Entry #075: Don Colbert

Don Colbert is an Oral Roberts University Alumnus and author of more than 40 books that together have sold more than one million copies. An ardent promoter of WWJD and such things as the Jesus diet (no joke!), his most famous books are the ”The Bible cure for ...”-series. You can get, for instance, The Bible cure for cancer, or The Bible Cure for Depression and Anxiety (”Ancient Truths, Natural Remedies and the Latest Findings for Your Health Today [With Guidebook]”), The Bible Cure for Weight Loss and Muscle Gain ("Jesus wants YOU to be thin" is in fact the slogan, and – just as you suspected – the diet recommendations are baskets of bread and fish, and watered down wine), The Bible Cure for Allergies, The Bible Cure for ADHD, for PMS & Mood Swings, and so on and so forth.

He has also written ”Toxic Relief: Restore Health and Energy Through Fasting and Detoxification” which will give you an idea about where this is heading. And yes, Colbert’s work is a brilliant combination of fundamentalist religion and the most ridiculous New Age alternative treatments (negative feelings as the main cause of disease, apart from mercury in dental fillings and vaccines and so on for some utter lunacy, visit here.

Extensively used by Televangelists to discuss health and nutrition (Benny Hinn, the Copelands). His claims are generally too loony to be caught by Quackwatch, Orac or the like.

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Diagnosis: Complete nutjob (with an admittedly effective marketing idea) and godbotter. Appears to be relatively influential.

Entry #071: Gary Chism

Another one of those; Gary Chism is an insurance salesman who works tirelessly to promote creationism in the state of Mississippi. He is also a State Representative - guess which party. Notable for wanting to put a disclaimer on all school textbooks touching on the topic of evolution to point out that evolution is just a theory. The debacle is reported on here, here, and here.

Chism claims – of course – that creationism is just as scientifically respectable as evolution (and not just a religious dogma), as illustrated by the following brilliant argument by cases: "Either you believe in the Genesis story, or you believe that a fish walked on the ground".

Also famous for his campaign to cover up an anatomically correct statue of a stallion outside a strip club in rural Mississippi.

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Diagnosis: Scientifically illiterate moron, Taliban-style religious fundamentalist with absolutely no grasp of critical thinking, reason or sanity. Impact unknown, but he hasn’t had much success with his creationism bills (more so with the strippers).

Entry #070: Jack Chick

Among the more notable loons in our encyclopedia, this amiable fellow is a firmly entrenched acolyte of the abominable William Branham. Jack Chick is of course the guy behind Chick Publications. His tracts deal with various aspects of the Christian faith, including the principles of tolerance and love as well as the Catholics' satanist conspiracy to overthrow God's reign on earth (the Jesuits, in particular, created the Qu’ran, were responsible for the Holocaust, communism and the current conspiracy that controls American media). He doesn’t like evolution either. A representative example is here. The most popular tract is, apparently, this one. I also have a soft spot for this one.

Back in the day, Chick used to draw the tracts himself. Today, they’re mostly drawn by Fred Carter, who is considered covered for the purposes of this Encyclopedia.

Endless hours of indulgence and fascination can be spent rummaging through his backlog. Do visit it.

I am not going to go through in detail the omniprescent homoeroticism in the tracts. Check it out yourself. A longer biography of Chick can be found here. Chick's tract on global warming is discussed here.

The topics vary, but many of them are concerned with God-fearing murderers and rapists ending up in Paradise because they accept the Holy Spirit, whereas the good guys go to hell. Other common targets are rock music, witchcraft, Dungeons & Dragons, astrology, Ouija boards, Evolution, Jews, Muslims,Teenagers, Science (including gravity, which Chick apparently thinks is an atheist myth), the Easter Bunny, North Koreans, the Tooth Fairy, Santa (the message is a little muddled), the Washington Monument, Native Americans, Freemasons, the UN and Satanic books (Tolkien and C.S. Lewis) - among other things. This guy’s got a whole lot of hate and fear to share. There is a documentary available as well.

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Diagnosis: Possibly the most deranged loon in the Western hemisphere. His tracts are widely read, but probably not by the intended audience. Life would have been much duller without people like Jack Chick.

Entry #067: Bruce Chapman

I know you are tired of these tired, old YECs, but this series is supposed to something of a reference work, so we will cover them. Chapman is one of the most over-the-top lunatic anti-evolutionists (blithering idiots) at the Discovery Institute. In fact, Chapman is the president of the Discovery Institute, and seems to believe that this position confers on him the power to pass judgment on science in a manner slightly reminiscent on the infallibility conferred on the pope when he’s helped up on the pope-throne the first time.

This one, an attack on Expelled Exposed (a project committed to exposing the dishonesty and stupidity of the Expelled movie) is a good example of his idiocy. It must be read to be believed (no, I am not going to generate traffic to DI, so I’m linking to a level-headed discussion of the article in question). Like most ID’ers, Chapman knows virtually nothing about evolutionary biology, and even less about the scientific method (not understanding, for instance, that science is done by experiment and evidence, not arguments, and that truth is discovered through careful, controlled research, not through attempts to sway public opinion; the article discussed here is astoundingly ironic).

Has among other things, argued at length that the Pope himself is the true victim in the recent, well, scandals involving the Catholic Church, and has argued (“ranted delusionally” is more appropriate) at length that the health care reform is unconstitutional. Apparently, his talents range wide; here is some financial advice, and here is his discovery that the earth is cooling rather than warming - yes, global warming is a leftist conspiracy carried aloft by the promise of … an endless flow of grant money, apparently. All of it is written with the sharp wit and overwhelming flashes of genius we’ve come to expect from Chapman. And here is some plain old dishonesty and stupidity.



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Diagnosis: Blathering idiot whose misapprehensions of what science is and how it works are simply to deep to be reversible in a lifetime. Has some power, and must be considered dangerous, despite the clownish appearance with respect to intellect.

Entry #066: Joseph Chambers

”The children and youth of America are living in a crisis-type existence. The basic character traits of a healthy, Christian culture have been lost [...] It was not that many years ago when pre-marital sex was utterly taboo because of a simple respect for our sacred bodies.”

Thus begins Chambers’s essay ”Unclean Children Troubled By Evil Spirits”, which you can find here (and the depravity concerns mainly women – Chambers doesn’t seem to be very well-versed in modern views on gender equality). What is the reason for this downfall? Well, it’s the demons. Literally: Out to create a new Sodom and Gomorrah by possessing the children. The gateways are, according to Chambers, occult books such as Harry Potter, cartoons, ”Rock music and other aberrant forms of entertainment [that] are running rampant in Satanism.” (and of course ”Homosexuality and lesbianism is Satan’s ultimate slap in God’s face”).

So who is this guy? Joseph Chambers is the head of Paw Creek Ministries, is proud to describe himself as being a "classical Pentecostal preacher" and operates a two-hour radio program called "Open Bible Dialogue." The website for his ministry is here - a classic study in fire and brimstone, and lots of clever advice for dealing with the immanent end of times.

You can find a total of 78 essays of his here. Among the more appealing looking ones are ”#12 Tattoos & Body Mutilation”, ’#18 Hell is Rehearsing for Armageddon’, ’#29 Do Muslims Believe Obama is "Islamic Messiah?”’, ”#45 Warfare Praying”, ”#65. Signs in the Sun and Moon; 2010” and ”#71. Horrors of Hell! – but there are literally days of good reading material there.

Lots of attacks on other rapturists there (such as this), and even more on Catholics and Muslims (Islam is a blasphemous cult that will be utterly destroyed). See the essay titled ”Islamic radicals and God’s solution”, which sounds uncannily like something that could’ve been a joint-piece by Heydrich & Streicher anno 1942, although not with ”Islamic” in the title.

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Diagnosis: Clinically insane; his influence is probably limited, but Chambers should really be kept locked up and far away from people. This guy needs serious, professional help.

Entry #065: Paul Chaffey

 

Chaffey runs some ministry in Wisconsin (Midwest Apologetics), and teaches (his version of) science at Tri-State Christian School in Galena, Illinois. Chaffey is most notable, however, as a writer/administrator for Ken Ham's Answers in Genesis.

He has also co-authored "Old-Earth Creationism on Trial" with Jason Lisle (to be covered later), a young earth creationist book attacking not biology but - indeed - the "other" strand of creationism, old earth creationism. It is covered here.

For a sample of the level of acumen at work, notice first Chaffey & Lisle define "open-mindedness": "All ideas and theories should be subjected to rigorous self-examination, yet a similar self-critique is long overdue from the old-Earth creationists." (pp.14)

Then notice their main charge against Old Earth Creationism: "Since the Bible undisputedly teaches a young earth, when someone claims that scientific evidence proves otherwise, we can be certain they are mistaken." (pp.153)

They also argue that science presupposes the infallibility of the Bible, for without the Bible there would be no such thing as truth and verification (shades of Troy Brooks here). And on the annoying detail that radiometric dating kinda goes against the idea of a 6000 years old earth: "Additionally, God cursed the earth when Adam sinned (Gen 3:17-18). The Bible provides only a few details of how the world was changed, such as thorns and thistles. Can we be certain that radioactive decay rates were not affected?" And that's pretty much their argument (Ignoratio elenchi is an inference rule for these guys). And in fact, according to Chaffey, he doesn't need to bother with the problem of evil since "only biblical Christianity can make sense of evil and suffering. Every other worldview, philosophy, and belief system fall woefully short." The details are a little unclear.

From his bio page. The website for Midwest Apologetics is here. It's a marvel.


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Diagnosis: As kooky as they come. His influence might not be very wide-ranging, but he does spend a lot of effort ”teaching children biblical truth”.

Entry #060: Robert Carter

“Robert Carter” is a relatively common name, and indeed – behind “Robert Carter” we can find several worthy candidates for our encyclopedia. This guy is one nice example, but this Bob Carter (the rather famous namegiver to what is currently known as ”Cartergate” disqualifies himself by being British .

The intended Robert Carter is much less dangerous, unfortunately, but not quite toothless. He is head speaker/”scientist” for Creation Ministries International. Apparently he must be a great scientist, since Creationwiki (yes, such an entity exists) points out that ”in a [2007] debate with Rick Pierson that 590 people attended to Carter brought up a stumping question to Pierson that left him speechless, stopping him in mid sentence.” (the question isn’t quoted). His status as a serious scientist is surely bolstered by the fact that ”CMI-Canadian and Canadian churches are coming together to find a way to better equip citizens about the lies behind Darwin's theory. Robert Carter as one of the speakers are hoping to give Christians the knowledge and boldness to uphold scripture and use it for Christ's purpose.” I couldn’t find any peer-reviewed publications from him, however.

He specializes in preaching to congregations, however, and I think this calendar of events from the Minot Baptist Church tells you all you need to know. In particular, his talk "Dinosaurs and the Bible" – planned for all Home Schoolers, but ALL ARE WELCOME!, sounds rather ominous and can actually be argued potentially to cause more than a little harm (this seems appropriate here). He doesn’t really give much heed to facts, but neither does his audience – his honesty and integrity can probably be evaluated from this (sympathetic) report.

Oh, and according to his bio, Carter wasn’t always a creationist etc. His gang can be found here (note the welcome appearance of our old friend Gary Bates, the Christian ufologist, here as well).

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Diagnosis: Godbotter and pathological Liar for Jesus. Crazy fundamentalist whose extremism might conceivably move the Overton window with respect to some of the choirs he’s preaching to. I'll count him as moderately dangerous, even if his impact is limited.

Entry #055: Thomas A. Carder

While Christians Against Cartoons, who deemed "Dora the Explorer: Dance to the Rescue" to be potentially the most dangerous and blasphemous cartoon they had yet reviewed, is (probably) a spoof, corollaries of Poe’s Law guarantees that it’s going to be hard to tell. This one, for instance, is not.

Neither is Thomas A. Carder. The ChildCare Action Project is a real organization, and this website – despite the blinking lights and striking design – is dead serious. Officially it is an entertainment media analysis service devoted to reporting on the content of films to parents, grandparents, pastors, youth leaders and more that they might be in a better position to make an informed moral decision on their own whether a film is fit. Carder’s own biography is seriously disturbing as well. So is their Wikipedia page (who wants to bet this one wasn’t written by Carder himself?). Among the factors that make a movie be deemed unsuitable are ”mentioning evolution, using the word God, and slapstick violence” (not to mention such godlessness as the movie featuring scenes in bars and suchlike).

The CAP review of South Park is a good example (Carder emphasizes that children don’t like it, but feel pressured to pretend it’s fun in front of their parents). The one on Natural Born Killers is another representative entry (apparently Carder is as dutybound to view these analogously to how ”Paul didn't ignore the extremes in Corinth”).

The fact that the site needs disclaimers that denies any allegiance both to the Westboro Baptist Church of Fred Phelps and to the hilarious Landover Baptist Church should tell you all you need to know about what kind of project this is. The intensity of the project seems to have abated a little the last couple of years (fewer updates), but it’s still going pretty strong.

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Diagnosis: Completely unhinged, evil madman. Has actually gained some fame and probably some influence. His activities might easily distance potential sympathizers just as much as attract them, however.

Entry #052: Harold Camping

Harold Camping is a radio evangelist who runs the Family Radio network. Camping believes that the popular notion that the world will end in 2012 (in alleged accordance with the Mayan calendar) is ridiculous. Sounds reasonable, right?

The reason it is ridiculous, according to Camping, is that this date ”has not one stitch of biblical authority, it's like a fairy tale." No, the real date for the end of the world, according to Harold Camping, is May 21, 2011. Why? Well the reasoning is soundproof numerology.

The number 5, Camping concluded, equals "atonement." Ten is "completeness." Seventeen means "heaven." Camping patiently explained how he reached his conclusion for May 21, 2011.

"Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.," he began. "Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that's 1,978 years." Camping then multiplied 1,978 by 365.2422 days - the number of days in each solar year, not to be confused with a calendar year. Next, Camping noted that April 1 to May 21 encompasses 51 days. Add 51 to the sum of previous multiplication total, and it equals 722,500. Camping realized that (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17) = 722,500. Or put into words: (Atonement x Completeness x Heaven), squared.

It isn’t his first stab. He won notoriety for predicting the return of Christ on September 6. 1994 as well. When reality failed to accommodate the map, he modified his "prophecy" to claim that that September 6 was the day that God removed his Holy Spirit from the earth and that nobody could be saved after this date and that God was calling all those already saved to exit the organized churches. Mentioned here. And here.

Even though May 21 has come and passed with few traces of rapture, one shouldn’t forget that Camping’s idiotic numerology is not just hilarious. In fact, he has admitted that he was wrong. But he is still delusional.

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Diagnosis: A total whacko, Camping has taken confirmation bias and category mistakes to a level of clinical insanity. Should be non-influential, but this guy does own quite a lot of radio stations spewing forth his nonsense. Astonishing.

Entry #050: Kirk Cameron

Formerly beloved former child star Kirk Cameron is currently a dysfunctional apologist for the ever moronic Ray Comfort (to be covered later). He claims to have been an atheist who later found Jesus (yes, that one again). Since “Growing Pains”, his most prominent roles have been in the “Left Behind” movies and “Fireproof”. So, yes – he is currently a religious fundamentalist touring with Ray Comfort, possibly the most ignorantly inane road show ever, prominently featuring Comfort’s banana argument and the crocoduck argument.

Vigorously opposed to evolution, and has – together with Comfort – designed a board game (here and here). His project to hand out copies of his and Comfort’s annotated version of “The origin of species” generated this response (among many others).

And of course there is a conspiracy theory here. Cameron is worried that we are currently experiencing a whole generation “brainwashed by atheistic evolution” (I don’t think “brainwashed” means what Cameron thinks it means).

Here's Kirk Cameron trying his hand at American history. According to himself, criticizing Kirk Cameron is the same as criticizing freedom itself. I suppose it is superfluous to point it out, but sometimes Cameron says really stupid things.

More entirely unsurprising incoherence from Cameron here.

Here's Cameron entering hardcore David Barton territory, predictably with the same aptitude for truth and accuracy. A fine summary of the weirdness of Cameron's otherworldly pseudo-history is found here.

Would you believe it, but Cameron has come clean as a hardcore conspiracy theorist, and so thoroughly so that he seems to entertain entering the terrains of Eric Jon Phelps rather than Alex Jones. At least Kirk Cameron’s movie is out.

More Bartonisms from Cameron here.

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Diagnosis: Among the most breathtakingly moronic bozos alive, Cameron manages to make Mel Gibson look moderately intelligent. The Comfort/Cameron superteam is, I suppose, not taken seriously as anything who could even begin to pose a threat. I suspect their popularity is more due to their breathtaking inanity.

Entry #048: Bradley Byrne

GOP, Alabama-style fashion, launched the following astoundingly bizarre series of events about a month ago: First The True Republican PAC ran this ad in the Alabama gubernatorial race, attacking Bradley Byrne (R) because he supports the teaching of evolution in schools.

That drew some attention, but is perhaps to be expected from The True Republican PAC who are batshit unhinged fundamentalist uneducated loons of the worst sort anyway. The appalling turn came with Byrne’s response. The predictable godbottery apart, Byrne also pointed out the following:

“As a member of the Alabama Board of Education, the record clearly shows that I fought to ensure the teaching of creationism in our school text books. Those who attack me have distorted, twisted and misrepresented my comments and are spewing utter lies to the people of this state.” (read more here)

I am not sure Byrne really knows what ”distorted, twisted and misrepresented” means, but notice that the True Republican PAC’s attack was not that Byrne favored teaching evolution (i.e. science) exclusively, but that he defended teaching evolution at all. For Byrne is, in fact, a proponent of teaching the “controversy” (manufactroversy), which he promptly pointed out. But as it turns out, maybe he isn't.

That’s not really the point, however. The appalling thing isn’t really Byrne’s views or non-views. The appalling thing is the situation – the lunacy of his putative voters – that makes offering this reply appear to be a necessary thing to do.

So this entry doesn’t really indict Byrne per se, but Byrne as a symbol for the unhinged lunacy that apparently runs rampant among Alabama’s GOP voters, voters who apparently support Byrne’s official statement or even the Republican PAC on this. The loon of the day is the State of Alabama.

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Diagnosis: This is bad. Really, really scary.

Entry #043: William (Bill) Buckingham

Buckingham is the creationist strategist behind the Dover Area School District Board of Education’s decision to “teach the controversy” (i.e. try to wedge in religion in schools), the process that lead to the famous Dover Trial. This bizarre series of events got rolling when the Board voted 6-3 to "challenge" evolution. Under the leadership of Buckingham they added a one paragraph disclaimer to the local high school biology curriculum, garbling the regular curriculum with "teach the controversy" and promoting the "scientific alternative" of intelligent design and using the "textbook" Of Pandas and People as a reference. Buckingham mentioned creationism and raised objections to proposed use of the textbook Biology written by Kenneth Miller and Joseph Levine, describing it as "laced with Darwinism" and saying it was "inexcusable to have a book that says man descended from apes with nothing to counterbalance it." The dissenting members of the school board resigned in protest and the measure carried. Buckingham had previously wanted to use Of Pandas and People in the classroom to teach both sides of the creation-evolution "debate”.

Buckingham’s testimony during the trials (proudly displaying his almost complete ignorance and lack of intelligence) is discussed here. Even the defense during the trial attempted to distance itself from Buckingham. The creationists attempted to claim that ID is science, not religion; Buckingham was less concerned about that distinction, trying instead to argue (unsuccessfully) that "nowhere in the Constitution does it call for a separation of church and state” (a claim the Discovery Institute has later defended). He summed up the trial, the main issue of which was whether ID is science or thinly disguised religion, by famously declaring "Two thousand years ago someone died on a cross. Can't someone take a stand for him?"

See also the entry for Alan Bonsell.

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Diagnosis: Taliban fundamentalist, madman and crackpot; exasperatingly ignorant, blathering idiot. Fotunately he is stupid enough to harm the ID movement more than help it.

Entry #041: Nancy Bryson

Bryson holds a Ph.D. in physical chemistry and was for a while a teacher at Mississippi University for Women.

Creationist (intelligent design) and witness for the minority at the Kansas evolution hearings (a general discussion of the hearings can be found here). Claims that she used to accept evolution, but that critical studies turned her around (yes, that canard). Currently a “creationist icon”.

Notorious for giving a presentation on creationism (mostly the argument from design and the unlikelihood of evolution since if there is no designer then evolution must be just random chance) at the university, “very warmly received by the students.” Afterwards, however, she was severely criticized by biologist professors and subsequently left the university (circumstances are unclear – her faculty evaluations were bad, and she claimed that she was harassed and realized she would never get tenure). Her story was picked up and publicized by the American Family Association and resulted in some outcry from fellow creationists. Bryson has subsequently achieved status as one of ID’s Expelled Martyrs. Currently she is used as one of the most notable examples of the discriminations (“hate crimes” against the religious, according to Jerry Bergman) against dissidents by “evolutionists”, and proof of the major “atheist and materialist conspiracy” that currently infests science.

During the Hearings, her story was by her supporters taken as evidence for the lack of academic freedom in that science curricula systematically exclude evidence for theism. By scientists her story was taken as evidence for incompetence and mixing religion with science. Bryson admits that her views on evolution is based on religion rather than science.

A discussion of Bryson’s role in the Hearings is here.

A sympathetic website, with links, is here.

This entry also indicts other witnesses for the minority, such as James Barham, an MD in classics and “independent scholar” who used to believe in evolution and materialism but who reasoned his way to Jesus and ID (surely a pattern of argumentation here). Christiancinema.com calls him a “Scholar and author specializing in evolutionary epistemology”. His basic argument is: “evolution leads to materialism and no meaning or purpose with life; God exists, and thus there is purpose; hence materialism is false, hence evolution is false” (yes, with the fallacy).

Entry #040: Caleb Lee Brundidge

Caleb Lee Brundidge is a self-professed former gay man who conducts sessions to “heal homosexuality”, and an associate of the slightly weird ex-gay guru Richard Cohen. He is also involved in the gay treatment organization Exodus (also here).

In fact, he is also involved in the ministry Extreme Prophetic (lead by one Patricia King), which even among the most extreme fanatics is considered “fringe”. According to their website:

“Raising the dead has always been a mandate of the church. Jesus commissioned us to go in His name and preach the good news of the Kingdom. He then went on to explain, that includes healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead. Our evangelism teams, led by Caleb Brundidge and Melissa Fisher recently grabbed hold of this and went out to practice raising the dead.”

I guess evidence that curing homosexuality tends to fail and is morally problematic would not necessarily make much of an impact on Brundidge’s brain.

His most egregious crime against humanity must presumably be his involvement with monster Scott Lively in the events leading up to the Ugandan anti-homosexuality bill. He claimed that he felt duped, but there is little doubt that the group was using rhetoric implying that criminalizing homosexuality would be exactly what they want (though given Brundidge tenuous hold on reality his grasp of cause and effect may be relatively poor as well).

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Diagnosis: That this guy has any influence whatsoever is quite simply appalling. He’s your standard high-ranking cult member with virtually no connection to reality whatsoever. Completely mad.

Entry #038: Sam Brownback

Former US Senator, current Governor of Kansas, and a pretty high-profile fellow. Fundamentalist theocrat and outspoken creationist. Yes he’s been known to pound on the “evolution is just a theory” confusion, thereby automatically displaying his meager understanding of science. Even worse he believes in “micro-evolution, but not macro-evolution” (a well-known gambit, using a distinction that makes absolutely no scientific sense), relies on false appeals to controversy (look, biologists don’t agree on the details, hence the theory of evolution must be false), claims that evolution is an atheistic conspiracy (evolution entails materialism and determinism, modus tollens), and says that evolution means that everything is just chance (no, he doesn’t understand the theory of evolution). Dunning-Kruger running rampant, in other words, but ignorance has never stopped a politician like Brownback.

Brownback also asserts that if science contradicts the Bible, then science must go:

“While no stone should be left unturned in seeking to discover the nature of man's origins, we can say with conviction that we know with certainty at least part of the outcome. Man was not an accident and reflects an image and likeness unique in the created order. Those aspects of evolutionary theory compatible with this truth are a welcome addition to human knowledge. Aspects of these theories that undermine this truth, however, should be firmly rejected as an atheistic theology posing as science.”

His views on science are nicely summed up here, and (more succinctly) here, and also here.

The famous “blogs for Brownback”, notable for arguing that heliocentricism is an atheist conspiracy and that electrons are really angels in disguise whereas protons are demons, is widely believed to be a parody and might easily be.

Among other notable views, Brownback is known to support stem-cell research – conditional on advice from the Family Research Council (the “Research” part must surely be a typo), as described here. Brownback also wishes to ban human-animal chimeras. Also seems to toy with David Barton-style reconstructionism.

Here's Brownback being classy.

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Diagnosis: Zealous Lysenkoist. His understanding of science is best characterized as a severe case of Dunning-Kruger. Moron. Wielded some power as a Senator, wields much more as Governor.

Entry #036: Troy Brooks

The guy behind the infamous “4 step perfect proof for God of the Bible”. The argument is according to Brooks completely deductive (a word he doesn’t understand) and relies on no unquestionable assumptions. It is really quite interesting why he doesn’t do a better job of it – if you allow his hilarious fallacies to count as logically valid deductions, I suppose it would be relatively easy to prove the existence of God from any unquestionable assumptions, not only his dubious ones (the system needed would hardly be sound, but that is another matter). Among his “uncontroversial” assumptions are e.g. that evolution cannot be the whole story since it doesn’t account for “the spiritual and soulical” and “Even the unsaved exhibit an improvement in conscience, but since they reject Christ for their salvation which is an eternal choice, they are condemned to Hell for all eternity and permanently separated from God. They won't change their mind later after they are resurrected.” But enough; read it for yourself – every sentence in this proof is a worthwhile quote:

(notice also the change of goalposts from proving that God exists to challenging atheists to disprove the God of the Bible in step 3).

Here is the gist [this is the first paragraph of the “proof”]: “God said He proves Himself by observing nature. Let's see if He is right. 1) Something can't come from that which does not exist, so the universe requires a cause [yes, he assumes the cosmological argument]. 2) The universe can't always have existed because a) heat death would be far greater than it is, and b) mankind would have approximated into that alleged past eternity and not still be sinning to the extent it still does along the exponential progression of conscience we are clearly on. What other option is there than the uncaused (uncreated) created? [yes, his proof really assumes that argument from ignorance is a valid inference method]. Atheism is utterly destroyed and morally [?] bankrupt because it has no answer and never will. You would have to be God (having omniscience) to know if God exists when you hold out having to know all things to be sure. You are saying you won't accept proof of God unless you are God. Wow!”

Basically the argument is “we are continuously improving morally (we are morally better now than we were 5000 years ago, say); since we aren’t perfect yet, the universe must have existed for a finite amount of time; therefore: The Biblical God.” [yes, an implicit premise is "if the universe has existed infinitely, then humans must have as well].

It is discussed here. Don’t miss Brooks himself showing up in the comment section!

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Diagnosis: Inane bozo. Probably insignificant but representative of a real and substantial class of bozos out there. Manages to provide evidence that elementary critical thinking should be on any elementary school curriculum, though.

Entry #035: William G Boykin

a.k.a Lieutenant General “My God is bigger than your God” Boykin

Purveyor of possibly the most staggeringly bizarre argument ever made, concerning G. Bush after his reelection: “Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. Why is he there? And I tell you this morning that he’s in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this”.

Boykin (now retired) was the United States Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, and has played a role in almost every recent major American military operation. He is also a born-again Christian, author of "Never Surrender: A Soldier's Journey to the Crossroads of Faith and Freedom". Boykin has cast the "War on Terror" in Biblical terms, seeing the war on terror as a battle between good and evil, or more precisely, between the soldiers of Jesus and the heretics (a Pentagon investigation concluded in 2004 that he had violated regulations by failing to explain these remarks were not made in an official capacity). As an example, listen to Boykin giving a speech about hunting down Osman Atto in Mogadishu: "He went on CNN and he laughed at us, and he said, 'They'll never get me because Allah will protect me. Allah will protect me.' Well, you know what? I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol." Hence his nickname. Believes that terrorists are after America not primarily because terrorists hate freedom but because Muslims hate Christians and the U.S. is a firmly Christian Nation (see the entry for David Barton in the Encyclopedia).

Boykin’s relative loudness and official position eventually lead even to George Bush officially emphasizing that Boykin’s statements in no way reflected the point of view of the president or the administration (Rumsfeld took Boykin’s side, however). Pat Buchanan is also a fan of Boykin, apparently subscribing to the view taken by several WorldNetDaily columnists that the criticism of Boykin is an attack on Christian values in America by the Democratic Party.

Some quotes here.

A (relatively) sympathetic interview here.

And he's still running strong and bright. This time, apparently Obama has created brownshirt groups (Nazi-style) to force in healthcare. You can see Boykin interviewed by Bryan Fischer here. This one is worth having a look at as well.

Boykin endorses Santorum for the 2012 elections, and plenty of crazy is brought in the wake of that...and when subjected to criticism, he reacts just the way you'd expect from a first-class fundamentalist bigot.

More fantastically ridiculous paranoia here. (You didn't know that US Department of Treasury was undergoing profound changes to become sharia friendly, did you?) (also here) To think that this guy used to be in a position of actual power is pretty baffling.

Here's Boykin again claiming that Islam (and therefore secularism, since these are the same things) is Satan's willing whore. Reason-wise, it is still clearly going downhill for Boykin. And it started out pretty low.

He's now been added to the roster of the Family Research Council. Serves him right.

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Diagnosis: Batshit insane. Has probably contributed significantly to making the world a worse place to be.

Entry #034: Pat Boone

Singer, actor and writer Pat Boone was hailed (by the conservatives) as the conservative alternative to Elvis Presley back in the 50s. Currently, he is a political commentator, Christian activist and preacher, and a columnist for the fringeloon magazine WorldnetDaily. He is an ardent young earth creationist and has had several stabs at disproving evolution, such as this one; he uses the tried and dishonest “it’s only a theory”, “there is no evidence”, “Darwin recanted on the deathbed” fallacious arguments from authority (his authorities are uniformly preachers and Boone praises their credentials as award-winning missionaries and staunch Biblical literalists) + some novel ones I have, for obvious reasons, never seen before. Another attempt is discussed here (updated here). Boone later wrote an editorial in the form of a fairy tale where a young Prince Charming was seduced by a dwarf, got AIDS, and then overdosed.

Apart from anti-evolution, his columns are filled with the standard delusional moron stuff – Christians are a persecuted (particularly by the ACLU) minority in the US (discussed here and here), defense of torture (discussed here - the ignorance and dishonesty is astounding, even for a wingnut) and similar stuff.

He got attention for the claim that Democrats and others who were against the president during the Iraq War could be questioned for their patriotism – under an interview on this, he expressed his outrage against the opponents of George W. Bush (namely the Dixie Chicks) that their criticisms of the president showed they did not "respect their elders". He also vigorously defended Mel Gibson after the actor was recorded making an antisemitic rant.

He is also a vocal opponent of gay rights, and won some fame for his tasteful comparison between equal rights activists and the terrorist attacks in Mumbai (Boone apparently thinks that the “homosexual jihadists” should be sent to concentration camps because they are anti-freedom, or something like that); discussed here and here.

He is also a birfer (i.e. Obama is not a natural born citizen, but a Kenya-born Muslim, and hence not eligible for being a president). More on Boone's birferism here.

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Diagnosis: Complete moron; hateful, dishonest, zealous bigot and loon. Impact uncertain, but he is probably read by a lot of people who are initially sympathetic to his views – whether he comes across as spurring them onwards into wingnuttery or helping them come to their senses by displaying purefied idiocy is unclear.

Entry #033: Alan Bonsell

Young earth creationist and former Dover School Board President. Bonsell was, together with the more famous Bill Buckingham, the strategist behind the Dover curriculum - which was later judged to violate the Establishment clause in the famous Dover trial. Bonsell was apparently the one who had read up on the subject before the curriculum was passed and wished evolution and creation to be taught “fifty-fifty” (initiating campaigns to convince concerned teachers). Bonsell is also a known fan of the reconstructivist work of David Barton (see the entry for David Barton in the Encyclopedia), having distributed Barton’s book “The Myth of Separation” to several board members.

One of the notable events during the Dover trial was when Bonsell initially testified that he did not know where the money had been raised to donate sixty copies of “Of Pandas and People” to the school's library. He admitted later that the money had been raised in William Buckingham's church, and directed through Bonsell's father so that it might be donated anonymously.

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Diagnosis: Liar for Jesus; crackpot who is unable to recognize the difference between fact and opinion; despite his previous anti-scientific campaigns, he seems to be relatively neutralized by now.

Entry #032: Christopher Bollyn

A.k.a. "The Truth Seeker"

As 9/11-troofers go, Christopher Bollyn is in at the deep end. A self-proclaimed “independent American investigative journalist”, Bollyn is for the most part a contributor to the despicable cesspool of lunacy whale.to, but many interesting articles can be found on his webpage. Among the gems are articles with enticing titles such as “The Israeli Role in the Plundering of Iceland”, “How Ehud Barak Pulled Off 9-11”, “The Goldman Scam & John Paulson's Links to 9-11”, “The Gang of Czech Jews around the Collapses of 9-11” and “The Jewish Secret Society That Controls the U.S. Media” (I cannot be bothered to check out his explanation of why the US is involved in Afghanistan, but it is surely rewarding).

I guess the reader gets the idea. 9-11 was the product of a Zionist conspiracy (in particular organized by the Rothschild family) – the Zionist conspiracy that controls the US government and media. They have also infiltrated the Senate, as shown by Bollyn’s razor-sharp and fearless investigations, e.g. “Arlen Specter - The Elder of Zion in the U.S. Senate”. Henry Kissinger is at the top of the conspiracy, and “still a key player in the crimocracy as seen by the conspicuous fact that he was sent by the new Obama administration to meet with the leadership of Russia, although the nominal Secretary of State was Hillary Clinton.” I guess you can’t argue with evidence like that.

A tidbit: “Christopher J. Petherick, a self-avowed Satanist, was the editor of American Free Press and the former Spotlight, publications of the Liberty Lobby of Washington, D.C. It makes no sense that a Satanist would be the chief editor of a newspaper that is purportedly written for patriotic Christian Americans, unless one understands that the Liberty Lobby is actually owned and controlled by a Zionist Jew named Mark Lane. The paper is a controlled opposition outlet that acts like flypaper to create a list of active patriots -- for the Jewish intelligence organization Lane works for.”

Who is Petherick? Well, he is the newspaper editor who fired Bollyn back in the day. Of course he must be a Zionist – why else would he try to shut up a honest and brave journalist like Bollyn? Apparently Petherick later organized an assault of Bollyn (using police officers who tasered him) to … shut him up? It's a little unclear. And apparently the incident is related to the real reason for the war in Afghanistan. So it goes.

Oh, and apparently the sinking of Estonia wasn’t an accident and there is depleted uranium everywhere. And Denmark is being set up by the American Zionist conspiracy to take the brunt of Muslim anger (cf. the Mohammed cartoons).

There is really no end to the conspiracies and paranoia here. For a “best of” selection, you can go here. Enjoy.

For further entertainment, he's spawned his own dictionary entry:

bollyn (v.) - The act of noticing a strange car outside your house, assuming it's FBI, calling the police, having the people in the car tell you're they're just undercover local cops, not believing them, threatening them, telling them you're going into the house to get a weapon, getting arrested, losing your job, and then blaming it all on the Jews. Usage Note: Because of the low likelihood of anyone actually being stupid enough to do all these things, the word may be used in a looser sense to describe any attempt to blame a personal misfortune on some shadowy world-domination entity, when it was really your own stupid fault. "Example: All the 9/11 Denier candidates for Congress lost, so they'll probably try to bollyn the results off on Diebold."

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Diagnosis: Complete loon and master at interpreting the fact that anyone disagrees with him, for whatever reason, as evidence for the truth of his conspiracy theories. Specific impact uncertain, but his views are apparently relatively widespread and must be considered dangerous.