From: mikec@sail.LABS.TEK.COM (Micheal Cranford)
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic,talk.origins
Subject: Re: ICR Faculty update
Summary: Box-top degrees not required for ignorance but it helps
Keywords: diploma-mills creationism ignorance pseudoscience know-nothingism
Date: 11 Sep 92 20:34:53 GMT
Followup-To: talk.origins
Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or.

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  Our mainframe has been unable to post news articles for a few months.  This
is a repost of an article that I sent (unsuccessfully) some time ago.  I hope
that you will not find it too dated.

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TITLE : Creationists' Credentials (or is Ignorance really Bliss)


In a recent article allenroy@rigel.cs.pdx.edu (Callen Roy) writes:

  "Here is a fairly complete listing ICR faculty and their degrees, taken
   from the 1987-1988 ICR Graduate School catalog.  I have added, in
   parentheses, the fields in which they received their degrees, whenever
   I was able find this information." [ deleted stuff addressed below ]

    "[ ... ]
    * Bliss, Richard B....................Director of Curriculum Development
                      ....................Chairman of Science Education Dept.
    [ ... ] Ed.D. (Science Education Emphasis), University of Sarasota, 1978
    [ ... ]"

  The University of Sarasota is a nonaccredited diploma mill with no campus
and is located in a Florida motel.  Bliss wrote his "doctoral thesis" on the
"two-model" teaching of origins.  He has accused evolutionary scientists of
"intellectual dishonesty" and insists that he is "a recognized expert in the
field of science education".  Note that Bliss claims that he received his M.A.
in 1972 and not in 1978 as you have indicated above. [1]

  By the way, you seem to have missed Dr. Harold Slusher at the ICR.  Slusher
claims to have an honorary D.Sc from Indiana Christian University and a Ph.D
from Columbia Pacific University.  Indiana Christian is a Bible College with
a 1/2 man graduate science department (one person for both math and science)
and Columbia Pacific is nonaccredited. [2]

  On a related note, Dr. Kelly Seagraves of the Creation Science Research
Center (CSRC - a bitter rivel of the ICR) claimed to have both an M.A. and a
D.Sc until 1981.  After exposure his D.Sc suddenly changed to D.R.E. (doctor
of religious education).  He claims that his M.A. is from Sequoia University
although a search for that school proved fruitless.  The closest match was a
Sequoia College, which offers 2 year associate degrees (and has no record of
Seagraves).  He insists that his D.Sc was honorary from Christian University.
A computer search shows that school to be located in Jakarta, Indonesia. [1]

  Dr. Clifford Burdick (CSRC) claims to have a Ph.D in geology from the
University of Physical Sciences in Phoenix Arizona.  Unfortunately, neither
the Phoenix telephone book nor the State of Arizona Board of Regents has the
faintest idea where the school is located. [1]

  Dr. Carl Baugh claims to be an archaeologist with a Ph.D from the California
Graduate School of Theology in Glendale.  The Western Association of Schools
and Colleges says this school is nonaccredited (not to mention that theology
was expelled from science over 400 years ago). [3]

    "[ ... ]
    You'll note that some very well-known and respected universities are
    represented.
    [ ... ]"

  I have personally met creationists from both MIT and Stanford.  This does
not make creationism scientific, but rather shows just how immune some people
are to education.  If, for example, someone with a Ph.D in astronomy were to
claim that the sun orbits the earth [5], geocentrism would not suddenly become
scientific.  Having a degree is no guarantee of competence in any particular
field.  I personally know someone with a degree in physics who is unable to
calculate points on a circle using sines and cosines (and who incidentally
also endorses astrology and biorhythms).  Donald Chittick (physical chemist,
George Fox College, Newberg, Oregon) [6] claims that the lack of helium in the
earth's atmosphere proves that the earth is only about 10,000 years old.  You
would expect a chemist to know that the earth's gravity is not strong enough
to keep any really light (low mass) gas from continually escaping into space.

    "[ ... ]
    a *  marks the professors who were once Evolutionists.
    [ ... ]"

  The claims that some creationists make about having once been evolutionists
are largely regarded as specious since these people relentlessly misrepresent
evolution.  They are also unable to give any kind of coherent definition of
science.  During the 1982 "Balanced Treatment of Creation-Science [sic] and
Evolution-Science Act" trial in Little Rock Arkansas, W. Scott Morrow (chemist,
Wofford College, South Carolina) claimed to have once been an evolutionist and
rambled for more than an hour about how closed minded evolutionary scientists
were.  When Judge Overton asked him for just one example of a scientifically
valid creationist paper's having been rejected, Morrow was unable to respond
but went on to imply that the entire international scientific community was
engaged in a conspiracy.  He then said "I know a closed mind when I see one"
while referring to scientific colleagues.  After leaving the stand, he told
reporters that the judge wasn't paying attention and was obviously biased.


Creationists' Scientific Publications :

  Eugenie Scott and Henry Cole used SCI-SEARCH to do a 3-year scan of over 1000
scientific and technical journals looking for articles written by creationists.
Only 6 papers from creationists were published.  None of the papers were about
creationism.  They then checked submissions to journals and discovered that out
of 135000 submitted manuscripts only 18 covered creationism.  All were rejected
for several faults including "ramblings", "no coherent arguments", "high-school
theme quality", "tendentious essay not suitable for publication anywhere", "more
like a long letter than a referenced article", "no systematic treatment", "does
not define terms", and "flawed arguments".

  Scott and Cole ended up concluding "from the reviewers' comments, it appears
that laymen rather than professional scientists are submitting the few articles
that have surfaced the last 3 years".  "... when only 18 articles are submitted
to 68 journals in three years, and those articles are submitted apparently by
persons not skilled in established scientific methodology and theory, it is
inappropriate to invoke censorship." [4]


REFERENCES

  [1] On Creationism
    Free Inquiry, Spring 1982, volume 2, number 2, page 4.

  [2] Creationist Pseudoscience
    the Skeptical Inquirer, Fall 1983, volume VIII, number 1, page 32.

  [3] personal check via phone calls.

  [4] Evidence for Scientific Creationism
    Science, May 17, 1985, Vol. 228, page 837.


NOTES

  [5] Warning, this "for example" was not randomly chosen.

  [6] Donald Chittick is also a member of the (idiotic) ICR.


RECOMMENDED READING

  Repealing the Enlightenment, about the 1982 Arkansas equal-time trial.
    Harpers, April 1982, pp. 38-78.

  Creationism in Schools
  The Decision in McLean verses the Arkansas Board of Education.
    Science, February 19, 1982, volume 215, pp. 934-943.

  Reviews of Thirty-One Creationist Books,
    National Center for Science Education, 1984.

  Evolutionists Confront Creationists
    Proceedings of the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Pacific Division,
    American Association for the Advancement of Science,
      April, 1984, volume 1, part 3.

  Science and Creationism : A View from the National Academy of Sciences, 1984.

  Science as a Way of Knowing - Evolutionary Biology
    American Zoologist, volume 24, number 2, 1984.

  Crusade of the Credulous
    California Academy of Sciences Press, 1986.


    Meanwhile, I'm saving up box-tops and when I have enough, I'll get some
  degrees and become a scientific type person just like those creationists.


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