…and this is a 
And following the lead of all past hires by that eminent institute of advanced ideology, Ann Gauger doesn't understand biology or logic. She does have a Ph.D. in a relevant field, but it just goes to show that having a degree doesn't mean you necessarily understand science. I will look forward to further examples of poor reasoning from yet another incompetent in Seattle.
By the way, she also hails from my old hometown of Kent, Washington…a completely meaningless coincidence that still manages to embarrass me.
Comments
Posted by: matt | July 15, 2009 11:27 AM
someone ought to teach this person about evolution lol
she seems to be a bit confused
Posted by: Steven Sullivan | July 15, 2009 11:34 AM
She looks to be a developmental biologist with an excellent academic pedigree . Shame on her for promoting Discovery Institute crapola..
Posted by: Mu | July 15, 2009 11:40 AM
I don't know if all is lost with this one, the article's quotes seem to indicate to me a person who understands evolution but is desperately trying to argue around it to fit her ideology. This kind of mental splits usually can't last long, maybe there's someone who can still see the light.
Posted by: Lynna | July 15, 2009 11:42 AM
Gauger wrote:
This accounts for the existence of The Discovery Institute.
Posted by: James F | July 15, 2009 11:43 AM
Steven Sullivan #2
Pedigree, yes; publication record, no.
Posted by: Buford | July 15, 2009 11:43 AM
Yeah, those of us from Auburn still like to laugh at the crazy people from Kent...
Posted by: JBlilie | July 15, 2009 11:46 AM
Seems to me that Kent, WA would fit quite nicely into the MN 6th congressional district (represented by Michelle Bachmann, lunatic) at least ideologically. (Nevermind those views of Mt. Rainier!)
To me, it was mostly a wasteland of putty-colored tract homes, strip malls, and mega-churches. (Again, ignore those views.)
PZ: I'm sure Kent seems like foreign terrain to you now.
It was an actual town when I first moved to Seattle. It was like Orange County north when I left 20 years later.
Posted by: minimalist | July 15, 2009 11:46 AM
Doubtful, Mu (#3). As pointed out at Austringer, she hasn't had any publications for 15+ years now -- and only 3 prior to that. I think the opposite is true, and she's way too invested in this to turn back now.
I guess the question is, just what was she doing in the time between her postdoctoral stint and the founding of the Biologic Institute?
Posted by: Iason Ouabache | July 15, 2009 11:46 AM
Stephen Meyer also managed to get a letter in the Boston Globe today. He invokes the ghost of Thomas Jefferson and says that since Jefferson was a Deist then he obviously would support teaching
CreationismIntelligent Design in schools.http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/07/15/jeffersons_support_for_intelligent_design/
Posted by: James F | July 15, 2009 11:49 AM
#9
WHAT?? Time for this Bostonian to write the Boston Globe....
Posted by: Marcus Ranum | July 15, 2009 11:49 AM
Maybe she's just going to work there for a year or 2, then do a marjoe-style documentary about what it's like to hang out with liars for jesus... One can hope.
Posted by: Joe Gauger | July 15, 2009 11:52 AM
Don't feel bad about your hometown. This lady has the same last name as me, which is also meaningless but embarrassing.
Posted by: PZ Myers
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July 15, 2009 11:55 AM
I lived there in the 60s and 70s, when it was a small, dead town that was mostly banks and gas stations.
I know about the churches. My old neighborhood down on second avenue is mostly a parking lot now...for the local churches. It used to be a battery of nice older houses with yards and trees and front porches.
Posted by: SC, OM | July 15, 2009 11:58 AM
OT: HONDURAS
Speaking of dishonesty and spin, the coup regime in Honduras, with the complicitly of much of the media, continues to spread lies about Zelaya, the regime, and what's happening in the country. Here are two pieces from Democracy Now! from Friday and today:
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/10/costa_rica_hosts_talk_over_honduras
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/15/honduras
More updates and analysis can be found at The Narco News Bulletin.
Posted by: Buford | July 15, 2009 12:07 PM
Just to make sure that my intent was clear. I actually got over any "my town's great and your town sucks" shortly after high school (also in the 70's) and despite the major league sports franchices trying to exploit that sentiment for huge profits.
I'll also tell an embarassing story about Auburn (the next suburb south of Kent). Several of us used to buld 'haunted houses' as Halloween fund-raisers for local charities. In 1971 we had a house with a garage and we thought we would use the garage as a separate attraction and hold a rigged seance full of spooky effects. Several members of the Auburn Ladies Auxilliary came to us in all seriousness and told us not to mess with 'forces we did not understand' and so our high school advisors stopped the project
Posted by: ERV | July 15, 2009 12:08 PM
minimalist-- according to the waybackmachine, this is what shes been doing for 15 years:
http://www.geocities.com/teenhomeschooling/moreinfo.html
Posted by: TheBear | July 15, 2009 12:10 PM
@ minimalist: Apparently - she's been a "homeschooler"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biologic_Institute#Staff
Posted by: Glen Davidson
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July 15, 2009 12:11 PM
But...but questions about the amount of role played by natural selection in evolution continue.
Damn dogmatists, they're not following Darwin slavishly, like IDiots do in misportraying evolution. Oh, that's not right, damn relativists are actually discussing the mechanisms of evolution open-mindedly, instead of defaulting to god as the cause.
Christ, she's a moron. No one doubts that function evolved due to natural selection, while much of evolution isn't really about function per se. Hence we can wonder if natural selection really has much to do with speciation events (contrary to Darwin--oh noes, we're not a religion), while we know full well that Archaeopteryx has functional feathers and wings due to natural selection.
She may be educated, but she only shows how ID screws up anyone's thinking, if they must retain it against a working theory at all costs.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Posted by: tsg | July 15, 2009 12:12 PM
Short summary: two sentences Jefferson (supposedly) wrote indicate he thought there was a designer, therefore ID should be taught in public schools.
First, even if you could show that Thomas Jefferson ritually crucified himself every Sunday, it doesn't mean he thought religion in government was a good idea.
Second, even if Thomas Jefferson thought that religion in government was a good idea, that doesn't mean it is.
Does he really think the only reason we don't want religion taught in public schools is because Thomas Jefferson said so?
Posted by: Fred the Hun
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July 15, 2009 12:13 PM
Sad! Based on her bio it sounds like she has or had at one time, a functioning brain. Maybe one day someone will find a cure for this truly devastating mental illness that apparently can affect the healthy human mind!
We need an organization similar to the American Cancer Society to combat this disease.
Posted by: Dax | July 15, 2009 12:17 PM
As Randi likes to say: "a degree makes you educated, it doesn't necessarily make you smart". 'nuff said.
Posted by: Kerry | July 15, 2009 12:20 PM
A local TV show called "Almost Live" used to do episodes about Kent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Qx51QQMhU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JOQbwVJjxY
Posted by: bunnycatch3r
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July 15, 2009 12:37 PM
Obtaining a Ph.D. in a science is (to me) unimaginable -hell a B.S from MIT!!! is beyond the reach of most of us.
So, to just throw all of this away to become indoctrinated will never make sense to me.
Posted by: Fred the Hun
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July 15, 2009 12:41 PM
It only makes sense if you think of it as a pathology of the mind that needs to be treated.
Posted by: Jason | July 15, 2009 12:55 PM
This is a question I always ask when I learn of a creationist with an actual (and in this case impressive sounding) education in biology. Does anyone know if she denies common descent? If so, does she have in writing an explanation for the "converging lines of evidence"?
Posted by: James F | July 15, 2009 12:56 PM
bunnycatch3r #23
It's truly Jonathan Wells-level lunacy. At least Michael Behe, Scott Minnich, and Ralph Seelke actually earned professorships at real universities - they're still completely off their rockers about ID, of course.
Posted by: Chris Davis
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July 15, 2009 1:13 PM
The ridiculous thing about her thesis - that beneficial mutations are scrambled by non-adaptive noise - is that if true it would specifically refute so-called 'micro-evolution' which disco-lovers supposedly accept.
Posted by: Lynna | July 15, 2009 1:21 PM
The mystery of well-educated persons opting to swim in the "Evolution and Intelligent Design from a Christian perspective" cesspit is hard to solve.
From what I can tell from personal interactions, these people have damaged brains. Their brains try desperately to conform to, or to explain, contradictory information. Their adherence to Religion becomes an environmental pressure that actually modifies the brain. As a matter of survival (from their brain's point of view), it's necessary to go limp in the presence of the God Stuff. I think the brain learns to turn off certain powers of intellect and to turn on the soft lighting.
Habits of doing science would be hard to shake in Gauger's case. She does Science properly up to a point, and then she continues in damaged mode thinking that her brain is still operating in optimal mode. Her brain has done what she asked of it: Develop a talent for self-deception.
Posted by: MikeMa | July 15, 2009 1:22 PM
Think of the children. The poor sops are being fed lies and stupid by a woman who should know better.
Posted by: Jason | July 15, 2009 1:23 PM
Hmmm, it would appear from the comments section of this blog post that she does indeed accept common descent.
http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/darwins-legacy/
If anyone knows any different I would be interested in learning.
Posted by: minimalist | July 15, 2009 1:59 PM
@ERV:
Oh god, I thought so the minute I saw "homeschooler" -- translation, good gawd-fearin' hubby didn't want the li'l lady out and about, 'stablishin' her own lab out in some godless university, so he tightened the reins a bit, quoted a bit o' Scripture, and boom, Dr. Housewifey.
(Meanwhile I am surrounded by secular postdocs who work their butts off while managing to raise beautiful, well-behaved, and well-educated children.)
Christianity poisons everything.
Posted by: River | July 15, 2009 2:08 PM
*de-lurks*
Whoo, local boy!
I don't know if I'm really ashamed, though certainly not proud. This state breeds some rather odd people, and that in itself I think is a matter of some local pride. It's just that you can't pick what kind of odd person you'd want.
*lurks*
Posted by: DLC | July 15, 2009 2:09 PM
Dr Gauger obviously isn't Framing Non-Science right. She needs to be insulted, non-plussed, feeling expelled, and Very, Very hurt. Perhaps someone could help her out. Perhaps some lessons from Luskin on the fine art of buffoonery . . .
On a more serious note: I'm a rank amateur, a tyro in the field of biology, but my dictionary names "stochastic" as being the same thing as "random." If it's random, and the non-adaptive or "bad" mutations die off, and the "good" mutations continue and eventually become the norm,(for the most part, else they would not be "good" or beneficial mutations) why does she think this is not progress toward what we (with bias) call a better form or an improved species ?
Posted by: DLC | July 15, 2009 2:16 PM
Addendum: I had to check again. apparently my memory of what stochastic means is off. Yet, I can't help but feel that my point still stands. If mutations come at a given rate, and if the majority of non-beneficial mutations die off, then the overall picture should be one of gradual improvement. Gauger needs to explain why this is not the case.
Posted by: PZ Myers
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July 15, 2009 2:34 PM
Those videos are hilarious, in part because I know the place. Caveman Chicken was near my elementary school -- I remember going by it on the bus every single day. However, the city hall is really nowhere near Long Septic Tank.
Kent was very much a working class town, and when I lived there, it was pretty miserable because the city was busy destroying every trace of character to it, and throwing away anything that might have made it an interesting place to live or even a destination for anyone. It was a service community to provide housing for workers at Boeing, and nothing more.
Last time I was there, I saw they'd thrown up a lot more upscale businesses in the central business district, but personally, it was all a bit too shiny and artificial.
Posted by: Qwerty
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July 15, 2009 3:04 PM
The closest I got to Kent and Auburn was a visit to Star Lake to visit my aunt in the 1960's for the Seattle World's Fair. That said, I remember little about the area except the lake which is smallish compared to the many lakes in Minnesota where I ilve. I do remember it was spring fed and VERY cold for swimming.
Posted by: CarlosT | July 15, 2009 3:04 PM
Honest math question here: if you have three vectors that vary randomly and one vector that is consistent, doesn't the effect of the consistent vector end up "counting" more over time, even if it's of smaller magnitude? It seems logical to me that the three random vectors would end up mostly canceling each other out over time, but the effects of the consistent vector would be continue to accrue under the static.
Posted by: Dutch Delight | July 15, 2009 3:05 PM
Yea, that article about Jefferson supporting ID makes perfect sense.
I suppose thats why he rewrote the bible without the supernatural claptrap.
Posted by: Hypatia's Daughter | July 15, 2009 3:07 PM
ERV #16
Years ago it was noted that PHD's were driving cabs.After being guided through the rigors of getting their degrees, they fell apart because they couldn't hack the challenges of a professional career in their fields.
Women have it easier 'cause they can become stay-at-home Moms, which sounds so much more respectable than being a cabdriver.....;>)
Pretty much happened to me (never made it to the rarefied heights of a PHD, though).
Posted by: Qwerty
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July 15, 2009 3:10 PM
MAJeff got his post removed from the Globe. He posts here often. Perhaps he could repost his comments here; so, we can see what the Globe found offensive.
MAJeff are you out there?
Posted by: CatBallou
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July 15, 2009 3:29 PM
Let's not forget, Jefferson never got a chance to read Darwin!
Posted by: Dr P | July 15, 2009 3:41 PM
...So what I'm hearing here is to believe intelligent design and its teaching as a science all you need is an information set more than 200 years old? I can't disagree with that.If however he is referring to the same Thomas Jefferson that resisted the incursion of religion into government and education then I have to say no, he is sadly mistaken.Posted by: Andreas Johansson | July 15, 2009 4:15 PM
@#37: That would depend on how the random vectors vary.
Posted by: Criz | July 15, 2009 4:23 PM
Did anyone notice a certain other member of her organization: - Guillermo Gonzalez sound familiar? :-)
Posted by: phantomreader42 | July 15, 2009 4:44 PM
Iason Ouabache @ #9:
Fixed it for you :P
Now, the question is, does Meyer not realize he's talking about the guy who compared the virgin birth of Jesus to Minerva springing from Jupiter's forehead? Or is he counting on his audience not realizing it?
Posted by: bobxxxx | July 15, 2009 5:47 PM
#40: MAJeff got his post removed from the Globe.
What happened to the Boston Globe? Why are they censoring pro-science comments while publishing bullshit from the Stupidity Institute?
Posted by: Jadehawk, OM
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July 15, 2009 5:59 PM
ahhh yes, Auburn (formerly known as Slaughter): the little downtown area still looks cute, and it's located in such a gorgeous area... but I wouldn't want to ever live there again (I spent 3 months in that suburbia, sleeping on a friend's couch.), and I'd hate being a teen there. There's nothing to do there!!!
Posted by: Mu | July 15, 2009 6:04 PM
I concede, 15 years are professional homeschooler, all is lost.
Posted by: advertisinglies | July 15, 2009 7:05 PM
I live in Auburn and grew up partially in Kent and I completely echo the boring, dead feeling most others feel about these places. Kent has become a kind of yuppie hub with the new "Kent Station" complete with an AMC theater, Hot Topic, Coldstone Ice Cream and Pac Sun. It seems a bit like a place for the Bellevuian snobbery to go slumming.
Auburn is still a bit more gritty, working class. It's boring, but beautiful and the people in Auburn are honestly pretty friendly and helpful when it counts. Kent is more of the kind of place where you worry about getting mugged if you find yourself stranded in the town at night. The gratuitous 'bail bonds' establishments don't help.
Posted by: Martin | July 15, 2009 7:36 PM
Maybe we should have Steve Dahl host another Disco Demolition Night
Video
Posted by: Sili
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July 15, 2009 8:21 PM
Completely off topic, but every time I've read Stephen Meyer in this thread, I've thought http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight_(novel).
Posted by: raven | July 15, 2009 9:52 PM
Not so hard. Being intelligent, well educated, and sane are three independent variables. Scientists are at least as prone to mental problems as the general population. Maybe more so, the mad scientist stereotype does exist.
One of my profs ended up doing a sabbatical in a detox center. He would have been better off in a loony bin, he went from being a crazy drunk to just crazy.
Another one disappeared in the middle of the school year. Sent a post card that he had joined a Buddhist cult in Asia and would be back next fall. He never did another experiment.
One senior administrator prof shot himself in the head.
I'm sure anyone who has been around academia or research labs for a while could come up with a long list of very strange people of questionable sanity.
Keep it simple. Ann Gauger somewhere along the line decided that a scientific career wasn't worth the effort and dropped out. She decided that toxic religion was more important. It happens occasionally, Caroline Crocker did the same thing. Other scientists do the same thing with non-xian cults or drugs and alcohol.
Of course, Intelligent Design or Creationism is a science, scientist, and scientific career killer. None of those Ph.D.s that waded into the miasmic lagoon ever did science again. By their fruits, ye shall know them. ID=Mind Killer.
Posted by: Sara | July 16, 2009 5:54 AM
This is so depressing. I mean, it shows that you can have that privilege of excellent education, be reasonably intelligent and have most likely very promising future, and decide to throw all that away when your husband says it's time to take off that silly lab coat, and to stop playing around with those silly vials, and go home to pop out children, and home-school the children, all the while pretending to enjoy it.
This is the sort of "comfort" religion offers women :(
Posted by: Alan | July 31, 2009 8:39 AM
This is the same Ann Gauger who presented at the "Wistar Retrospective Symposium", a place for the ID folks to show their stuff. They invited legitimate scientists to join them, which is why there is mention of Guther Wagner in the blurb that follow. Ann's religious mindset even kept her from seeing beneficial mutations in her own work.
There full story is at Panda's Thumb, http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2008/02/id-intelligent.html
but here is the relevant excerpt:
"She was then prompted by one of her colleagues to regale us with some new experimental finds. She gave what amounted to a second presentation, during which she discussed ' leaky growth,' in microbial colonies at high densities, leading to horizontal transfer of genetic information, and announced that under such conditions she had actually found a novel variant that seemed to lead to enhanced colony growth. Gunther Wagner said, ' So, a beneficial mutation happened right in your lab? ' at which point the moderator halted questioning. We shuffled off for a coffee break with the admission hanging in the air that natural processes could not only produce new information, they could produce beneficial new information."
Simply amazing.