Philip Skell - The Cowardly Creationist

I recently received some unsolicited e-mail from Philip Skell, an elderly chemist who use to teach at Penn State, and a minor ID creationist. I have to admit, it was a bizarre experience.

Skell is well-known for his monomania: claiming that the theory of evolution is not relevant to medicine or experimental biology, and repeating this claim over and over again in numerous articles and op-eds. This, despite the fact that Skell is not a physician or biologist, and, as far as I am aware, has no training in these subjects. But he does like to flaunt his membership in the National Academy of Sciences.

He started off by saying "You may find the attached essay pertinent to your recent writings concerning the David Koch project." -- which was strange, because I have never written about David Koch or his "project". He then signed off as "member, NAS" and attached one of his anti-evolution opinion pieces, this one published in the journal Politics and the Life Sciences. There is nothing really new in it; Skell made the same points in an earlier piece in The Scientist, and he's recently made them again in an issue of that eminent scientific journal, Forbes.

However, Skell's claims are strongly disputed by actual biologists. For example, Nesse and Williams, in their book Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine, explain in detail how understanding evolution contributes to the improved practice of medicine. P. Z. Myers, in two different posts, has explained in detail why Skell is wrong. And Gary Hurd has also pointed out Skell's misrepresentations.

When I mentioned this to the good Prof. Skell, what happened? Like the brave Sir Robin, he ran away in a huff: "As a follower of PZ you have no intellectual honesty. I prefer not to hear further from the likes of you. Sayonara!!!"

Poor Dr. Skell. He's used to intimidating the rubes with his degree and his NAS membership. But when somebody who actually knows something about the subject is cited, he vanishes in a puff of smoke and three exclamation marks.

Philip Skell - the cowardly creationist.

[For more Skell sessions, see his encounter with Jerry Coyne and his ideas being disowned by a member of his own family.]