Jonathan Wells

John Corrigan "Jonathan" Wells is an intelligent design activist, Fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture^[1]. He is a prominent supporter of intelligent design and denies the predominant scientific views of both evolution and that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the sole cause of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).^[2][3] Both intelligent design and AIDS reappraisal are considered pseudoscience by the scientific community.^[4][5][6][3] Intelligent design (ID) is the concept that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection. ... The Center for Science and Culture (CSC), formerly known as the Center for Renewal of Science and Culture (CRSC), is part of the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank in the United States. ... In 1832, while travelling on the Voyage of the Beagle, naturalist Charles Darwin collected giant fossils in South America. ... Human immunodeficiency virus or HIV is a retrovirus that causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections. ... Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS or Aids) is a collection of symptoms and infections in humans resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). ... Phrenology is regarded today as a classic example of pseudoscience. ... The scientific community consists of the interactions and relationships of scientists. ...

Background

"Destroying Darwinism"

In 1964 Wells was conscripted into the US Army and served for two years. In 1967 he was recalled as a reservist, but refused. For that he was court-martialled and jailed for a year and a half^[7]. The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ...

Some time after this he joined the Unification Church, founded by Sun Myung Moon. He has written extensively on Unification theology, and since 1981 has taught from time to time at the Unification Theological Seminary^[8]. After graduating from the church's Unification Theological Seminary in 1978, Wells earned two doctorates - one in theology at Yale University and the other in molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. Wells has claimed to have been a developmental biology researcher as a post-doctorate candidate at UC Berkeley. His post-doctorate at Berkeley was an unpaid title arranged by former UC Berkeley law professor and father of the intelligent design movement, Phillip E. Johnson.^[9] Associate Professor of Molecular Biosciences. Lawrence KS USA Shortly after receiving his doctorate Wells joined Johnson at the Discovery Institute.^[10] The Unification Church is a new religious movement started by Sun Myung Moon in Korea in the 1940s. ... Sun Myung Moon in 2005. ... The Unification Theological Seminary, located in Barrytown, New York, began its first classes in September 1975. ... The Unification Theological Seminary, located in Barrytown, New York, began its first classes in September 1975. ... Yale redirects here. ... The University of California, Berkeley (also known as UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, and by other names, see below) is the oldest and flagship campus of the ten-campus University of California system. ... Views of a Foetus in the Womb, Leonardo da Vinci, ca. ... The intelligent design movement is a campaign based in the United States that calls for broad social, academic and political changes derived from the notion of intelligent design, a form of neo-creationism. ... Phillip E. Johnson Phillip E. Johnson (born 1940) is a retired UC Berkeley American law professor and author. ... The Discovery Institute is a think tank structured as a non-profit foundation, founded in 1990 and based in Seattle, Washington, USA. The stated mission of the organization is to, make a positive vision of the future practical. ...

Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church funded him to gain his science PhD at UC Berkeley to learn how to defeat Darwinian evolution. In an essay posted to the tparents.org website, Wells wrote: Sun Myung Moon in 2005. ... The Unification Church is a new religious movement started by Sun Myung Moon in Korea in the 1940s. ... This article is about biological evolution. ...

"Father's [Sun Myung Moon's] words, my studies, and my prayers convinced me that I should devote my life to destroying Darwinism, just as many of my fellow Unificationists had already devoted their lives to destroying Marxism. When Father chose me (along with about a dozen other seminary graduates) to enter a Ph.D. program in 1978, I welcomed the opportunity to prepare myself for battle."^[11] Charles Darwin Darwinism is a term for the underlying theory in those ideas of Charles Darwin concerning evolution and natural selection. ... Marxism refers to the philosophy and social theory based on Karl Marxs work on one hand, and to the political practice based on Marxist theory on the other hand (namely, parts of the First International during Marxs time, communist parties and later states). ...

Wells' statement has been used many times by scientists to highlight his motivation and question his objectivity. The Discovery Institute has stated in response that "Darwinists have resorted to attacks on Dr. Wells’s religion"^[12]. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Objectivity has several meanings: Objectivity (philosophy) Objectivity (journalism) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The Discovery Institute is a think tank structured as a non-profit foundation, founded in 1990 and based in Seattle, Washington, USA. The stated mission of the organization is to, make a positive vision of the future practical. ...

Publication history

Wells has published papers not on ID in peer-reviewed scientific journals. In 1985 Wells published a review paper in Biosystems entitled "Inertial force as a possible factor in mitosis"^[13]. In 1996 Wells jointly wrote two scientific papers on development in Xenopus laevis, the African clawed frog, which may have arisen out his doctoral work. The papers are: Peer review (known as refereeing in some academic fields) is a scholarly process used in the publication of manuscripts and in the awarding of funding for research. ... Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A cell in early anaphase Mitosis is the process by which a cell separates its duplicated genome into two identical halves. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Development has meaning in several contexts: // Science and Engineering Biological development of embryos in the context of developmental biology Child development (physical emphasis) or post-natal human development (pediatrics, etc) Software engineering, the methodology and process of development of computer software Technology development in industry, as in Software development New... Binomial name Xenopus laevis Daudin, 1802 The African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis, also known as platanna) is a species of South African aquatic frog of the genus Xenopus. ...

• Larabell CA, Rowning BA, Wells, J, Wu M, Gerhart JC. Confocal microscopy analysis of living Xenopus eggs and the mechanism of cortical rotation. Development. 1996 Apr;122(4):1281-9. ^[14]
• Rowning BA, Wells J, Wu M, Gerhart JC, Moon RT, Larabell CA. Microtubule-mediated transport of organelles and localization of beta-catenin to the future dorsal side of Xenopus eggs. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1997 Feb 18;94(4):1224-9.^[15]

Anti-creationists have criticized his credentials on the basis of this low level of output^[16]. The Discovery Institute has said that "Dr Wells’s scientific credentials are impeccable and speak for themselves."^[12].

Intelligent design

In 2000, Wells wrote the intelligent design book Icons of Evolution, in which Wells discusses ten examples which he says prove that many of the most commonly accepted arguments for the validity of evolution are invalid. The book's title is a reference to the famous picture "March of Progress". This drawing, by Rudy Zallinger, was published in the Time-Life book Early Man in 1970 and shows a sequence of primates walking from left to right, starting with an ape on the left, progressing through a series of apemen, and finishing with a modern Cro-Magnon male on the right. A version of the drawing is on the cover of Wells's book, and Wells describes it as the "ultimate icon" of evolution. Wells's assertions and conclusion in the book are largely rejected by the scientific community. Icons of Evolution is a controversial book by the Intelligent Design advocate and fellow of the Discovery Institute, Jonathan Wells, and a 2002 video about the book. ... In 1832, while travelling on the Voyage of the Beagle, naturalist Charles Darwin collected giant fossils in South America. ... Time-Life is a book, music, and video marketer, that since 2003 has been combined with catalog reseller Lillian Vernon as a subsidiary of Direct Holdings Worldwide, and is no longer owned by its former parent Time Warner. ... The Cro-Magnons (IPA: or anglicised IPA: ) form the earliest known European examples of Homo sapiens, from ca. ... The scientific community consists of the interactions and relationships of scientists. ...

In 2005 Wells published a paper entitled "Do Centrioles Generate a Polar Ejection Force?" in Rivista di Biology/Biology Forum^[17]. The Discovery Institute lists this paper as a "featured article" on their list of "Peer-Reviewed & Peer-Edited Scientific Publications Supporting the Theory of Intelligent Design"^[18]. Rivista di Biology/Biology Forum is edited by Italian creationist Giuseppe Sermonti and criticized for its publication of research outside the general scientific consensus and viewed by some as pseudoscience^[19]. Wells' paper "assumes that [ centrioles ] are holistically designed to be turbines", and goes on to develop a hypothesis of how they work^[20]. The Discovery Institute is a think tank structured as a non-profit foundation, founded in 1990 and based in Seattle, Washington, USA. The stated mission of the organization is to, make a positive vision of the future practical. ... Scientific consensus is the collective judgment, position, and opinion of scientists in a particular field of science at a particular time. ... A centriole in biology is a hollow cylindrical organelle found in most animal cells, and cells of fungi and algae though not frequently in plants. ...

Also in 2005 Wells attended at taxpayer expense the Kansas evolution hearings, which were boycotted by mainstream scientists. Wells contradicted his earlier statements about his reason for not accepting evolution by insisting that "I became convinced that the Darwinian theory is false because it conflicts with the evidence." When questioned about the age of the earth, he replied "I think the earth is probably four-and-a-half billion or so years old. ... But the truth is I have not looked at the evidence. And I have become increasingly suspicious of the evidence that is presented to me and that's why at this point I would say probably it's four-and-a-half billion years old, but I haven't looked at the evidence."^[21] The Kansas Evolution Hearings were a series of hearings held in Topeka, Kansas in 2005 by the Kansas State Board of Education and its State Board Science Hearing Committee to change how the origin of life would be taught in the states public schools. ... Based on extensive and detailed scientific evidence, geologists have determined the age of the Earth to be around 4. ...

AIDS reappraisal

Wells' view on AIDS has been a source of controversy. Wells, along with fellow Discovery Institute member Phillip E. Johnson, denies the mainstream scientific view that HIV is the cause of AIDS and signed the The Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV-AIDS Hypothesis AIDS reappraisal petition calling for a "reappraisal of the evidence" for the connection between HIV and AIDS.^[2] The Discovery Institute is a think tank structured as a non-profit foundation, founded in 1990 and based in Seattle, Washington, USA. The stated mission of the organization is to, make a positive vision of the future practical. ... Phillip E. Johnson Phillip E. Johnson (born 1940) is a retired UC Berkeley American law professor and author. ... The AIDS reappraisal movement (or AIDS dissident movement) is a loosely connected group of activists — journalists, scientists, HIV-positive persons, and concerned citizens — who dispute the consensus view that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the cause of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). ...

Books

• Icons of Evolution. Regnery Publishing. 2000. ISBN 0895262762
• The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design. Regnery Publishing. 2006. ISBN 1-59698-013-3

Icons of Evolution is a controversial book by the Intelligent Design advocate and fellow of the Discovery Institute, Jonathan Wells, and a 2002 video about the book. ... Unfit for Command, published by Regnery Publishing. ... Unfit for Command, published by Regnery Publishing. ...

References

August 3 is the 215th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (216th in leap years), with 150 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... April 28 is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 247 days remaining. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... The Discovery Institute is a think tank structured as a non-profit foundation, founded in 1990 and based in Seattle, Washington, USA. The stated mission of the organization is to, make a positive vision of the future practical. ... Medline is a comprehensive literature database of life sciences and biomedical information. ... The Discovery Institute is a think tank structured as a non-profit foundation, founded in 1990 and based in Seattle, Washington, USA. The stated mission of the organization is to, make a positive vision of the future practical. ... The Kansas Evolution Hearings were a series of hearings held in Topeka, Kansas in 2005 by the Kansas State Board of Education and its State Board Science Hearing Committee to change how the origin of life would be taught in the states public schools. ...

External links

Official/creationists

• Video of Dr. Wells debating Evolution and Intelligent Design
• Discovery Institute biography
• Articles by Wells
• ARN page with essays
• The Words of the Wells Family
• Wells hits a home run at Harvard
• Panelists Discuss Validity Of Evolutionary Theory at Harvard University

Debates

• New Mexicans for Science and Reason debate Jonathan Wells

Criticism

• Talk Origins on Wells
• The antievolutionists - Wells
• Answers to Wells' 10 questions
• A response to Wells hits a home run at Harvard
• Pandas Thumb's Chapter by Chapter analysis of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design