Giuseppe Sermonti

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Giuseppe Sermonti.

Giuseppe Sermonti (born 1925) is a retired italian professor of genetics, known for his antievolutionary (creationist) views, and support for pseudoscientists in other fields unrelated to creationism.

1 Biography
2 Bibliography
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and career

Born in Rome, graduated in agricolture and genetics, he entered in the Superior Institute of Health in 1950, founding a department of Microbiological Genetics. He became professor of genetics at the University of Camerino, then at the University of Palermo in 1965, and finally moved to the University of Perugia in 1970, where he is presently emeritus professor and where he manages the Genetics Institute of the University from 1974. From 1970-1971 he presided over the Associazione Genetica Italiana.^[1] He's the discoverer of the genetic parasexual recombination in antibiotic-producing "Penicillium" and "Streptomyces". He's been also vice-president of the XIV International Congress of Genetics, kept in Moscow, and he's been appointed as president of the International Committee of the Working Group on Genetics of industrial microorganisms.

[edit] Unusual views

In 1971 Sermonti published Il Crepuscolo dello Scientismo (in English The Twilight of Scientism), a post-modernist, religiously-inspired critique of science. In 1980 Sermonti published an anti-evolution book Dopo Darwin (After Darwin), co-authored with Roberto Fondi.

Since 1979, Sermonti has been Chief Editor of Rivista di Biologia/Biology Forum, one of the oldest extant biology journals in the world (founded in 1919), which, prior to Sermonti's assumption of the role of Chief Editor was considered to be respectable journal. Since Sermonti took over, however, it has published papers which would be regarded as pseudoscience by the scientific community, particularly articles by creationists such as Jerry Bergman, Richard Sternberg, Jonathan Wells, as well as articles by Morphogenetic field advocate Rupert Sheldrake and holistic scientist Mae-Wan Ho.^[2]

Between 1986 and 1989 Sermonti produced three books on the hermeneutics of fairy tales, entitled Fiabe di Tre Reami (Fairy Tales of Three Realms), arguing that they contained unexpressed principles of science: Snow White is the narrative of cupellation as well as of the phases of the moon; Red Riding Hood is the story of mercury; Cinderella is the tale of sulfur.

In 1987 Sermonti was one of the founding members of the Osaka "Group for the Study of Dynamic Structure" which holds the view of process structuralism, a view which is atleast scientific, but not widely held.

In 1994 Sermonti attended an AIDS denial conference in Bologna where he spoke "On the damage of the campaigns against AIDS"^[3].

[edit] Creationism

Along with physicist Antonino Zichichi, Sermonti is considered one of the leading two Anti-Darwinists in Italy^[4]. In 1993 Sermonti published, in Answers in Genesis's young earth creationist apologetics magazine, an article entitled "Not from the apes" ^[5] . The young earth creationist Henry M. Morris cited Sermonti (along with Guy Berthault, Roberto Fondi and Wolfgang Smith) as a Roman Catholic creationist in response to John Paul II's 1996 statement on evolution^[6]

Sermonti has been increasingly involved with the intelligent design movement. He is signatory to the Discovery Institute's list of scientists who doubt evolution^[7]. Sermonti attended the Kansas evolution hearings in 2005 but no transcript of his testimony exists as the court reporter could not understand what he was saying due to his strong Italian accent^[8]. His book Dimenticare Darwin (Forget Darwin) was published in 2003 and was translated into English as Why Is a Fly Not a Horse? ^[9] which was published by the Discovery Institute and edited by Jonathan Wells. In this, he denies being a creationist, saying that "For the reservations I harbor about Evolutionism, I have been accused of being a Creationist. I am not: if I am allowed, I would only aspire to being a creature".

[edit] Bibliography

Genetics of Antibiotic-Producing Microorganisms, 1969, (Wiley, London) ISBN 0471776351
Il Crepuscolo dello Scientismo (Twilight of Scientism), 1971, 2002, (Nova Scripta, Genoa) ISBN 88-88251-01-4
Dopo Darwin (After Darwin), with R. Fondi, 5 editions, 1980-1984 (Rusconi, Milan) ISBN 88-18-02515-5
Fiabe di Tre Reami (Fairy Tales of Three Realms), 1985-1989, 2004 (La Finestra, Trento) ISBN 88-88097-31-7
Why is A Fly Not A Horse?, 2005 (Discovery Institute Press). ISBN 0-9638654-7-1
Tra le quinte della scienza, 2007, Di Renzo Editore, ISBN: 8883231759