Duane Gish

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Duane Gish
Born	Duane Tolbert Gish 1921-02-17 White City, Kansas
Residence	Dallas, Texas
Nationality	American
Education	B.S. Chemistry, UCLA - 1949; Ph.D. Biochemistry, University of California, Berkley - 1953
Employers	Institute for Creation Research
Known for	Prominent public speaker on Creationism
Religious beliefs	Baptist

Duane Tolbert Gish (born February 17, 1921) is an American biochemist who is one of the most prominent and outspoken members of the creationist movement.^[1] Gish was formerly vice-president of the Institute for Creation Research and the author of numerous publications on the subject of creation science. A strong critic of Darwinian evolution and proponent for the teaching of creation science in schools, he has been a peripatetic advocate, touring throughout the United States and other countries, to deliver lectures and participate in public debates with supporters of biological evolution.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Beliefs regarding creationism and evolution 2.1 Debates 2.2 Disputed claims made by Gish 3 Publications 4 Footnotes 5 External links

[edit] Biography

Gish, a twin, was born in White City, Kansas, the youngest of nine children. He received a B.S. degree from UCLA in 1949 and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1953. He worked as an Assistant Research Associate at Berkeley, and Assistant Professor at Cornell University Medical College performing biomedical and biochemical research for eighteen years, joining the Upjohn Company as a Research Associate in 1960.^[2]

In 1971 Gish became a member of the faculty at San Diego Christian College working in their research division, before accepting a position at the Institute for Creation Research (independent since 1981). He is the author of several books and articles espousing the tenets of creationism. His best known work, Evolution: The Fossils Say No!, published in 1978, has been widely accepted by antievolutionists as an authoritative reference for creationist concepts.^[2]

Gish has been called "the T.H. Huxley of creationism" for the influence he holds spreading creationism and for his sometimes abrasive style with supporters of evolution.^[3] Gish has been a frequent debator with prominent scientists working in evolution, and is active promoting creationism through seminars and lectures. Gish currently holds the position of Senior Vice-President Emeritus at the ICR.

[edit] Beliefs regarding creationism and evolution

First a practicing Methodist at age ten, and later becoming a fundamentalist in the Baptist church, Gish has long held that Biblical creation story was an historical fact.^[3] After reading Evolution: Science Falsely So-Called in the late 1950s, Gish became persuaded that science had produced falsifying evidence against biological evolutionary theory, and that various fields of science offered corroborating evidence in support of Biblical creation.^[4] He then joined the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA), an association of Christian scientists, mistakenly assuming the group to be aligned with creationism. Through his affiliation at the ASA, Gish met geneticist and creationist, William J. Tinkle, who in 1961 invited Gish to join his newly formed anti-evolution caucus within the ASA.^[3]

Gish has extensively discussed his belief that chemical evolution fails to address the question of abiogenesis and the origins of life.^[5] Gish initially regarded the Earth's age as irrelevant to creationism, but later became convinced of a Young Earth, in line with other ICR members.^[3]

[edit] Debates

Gish uses a rapid-fire approach during a debate, presenting arguments and changing topics very quickly. The approach has been dubbed the "Gish Gallop" by Eugenie Scott and criticized for failing to answer objections raised by his opponents.^[6][7]

Gish uses a standardized presentation during debates. While undertaking research for a debate with Gish, Michael Shermer noted that for several debates Gish's opening, assumptions about his opponent, slides and even jokes remained identical.^[8] In the debate itself, Shermer stated he was not an atheist and willing to accept the existence of a divine creator, but Gish's rebuttal concerned itself primarily with proving that Shermer was an atheist and therefore immoral.^[8]

Massimo Pigliucci, who has debated Gish five times, noted that Gish ignores evidence contrary to his religious beliefs.^[9] Others have accused Gish of stonewalling arguments with fabricated facts or figures.^[10]

During a debate with Ian Plimer, who considered it a political rather than scientific debate, Gish was verbally attacked and ridiculed for his beliefs in a manner observers described as 'street-fighting'. Gish described the debate as "the most disgusting performance I've ever witnessed in my life."^[3]

[edit] Disputed claims made by Gish

Gish's arguments against evolution have been criticized by various members of the scientific community as being incorrect. Examples include:

• Claiming there are no fossil precursors to the dinosaur,Triceratops, a claim Gish has made since 1987.^[11] Examples of Triceratops precursors include Monoclonius and Protoceratops with changes in bony frill, size and number of horns predicted by the theory of evolution.^[11] Gish has made other similarly incorrect statements about the fossil record, including claims about transitional forms, the fossil record for birds and the status of the Archaeopteryx as a reptile or bird.^[11] Gish's rebuttal of this criticism^[12] has been rebutted in turn.^[13]
• Claiming that Solly Zuckerman had access to modern knowledge of Australopithecus yet still stated they were not ancestors of Homo sapiens; Zuckerman's original conclusions were based on evidence available before Lucy was discovered, a fossil which revolutionized the field of physical anthropology.^[11]
• Claiming that Neanderthals were modern humans of 'fully human Homo sapiens just like you and me', which Richard Trott pointed out was false given the morphological difference between modern humans and Neanderthals.^[11]
• Claiming that evolution by natural selection is rendered impossible by the second law of thermodynamics.^[14] The overwhelming scientific consensus is that Gish's claim is false.^[15]
• Claiming that Parasaurolophus used its distinctive crest as a mixing chamber for breathing fire. ^[16] This hypothesis is regarded as a folkloric myth which should not be taken literally, and there is no evidence of the other features that would be needed.^[17] The scientific consensus at the time Gish made the claim was that the crest was used as a resonating chamber to produce vocalisations.^[18]

Gish appeared on Penn and Teller's Showtime television show Bullshit! in 2004, stating that creation and evolution were equally scientific, that both were in fact non-scientific, offering as proof his belief that the Grand Canyon was created by the rupture of a natural dam, cutting through layers deposited during the Biblical flood. In the same episode, Eugenie Scott noted that Gish had not kept up with the relevant literature and had not done any professional research in his field since his work at Upjohn, instead producing only creationism-related work for a popular audience.

[edit] Publications

• Bonnie Snellenberger; Gish, Duane T.; D Dish; Earl Snellenberger. The Amazing Story of Creation: From Science and the Bible. Green forest, AR: Master Books. ISBN 0-89051-120-9. 
• Hillestad, George M.; Morris, Henry; Gish, Duane T. (1974). Creation: acts, facts, impacts. [San Diego, Calif: ICR Pub. Co. ISBN 0-89051-020-2. 
• D. Gish. Creation Scientists Answer Their Critics. El Cajon, Calif: Institute for Creation Research. ISBN 0-932766-28-5. 
• Gish, Duane T.. Creationist Research 1964-1988. Creation Research Society. ISBN 094038406X. 
• Gish, Duane T.. Dinosaurs: Those Terrible Lizards. Green forest, AR: Master Books. ISBN 0-89051-039-3. 
• Gloria Clanin; Gish, Duane T.; Earl Snellenberger; Bonita Snellenberger. Dinosaurs by Design. Green forest, AR: Master Books. ISBN 0-89051-165-9. 
• Gish, Duane T. (1972). Evidence against evolution. Wheaton, Ill: Tyndale House Publishers. ISBN 0-8423-0790-7. 
• Gish, Duane T. (1979, 1986). Evolution, the fossils say no!. San Diego, Calif: Creation-Life Publishers. ISBN 0-89051-057-1. 
• Gish, Duane T. (1985). Evolution: the challenge of the fossil record. San Diego, Calif: Creation-Life Publishers. ISBN 0-89051-112-8. 
• Gish, Duane T.. Manipulating life, where does it stop?: Genetic engineering. Green forest, AR: Master Books. ISBN 0890510717. 
• Gish, Duane T.. Speculations and Experiments on the Origins of Life. New Leaf Pr. ISBN 0-89051-010-5. 
• Gish, Duane T.. Teaching Creation Science in Public Schools. El Cajon, Calif: Institute for Creation Research. ISBN 0932766366. 
• Rohrer, Donald H.; Gish, Duane T. (1978). Up with creation!: ICR acts/facts/impacts, 1976-1977. San Diego, Calif: Creation-Life Publishers. ISBN 0-89051-048-2. 

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• Brief biography of Duane Gish
• The Saladin-Gish II Debate (1988)
• Gish's errors in 'scientific' creationism