Jonathan Wells (intelligent design advocate)

John Corrigan "Jonathan" Wells (September 19, 1942 – September 19, 2024) was an American biologist, theologian, and advocate of the pseudoscientific argument of intelligent design.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Wells joined the Unification Church in 1974, and subsequently wrote that the teachings of its founder Sun Myung Moon and his own studies at the Unification Theological Seminary and his prayers convinced him to devote his life to "destroying Darwinism."<ref name="Icon4">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="2phd">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Forrest">Template:Cite web Quoted in "Rebuttal to Reports by Opposing Expert Witnesses" (PDF) by William A. Dembski (May 14, 2005).</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

After gaining a Ph.D. in religious studies from Yale University, Wells became Director of the Unification Church's inter-religious outreach organization in New York City. In 1989, he studied at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a second Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology in 1994. He became a member of several scientific associations and had published in academic journals.

In his book Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth? (2000), Wells argued that a number of examples used to illustrate biology textbooks were grossly exaggerated, distorted truth, or were patently false. Wells said that this shows that evolution conflicts with the evidence, and so argued against its teaching in public education.<ref name="Icons intro" /><ref name="Coyne">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Some reviewers of Icons of Evolution have said that Wells misquoted experts cited as sources and took minor issues out of context, basing his argument on a flawed syllogism.<ref name="Coyne" /><ref name="CTH98" /> Wells's views on evolution had been rejected by the scientific community.<ref name="Forrest" /><ref name="Icons intro">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="wells_PIGDID">Template:Cite web</ref>

Biography

Wells was born in New York City in 1942 and grew up in New Jersey, and was brought up as a Protestant Christian. He studied geology at Princeton University, where he dropped out in his junior year. Following a brief stint as a taxi driver, he was drafted into the United States Army and spent two years serving in Germany. After his discharge in 1966, he attended University of California, Berkeley, where he publicly refused to report for reserve duty. This resulted in him being arrested and being incarcerated for eighteen months at the Leavenworth military prison. Upon his release, Wells returned to Berkeley where he completed his studies with a major in geology and physics and a minor in biology.

In 1974, Wells joined the Unification Church of the United States.<ref>Cashill 2005, p. 174</ref> He graduated from the Unification Church's Unification Theological Seminary in 1978 with a master's degree in religious education.<ref name="Wells autobiography">Template:Cite web</ref> Wells continued his studies at Yale University, earning a PhD in religious studies in 1986, focusing on historical reactions to Darwinism.<ref name=Numbers381>Numbers 2006, p. 381</ref> During this time he wrote extensively on Unification theology and taught at the Unification Theological Seminary.<ref name="Wells autobiography" /> Wells was on the Board of Trustees of the Unification Theological Seminary until resigning in 1997 to return to teaching.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He also acted as the director of the International Religious Foundation, a Unification Church affiliated organization which sponsors interdenominational conferences.<ref name="Antal">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Verify source</ref>

Wells had written on the subject of marriage within the Unification Church, and had been called a "Unification Church marriage expert" by church sources.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Wells defended Unification Church theology against what he said were unfair criticisms of it made in 1977 by the National Council of Churches.<ref name="Antal" />

In 1994, Wells earned another PhD in molecular and cellular biology from the University of California, Berkeley.<ref name=Numbers381/> After receiving his doctorate, he worked at a position he described as "a post-doctoral research biologist at Berkeley, writing articles critical of Darwinism."<ref name="2phd" /> Shortly after that Wells joined Phillip E. Johnson, father of the intelligent design movement, at the Discovery Institute.<ref name="Wells autobiography" /> He now serves as a fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the hub of the intelligent design movement, and at the International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> which also promotes intelligent design.<ref name="aaas">Template:Cite web</ref>

Wells appeared on a panel at Harvard with Stephen Palumbi in November 2001, which his supporters lauded as a "home run".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite AV mediaTemplate:Cbignore</ref> Other observers stated that Wells' performance was "uneventful".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Wells died on September 19, 2024, his 82nd birthday.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Opposition to Darwinian evolution

Of his student days at Unification Theological Seminary (1976–78), Wells said, "One of the things that Father [Reverend Sun Myung Moon] advised us to do at UTS was to pray to seek God's plan for our lives." Wells later described that plan: "To defend and articulate Unification theology especially in relation to Darwinian evolution."<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Wells stated that his religious doctoral studies at Yale, which were paid for by the Unification Church, focused on the "root of the conflict between Darwinian evolution and Christian doctrine" and encompassed the whole of Christian theology within a focus of Darwinian controversies.<ref name="2phd" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He said: Template:Blockquote

Wells said that "destroying Darwinism" was his motive for studying Christian theology at Yale and going on to seek his second PhD at Berkeley, studying biology and in particular embryology: Template:Blockquote

Wells's statement and others like it are viewed by the scientific community as evidence that Wells lacks proper scientific objectivity and mischaracterizes evolution by ignoring and misrepresenting the evidence supporting it while pursuing an agenda promoting notions supporting his religious beliefs in its place.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He has written articles for the Discovery Institute, WorldNetDaily, Origins & Design, and other sympathetic publications attacking evolution and defending intelligent design.<ref name="discovery, search, wells">Template:Cite web List of articles written by Jonathan Wells.</ref> In 1997, he presented a paper entitled "Evolution by Design" at the Unification Church sponsored International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences in Washington, D.C.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1999, Wells debated with the New Mexicans for Science and Reason.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was one of the contributors to Natural History magazine's 2002 debate between intelligent design advocates and evolution supporters.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In 2005, he debated Massimo Pigliucci on the PBS talk show Uncommon Knowledge.<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref> Pigliucci said that Wells "clearly lied" during his debates and misrepresented his agenda and science, as well as not understanding some of the theories he tried to attack.<ref>Pigliucci 2002, pp. 44–45</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Wells is one of the signatories of the Discovery Institute's "A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism," a petition which the intelligent design movement uses to promote intelligent design by attempting to cast doubt on evolution.<ref name="Chang">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He is also the author of "Ten questions to ask your biology teacher about evolution" for high school students, which is published by the Discovery Institute.<ref name="QuestionstoAsk">Template:Cite news</ref> The National Center for Science Education has issued a list of answers to the questions.<ref name="QuestionstoAsk"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Icons of Evolution

Template:Main In 2000 Wells published his book Icons of Evolution, in which he discusses 10 examples which he says show that many of the most commonly accepted arguments supporting evolution are invalid.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

There have been 12 detailed reviews of Icons, from scholars familiar with the subject matter, which have come to the consensus that the book's claims are a politically motivated exaggeration and misrepresentation of a scattering of minor issues.<ref name="CTH98">Forrest & Gross 2004, p. 98. Reviews specifically cited include those by David Ussery, Massimo Pigliucci, Kevin Padian and Alan Gishlick.</ref> Scholars quoted in the work have accused Wells of purposely misquoting them and misleading readers.<ref name="misquoting">Forrest & Gross 2004, p. 111. Quoting Bruce Grant: "But should we blame Ms Rider for her outrage upon learning that moths were glued to trees? No. Instead I blame Dr Wells, who wrote the article she cites as her source of information. While he has done no work on industrial mechanism, he has written [an] opinion about that work. To one outside the field, he passes as a scholar, complete with Ph.D. Unfortunately, Dr Wells is intellectually dishonest. . . . He lavishly dresses his essays in quotations from experts (including some from me) which are generally taken out of context, and he systematically omits relevant details to make our conclusions seem ill founded, flawed, or fraudulent."</ref><ref name="Coyne-letter">Template:Cite news</ref> Jerry Coyne wrote of Icons, "Wells's book rests entirely on a flawed syllogism: ... textbooks illustrate evolution with examples; these examples are sometimes presented in incorrect or misleading ways; therefore evolution is a fiction."<ref name="Coyne" /><ref name="Talented">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Icons-intro">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Pigliucci 2002, pp. 252–264</ref><ref>Forrest & Gross 2004, p. 105</ref><ref name="Weisenberg">Template:Cite news Letter in response to "Let's Change Science Standards And Let Students Do Real Science" by Jonathan Wells (December 11, 2000).</ref>

Kansas evolution hearings

Template:Main In 2005, Wells participated in the Kansas evolution hearings, which were boycotted by mainstream scientists. There Wells testified:

Template:Blockquote

Prior to the evolution hearings, in December 2000 after the Pratt County, Kansas, school board revised its tenth-grade biology curriculum at the urging of intelligent design proponents to include material that encourages students to question the theory of evolution, The Pratt Tribune published a letter from Jerry Coyne challenging Wells's characterization in an article of his work on peppered moths, saying that his article appended to the Pratt standards was misused and being mischaracterized: Template:Blockquote

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design

In 2006, Wells published his second major book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design, which was part of a series published by Regnery Publishing. The book was praised by Tom Bethell, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science (2005),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> but was described by Reed A. Cartwright of The Panda's Thumb weblog as being "not only politically incorrect but incorrect in most other ways as well: scientifically, logically, historically, legally, academically, and morally."<ref name="PoliticallyIncorrectReview">Template:Cite web</ref> Cartwright also edited a chapter-by-chapter critique of the book.<ref name="PoliticallyIncorrectReview"/> A quote from the book linking evolution to eugenics, abortion and racism appeared on Starbucks paper cups in 2007.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

HIV/AIDS denialism

Template:Main In 1991, Wells and his mentor Phillip E. Johnson signed an open letter which said in full: Template:Blockquote

Wells and Johnson have been criticized, along with others, for their questioning of the scientific and medical consensus that HIV causes AIDS.<ref name="DenialismSun">Template:Cite news</ref> In the Washington University Law Review, Matthew J. Brauer, Barbara Forrest, and Steven G. Gey faulted Wells, Johnson, and others for denying the HIV/AIDS connection and promoting denialism via a petition which did not have any scientific support.<ref name="science_yet">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Publications

Articles in peer-reviewed journals

• Template:Cite journal
• Template:Cite journal
• Template:Cite journal

Books

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book

Dissertations

Wells, John Corrigan. 1986. CHARLES HODGE'S CRITIQUE OF DARWINISM: THE ARGUMENT TO DESIGN (EVOLUTION, THEOLOGY). Ph.D. Dissertation, Yale University, 265 pages.

Wells, John Corrigan. 1994. A confocal microscopy study of microtubule arrays involved in cortical rotation during the first cell cycle of Xenopus embryos. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 124 pages.

See also

• List of Unification movement people
• Unification Church
• Unification Church and science
• Unification Church of the United States

References

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book

External links

• Jonathan Wells biography from the Discovery Institute
  • Articles by Wells Template:Webarchive from the Discovery Institute
• Articles by Wells from the Access Research Network
• "Icons of Evolution FAQs" from talk.origins
• Wells's testimony at the Kansas evolution hearings
• "Icons of Evolution? – Why much of what Jonathan Wells writes about evolution is wrong" by Alan D. Gishlick
• "10 Answers to Jonathan Wells's '10 Questions'" from National Center for Science Education
• Chapter by chapter analysis of Wells's The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design by Reed A. Cartwright, The Panda's Thumb