Duane Gish

File:Duane Gish.jpg

Duane Gish

Duane Tolbert Gish (born February 17 1921) is an American young earth creationist, and former vice-president of the Institute for Creation Research.

Biography

Gish, a twin, was born in White City, Kansas, the youngest of nine children. He received a BS degree from UCLA in 1949 and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1953. He is the author of several books and articles espousing the tenets of creationism.

Gish was an Assistant Research Associate at Berkeley, and an Assistant Professor at Cornell University Medical College, before joining the Upjohn Company as a Research Associate in 1960. According to Sidney W. Fox "Duane Gish has scientific credentials. As a biochemist, he has synthesized peptides, compounds intermediate between amino acids and proteins. He has been co-author of a number of publications in peptide chemistry."

Though his detailed critiques of chemical evolution are viewed favorably among fellow creationists, they have not found acceptance within the mainstream scientific community.

He joined the faculty at San Diego Christian College (originally called Christian Heritage College) in 1971, one year after its inception, and worked for its research division, the Institute for Creation Research (ICR). The ICR became independent in 1981.

Controversy and criticism

Richard Trott wrote an article rebutting many of the arguments Duane Gish made during a presentation at Rutgers University in 1994. Trott wrote that "if Gish is one of the world's leading experts" on creation science then "evolutionary scientists have nothing to fear from [creation] science."

Trott has pointed out that Gish has "stated that there are no fossil precursors to the dinosaur Triceratops... for at least 12 years now," but this "is absolutely untrue." In fact, ceratopsian precursors of triceratops include, "for example, Monoclonius and Protoceratops." Furthermore, "this lineage appears in proper sequence in the fossil record" and "shows the expected developmental change in body size, size of the bony frill, and number of horns." Trott concludes "unfortunately, it is likely that none of Gish's audience was aware that his statement was completely contrary to fact. Gish promulgated similar falsehoods about the fossil record all night long."

Trott also claimed that Gish "emphasized that there were no 'transitional forms' in the fossil record but he did not explain what characteristics he would accept as 'transitional' (with the exception of a ludicrous gloss on what one would expect to see in the horns of Triceratops)." With bird fossils "Gish has, for example, declared that the reptile-bird transition Archaeopteryx was not a transition because it had feathers and flew and was, therefore, a bird." Trott noted "to make the absurd assertion that Archaeopteryx did not show features of a reptile, Gish must conceal from his audience facts about Archaeopteryx such as that it possessed a pubic peduncle and a long bony tail. These are features found in reptiles that are never found in birds."

Gish also claimed "Lord Solly Zuckerman, writing in 1970 that Australopithecus was probably not an ancestor of Homo sapiens, had more or less all the evidence that we have today." Trott noted that this statement "showed either incredible ignorance or a stunning lack of integrity" because "the field of physical anthropology underwent a revolution in the 1970s due to new discoveries." Indeed, Zuckerman wrote that his conclusions on Australopithecines were made at least three years before Lucy was discovered, and that he "didn't work with any of the original Australopithecine fossils. His conclusions were based on a cast of one half of the pelvis of a single specimen)."

Gish claims "that Neanderthals are now accepted as 'fully human Homo sapiens just like you and me.')." Yet, Trott wrote "Neanderthals were not 'just like you and me,' A Neanderthal had a longer and lower skull, a larger face and larger teeth, no chin or a slight chin, and a massive brow ridge in front of a differently shaped brain, as well as a distinctive skeletal structure."

In 2004, Gish appeared on Penn and Teller's Showtime television show Bullshit! on the episode "Creationism." On the show Gish explained that "neither creation nor evolution are scientific theories. Evolution is no more scientific than creation." The scientific proof Gish offered for creationism was that the Grand Canyon was created in one day during the Biblical flood that involved Noah's Ark. As for Gish's claim that there are no fossils to demonstrate evolution, Dr Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education noted "part of the problem is Dr. Gish hasn't kept up with the scientific literature." The host, Penn Jillette, concluded that "Duane doesn't want to find anything that will shake up his world view" and "his God lives only in the margins of science and he wants to keep those margins wide."

Gish is also one of the creationists most responsible for propragating the false assertion that evolution by natural selection is rendered impossible by the second law of thermodynamics. In addition to the usual scientists' criticisms, this has also received criticism from the comedian Dave Gorman, who personally met Gish during 2003 (see also Trivia below).

Debates

In his efforts to promote creation science, Gish has frequently debated prominent and well-known evolutionary scientists. Dr. Henry Morris reported that Duane Gish, who has had over 300 formal creation/evolution debates, “at least in our judgment and that of most in the audiences, he always wins.” [1] Opponents object to the often unstructured nature of the debates, what they call a "shotgun" approach to presenting many arguments, bouncing from one issue to another by continually throwing out new claims without bothering to answer previous objections, each of which would require considerable time and information to refute, a technique which has been referred to as the "Gish gallop." [2] [3] [4] Another objection from opponents is that creationists "load" the audience with supporters, leading to a tendency for the audience to have pre-conceived beliefs in favor of creationism, although Gish has debated in front of hostile university audiences too.

At a debate at the University of Sydney with Professor Ian Plimer from the University of Newcastle in 1985, Plimer claimed victory. The debate is famous for Plimer's obtaining of a live electrical current and requesting Gish argue that the theory of electromagnetism is not a scientific truth. Gish attempted to deflect the argument by contrasting the testability of electricity with the "untestability" of evolution.

Gish publicly stated he would never debate Professor Plimer again because of Plimer's concentration on abusive ad hominem arguments.

Bibliography

• The Amazing Story of Creation: From Science and the Bible, 1996, ISBN 0-89051-120-9
• The Battle for Creation: Acts, Facts, Impacts, Vol. 2, 1976, ISBN 0-89051-020-2
• Creation Scientists Answer Their Critics, 1993, ISBN 0-932766-28-5
• Creationist Research 1964-1988, 1989, ISBN 0-940384-06-X
• Dinosaurs: Those Terrible Lizards, 1978, ISBN 0-89051-039-3
• Dinosaurs by Design, 1992, ISBN 0-89051-165-9
• Evidence Against Evolution, 1972, ISBN 0-8423-0790-7
• Evolution: The Fossils Say No!, 1986, ISBN 0-89051-057-1
• Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No!, 1995, ISBN 0-89051-112-8
• Manipulating Life, Where Does it Stop: Genetic Engineering, 1981, ISBN 0-89051-071-7
• Speculations and Experiments on the Origins of Life, 1972, ISBN 0-89051-010-5
• Teaching Creation Science in Public Schools, 2000, ISBN 0-93276-636-6
• Up with Creation!: ICR Acts/facts/impacts, 1976-1977, 1978, ISBN 0-89051-048-2

Links

• Brief biography of Duane Gish
• The Saladin-Gish II Debate (1988)