Michael Egnor

Michael Egnor is a neurosurgeon and intelligent design supporter. He has been a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Stony Brook University since 1991.[1] He completed medical school at Columbia University and has published twenty-nine papers, presentations, and posters, including seven articles.[2]

Intelligent design

Egnor rejected evolutionary theory after reading Michael Denton's book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis and said "claims of evolutionary biologists go wildly beyond the evidence."[3] Biologist Jerry Coyne responded to Egnor's article noting that Egnor is no biologist, or even a scientist, but Egnor accepted widely discredited claims in said book (claims recanted by Denton himself in a later book) and "Egnor is decades out of date and shows no sign of knowing anything at all about evolutionary biology in the 21st century."[4] Egnor is a signatory to the Discovery Institute intelligent design campaign A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism and Physicians and Surgeons who Dissent from Darwinism. In 2007 he joined the Discovery Institute's Evolution News & Views blog.[5]

In March 2007, when the Alliance for Science sponsored an essay contest for high school students on the topic "Why I would want my doctor to have studied evolution," Egnor responded by posting an essay on the Discovery Institute's intelligent design blog claiming that evolution was irrelevant to medicine.[6] In a column written for Forbes, Egnor identified himself as a Catholic.[7] Dr. Burt Humburg criticized him on the blog Panda's Thumb pointing out the benefits of evolution to medicine and, contrary to Egnor's claim, that doctors do study evolution. Members of the website ScienceBlogs,such as PZ Myers also criticized him.[8]

Egnor appeared in Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. In the film, Ben Stein describes this as "Darwinists were quick to try and exterminate this new threat," and Egnor says he was shocked by the "viciousness" and "baseness" of the response.[9] The website Expelled Exposed, created by the NCSE responded by saying that Egnor must never have been to the Internet before.

Medical work

One of his more prominent cases involved a young boy whose head was crushed by his father’s SUV. Egnor successfully completed the complicated surgery through relatively new, innovative techniques. The ordeal has been documented through several news venues, including Newsday and Good Morning America.[10] The case was also published in New York Magazine in 2005 under the “Best Doctors” section.[11]

Personal life

Egnor has four children and resides in Stony Brook, New York with his wife.

References

  1. ↑ "Michael Egnor, MD". Stony Brook University. 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
  2. ↑ "Michael Egnor CV". Stony Brook University. 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
  3. ↑ Egnor, Michael (02.05.09). "A Neurosurgeon, Not A Darwinist". Forbes magazine. Retrieved 2009-06-20. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ↑ Coyne, Jerry (02.12.09). "Why Evolution Is True: Creationists don't deserve credence--especially from Forbes". Forbes magazine. Retrieved 2009-06-20. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ↑ "‘Michael Egnor, M.D., joins the ENV Team’". Evolutionnews.org from Discovery Institute. March 2007. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
  6. ↑ "‘Why would I want my doctor to have studied evolution?’". Evolutionnews.org from Discovery Institute. March 2007. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
  7. ↑ Egnor, Michael (02.05.09). "A Neurosurgeon, Not A Darwinist". Forbes magazine. Retrieved 2009-03-23. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ↑ Humburg, Burt. "Egnorance: The Egotistical Combination of Ignorance and Arrogance". panda'sthumb.org. Retrieved 3/28/11. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  9. ↑ "Expelled Exposed > Michael Egnor". National Center for Science Education. 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-20.
  10. ↑ "‘Saving Bobby’". Newsday.com. Feb 8, 2007. Retrieved 2009-11-10.
  11. ↑ "‘One Lucky Unlucky Boy- Dr. Michael Egnor Removes the Skull of a Two-Year-Old". New York Magazine. Retrieved 2009-11-10.

External links