Rhawn Joseph

Rhawn Gabriel JosephRhawn Gabriel Joseph is an American author, internet kook, ufologist and promoter of pseudoscience known for his controversial views on the origin of life on Earth and the origin of the Universe.Rhawn Joseph's Scientific Publications & Biography, BrainMind.com#1809: Rhawn Joseph He has filed numerous lawsuits against NASA, Amazon.com, academic publisher Springer and the City of San Jose which have been dismissed.
Joseph is involved with the pseudojournal Journal of Cosmology and is the author of Astrobiology: The Origins of Life and the Death of Darwinism, published in 2001. In the book he writes that "Contrary to Darwinism … the evidence now clearly indicates, that the evolution of life had been genetically predetermined and precoded…" The book appears to be self-published under the deceptive "Publisher: University Pr" -- not Press, but Pr, and, oh, which university -- which does not appear to have published any other books.
The Encyclopedia of American Loons describes Joseph as a pseudoscientist and "serious crackpot with a vanity journal". He is an advocate of quantum woo and has argued that plants have consciousness.
==On the origin of life, evolution and the Big Bang==
Joseph is an advocate of directed panspermia and has developed his own hypothesis about the origins of life on Earth. He believes that life did not originate on Earth but was transplanted here by "cosmic seeds" encased in space debris 700 million years after the formation of the planet. He claims that these genetic seeds filled with DNA contained the genetic instructions for the metamorphosis of all life, including human beings. He also rejects the neo-Darwinian synthesis, instead advocating a form of non-Darwinian evolution which he describes as a "pre-determined evolutionary metamorphosis" that is pre-programmed in DNA of all terrestrial life.
 
Joseph has published a number of fringe papers on panspermia with in the Journal of Cosmology. 
Joseph argues that many of the mainstream scientific positions that he rejects, including abiogenesis and the Big Bang are actually religion masquerading as science. He argues that the Big Bang is rooted in the Genesis account of the Bible and unsupported by cosmological evidence. In his own words:
==Ufology==
Joseph believes that UFOs are intelligent life forms that are associated with electromagnetic activity and have behaviour patterns and characteristics which could be construed as plasmas.Biological UFOs: Evidence for Extraterrestrial Extremophiles and Life in Space In 2012, he authored Biological UFOs: Evidence for Extraterrestrial Extremophiles and Life in Space which argued:
Such ideas are not original in the UFO community. For example, promoted similar ideas in the 1970s. Joseph also believes in the existence of giant algae/amoeboid entities which feed on energy sources, a view also held by Constable. On his website, Joseph has written:
===Extraterrestrial Life in the Thermosphere===
In 2024, Joseph co-authored a paper, "Extraterrestrial Life in the Thermosphere" which argued that plasmas engage in life-like behaviours such as "hunter-predatory" behaviour, and these plasmas may account for many Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) sightings including the "foo fighters" of World War II.Extraterrestrial Life in the Thermosphere: Plasmas, UAP, Pre-Life, Fourth State of Matter The paper has been laughed at by many in the academic world for its unrealistic claims. It was published by , a noted predatory publisher.
Matthew Szydagis an associate professor of physics at the University of Albany has dismissed the paper as pseudoscience.Plasma Follies?.
==Lawsuits==
As a pro se litigant Joseph has filed many lawsuits that have been dismissed.
===Amazon===
In 2012, Joseph filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com alleging that Amazon regularly "publishes and copyrights defamatory and libelous statements about competitors including Plaintiff" and Amazon have attempted to defraud him by failing to pay him appropriate advertising referral fees.Joseph v. Amazon.Com, Inc. The case was dismissed in 2014.Joseph v. Amazon.com, Inc. et al, No. 2:2013cv01656 - Document 86 (W.D. Wash. 2014)
===NASA===
In 2014, Joseph filed a lawsuit against NASA as he claimed they failed to investigate whether a rock seen on Mars is in fact an alien lifeform.Joseph v. Nat'l Aeronautics & Space Admin. (NASA)Lawsuit Alleges NASA Is Failing To Investigate Alien LifeHilarious 'Mars Fungus' Lawsuit Filed Against NASA
In September 2016, Joseph filed another lawsuit against NASA which was dismissed with prejudice.Joseph v. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) et al
===Springer===
In 2020, Joseph filed a lawsuit against the academic publisher who he contends conspired to cover up his discoveries and defraud him as they retracted some of his papers about extraterrestrial life.Joseph v. Nasa, Springer Nature Am.Case 1:20-cv-04672-JPC-GWGCourt tosses $50 billion suit by ‘prince of panspermia’ against Springer Nature His original complaint was criticized:
The case was dismissed with prejudice in April 2021.Case 1:20-cv-04672-JPC-GWGJoseph v. Nature After losing the lawsuit, Joseph bizarrely claimed that the judge who dismissed his case is a "fraud" who was bribed:
===City of San Jose===
In 2018, Joseph was involved in a feud with his next-door neighbour over light intrusion onto his property. Joseph has alleged that his neighbour hated him for his "race, religion, and sexual orientation".https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.339367/gov.uscourts.cand.339367.166.0.pdf He also alleged that San Jose Code Inspector Jason Gibilisco "likely solicited and accepted money from and entered into a conspiracy with [Plaintiff’s neighbor] to [] commit hate crimes against Plaintiff, based on [Plaintiff’s neighbor’s] perceptions of Plaintiff’s race, religion, sexual orientation".
Joseph filed a lawsuit against the City of San Jose as he alleged they told him to strip eight of his cypress trees from their base up to five feet as they were in violation of certain municipal code provisions.https://storage.courtlistener.com/pdf/2023/10/12/rhawn_joseph_v._city_of_san_jose.pdf He alleged that this would affect their aesthetic value and endanger their health, and that the City did not provide him with a code violation. He argued that the First Amendment should offer free speech protection for his cypress trees as they are symbols of his religious beliefs.No First Amendment Protection for 12 Cypress Trees
Joseph alleged that the 12 cypress trees that he planted have a mystical and religious significance:
It turned out however that Joseph has no religious affiliation, but he holds "spiritual beliefs" including the idea that plants have consciousness.
The lawsuit was dismissed in 2023.
Similar to other lawsuits that Joseph filed that have been dismissed, his summary judgment motions were described as "filled with hyperbole, ad hominem attacks, conclusory statements masquerading as statements of fact along with a generous smattering of irrelevant content".Case No. 19-cv-01294-RMI
In October 2023, Joseph appealed the dismissal.
==Reception==
Joseph has been criticized by the scientific community for embracing unorthodox mechanisms of evolution. In one instance, the biologist P.Z. Myers ridiculed a claim by Joseph that a rock found on Mars is a living organism similar to a type of fungus existing on Earth.Funny Looking Rock found on Mars! He has also made controversial comments about sex, including "Biologically, females serve one purpose: to get pregnant".Sex On Mars: Pregnancy, Fetal Development, and Sex In Outer Space
==Selected publications==
*Life on Venus and the interplanetary transfer of biota from Earth (retracted in 2020)Retraction Note to: Life on Venus and the interplanetary transfer of biota from Earth
==External links==
*BrainMind.com, Rhawn Joseph's website
*Sarastarlight, a YouTube user who uploads RJ's videos
==References==
Category:Authors
Category:Cosmology
Category:Internet kooks
Category:Pseudoscience promoters
Category:Atheists
Category:Living people
Category:Quantum woo
Category:Ufology