Maciej Giertych

Maciej Marian Giertych is a Polish dendrologist and social conservative fundamentalist politician of the League of Polish Families (LPR). He was a member of the Sejm (the lower house of the Polish parliament) between 2001 and 2004, and a Polish member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2009. He was also a candidate in the 2005 Polish presidential elections, but withdrew due to lack of popularity. He is the father of Roman Giertych,Dicussed here the virulently anti-gay education minister (who was e.g. pushing for a bill allowing gay teachers to be fired and who is an honorary member of the skinhead organization All Polish Youth) in the Kaczyński government in Poland (later fired). Maciej’s father was Jędrzej Giertych, a Catholic traditionalist known for suggesting that Jews ought to be removed from Poland.
As a "scientist", Giertych is most notable for being a staunch young Earth creationist, and a signatory to the CMI list of scientists alive today who accept the biblical account of creation and A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism, though his credentials are genuine and he does, in fact, have real publications to his name.
==Political views==
Giertych is staunchly (well, rabidly) opposed to homosexuality and moral relativism. The latter appears to mean anything that disagrees with a literal reading of the Bible, the way Giertych prefers to read it. Although he condemned National Socialism in an address to the European Parliament because Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler had an "atheistic and socialistic taste about them," he praised Francisco Franco, António de Salazar and Éamon de Valera as guardsmen of traditional European values.Article in Polish He has written against Freemasonry from a Polish nationalist-Catholic perspective for publishing, which has published several anti-Semitic authors.I tak nie przemogą! Antykościół, antypolonizm, masoneria (Nortom, 2000) He is an avowed anti-Semite, and in February 2007 he sparked outrage among European Union officials and Jewish organizations by publishing a brochure called Civilisations at war in Europe.Haaretz, MEP's anti-Semitic booklet sparks outrage, Article from February 19, 2007.
One wonders what Giertych would say about the various locations called in the United States. 
Furthermore, Jews are "dishonest" and not to be trusted, and the cause of the dishonesty of this "tragic community, a people that has not recognised the time of its visitation" is that they have not recognized "Jesus Christ as the awaited Messiah."John Lynch, post from April 13, 2008
==Creationism==
A staunch creationist, Giertych is an honorary member of the Daylight Origins Society, a creationist UK-based organization. He has denied that he advocates teaching creationism in schools, saying that he is “a scientist – a population geneticist with a degree from Oxford University and a PhD from the University of Toronto – and I am critical of the theory of evolution as a scientist, with no religious connotation,”Letter to Nature; Nature, 444, 265 (16 November 2006) which would obviously explain why he signed both the Discovery Institute’s A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism as well as Creation Ministries International’s list of scientists who accept the biblical account of creation. He is also the author of Creation rediscovered.
In 2008 Giertych appeared in Ben Stein’s movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Some have pointed out the irony – with regard to a movie that tried to link evolution to the Nazi genocide – in the fact that the only avowed anti-Semite interviewed was a creationist. His main point in the movie was the tired and repeatedly refuted canard that "evolution does not produce new genetic information."A fine debunking at Good Math, Bad Math, of this particular claim, posted April 2008.
===Creationism in the European Parliament===
As for his claims regarding creationism and public education, on October 11, 2006, he introduced and moderated a pro-creationist seminar held in Brussels for members of the European Parliament; the title of the presentation was Teaching evolutionary theory in Europe. Is your child being indoctrinated in the classroom?Ulrich Kutschera, Devolution and Dinosaurs: The Anti-Evolution Seminar in the European Parliament, Reports of the National Center for Science Education, Volume: 26(5), 2006, pp.10–11. At the meeting, Giertych explained his views on what he called “the falsified hypothesis of macroevolution, the emergence of new body plans as documented in the fossil record." Apparently genetics research provides no evidence of, but "only disproof" for, the concept of common ancestry of life, and he questioned the value of teaching such “wrong theories" in public schools.
The public anti-evolution seminar in question was co-organized by Dominique Tassot, director of Centre d'Etude et de Prospectives sur la Science, an association of French-speaking Catholic intellectuals (including a few active researchers) who rejects evolution because it conflicts with the Bible.
===Letter to Nature===
Giertych's bizarre letter to NatureLetter to Nature; Nature, 444, 265 (16 November 2006) was a response to Nature’s coverage of the religiously motivated lectures presented at the European Parliament seminar, and showed him to be a skilled Gish-galloper. Giertych’s alleged evidence that disproves evolution:
It is all there, from macro- vs. microevolution,talk.origins on the macro- vs. microevolution PRATT here through “geological strata”,talk.origins on the strata PRATT here, to human-dinosaur coexistence. The letter also included the claim that all mutations are deleterious.Once again, the relevant talk.origins page is here
==See also==
*Uncool Polish stuff
==References==
Category:Antisemites
Category:European politicians
Category:Homophobes
Category:Living people
Category:Pseudoscience promoters