accepted by antievolutionists as an authoritative reference for creationist concepts. Gish has been a frequent debator with prominent scientists working in evolution, and is active promoting creationism through seminars and lectures. Gish currently holds the position of Senior Vice-President
Emeritus at the ICR.
Beliefs regarding creationism and evolution
First a practicing
Methodist at age ten, and later becoming a fundamentalist in the
Baptist church, Gish has long held that Biblical creation story was an historical fact. He then joined the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA), an association of Christian scientists, mistakenly assuming the group to be aligned with creationism. Through his affiliation at the ASA, Gish met
geneticist and creationist, William J. Tinkle, who in 1961 invited Gish to join his newly formed anti-evolution caucus within the ASA. Gish initially regarded the Earth's age as irrelevant to creationism, but later became convinced of a
Young Earth, in line with other ICR members.
Gish uses a standardized presentation during debates. While undertaking research for a debate with Gish,
Michael Shermer noted that for several debates Gish's opening, assumptions about his opponent, slides and even jokes remained identical. In the debate itself, Shermer stated he wasn't an atheist and willing to accept the existence of a divine creator, but Gish's rebuttal concerned itself primarily with proving that Shermer was an atheist and therefore immoral. Others have accused Gish of stonewalling arguments with fabricated facts or figures.
During a debate with
Ian Plimer, who considered it a political rather than scientific debate, Gish was verbally attacked and ridiculed for his beliefs in a manner observers described as 'street-fighting'. Gish described the debate as "the most disgusting performance I've ever witnessed in my life." Examples of
Triceratops precursors include
Monoclonius and
Protoceratops with changes in bony frill, size and number of horns predicted by the theory of evolution. has been rebutted in turn.
Claiming that Solly Zuckerman had access to modern knowledge of Australopithecus yet still stated they were not ancestors of Homo sapiens; Zuckerman's original conclusions were based on evidence available before Lucy was discovered, a fossil which revolutionized the field of physical anthropology. The overwhelming scientific consensus is that Gish's claim is false.
Claiming that Parasaurolophus used its distinctive crest as a mixing chamber for breathing fire. This hypothesis is regarded as a folkloric myth which shouldn't be taken literally, and there's no evidence of the other features that would be needed. The scientific consensus at the time Gish made the claim was that the crest was used as a resonating chamber to produce vocalisations.
Gish appeared on Penn and Teller's Showtime television show Bullshit! in 2004, stating that creation and evolution were equally scientific, that both were in fact non-scientific, offering as proof his belief that the Grand Canyon was created by the rupture of a natural dam, cutting through layers deposited during the Biblical flood. In the same episode, Eugenie Scott noted that Gish hadn't kept up with the relevant literature and hadn't done any professional research in his field since his work at Upjohn, instead producing only creationism-related work for a popular audience.
Publications
Footnotes
Further Information
Get more info on 'Duane Gish'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://duane_gish.totallyexplained.com">Duane Gish Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
