John G. West is a senior fellow at the Seattle-based

Discovery Institute The Discovery Institute (DI) is a politically conservative non-profit think tank based in Seattle, Washington, that advocates the pseudoscientific concept Article available froUniversiteit Gent/ref> of intelligent design (ID). It was founded ...

(DI), and associate director and vice president for public policy and legal affairs of its

Center for Science and Culture The Center for Science and Culture (CSC), formerly known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture (CRSC), is part of the Discovery Institute (DI), a conservative Christian think tank in the United States. The CSC lobbies for the in ...

(CSC), which serves as the main hub of the pseudoscientific

Intelligent design movement The intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the pseudoscientific Article available froUniversiteit Gent/ref> idea of intelligent design (ID), which ...

Biography

West received an undergraduate degree in communications (Editorial Journalism) from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

in 1986. From 1986 to 1989, he served as managing editor of Public Research, Syndicated, which distributed essays on public affairs to more than 700 daily and weekly newspapers. He received his Ph.D. in Government from The Claremont Graduate School (now

Claremont Graduate University The Claremont Graduate University (CGU) is a private, all-graduate research university in Claremont, California. Founded in 1925, CGU is a member of the Claremont Colleges which includes five undergraduate (Pomona College, Claremont McKenna Co ...

) in 1992, has taught

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

courses at

California State University, San Bernardino California State University, San Bernardino (Cal State San Bernardino or CSUSB) is a public research university in San Bernardino, California. Founded in 1965, it is one of the 23 general campuses of the California State University system. The m ...

and

Azusa Pacific University Azusa Pacific University (APU) is a private, evangelical Christian university in Azusa, California. The university was founded in 1899, with classes opening on March 3, 1900, in Whittier, California, and began offering degrees in 1939. The uni ...

, and was an associate professor of political science at

Seattle Pacific University Seattle Pacific University (SPU) is a private Christian university in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1891 in conjunction with the Oregon and Washington Conference of the Free Methodist Church as the Seattle Seminary. It became the Seat ...

(a private Christian university) where he chaired the Political Science and

Geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

department. West has been co-director of the CSC since its formation in 1996, out of discussions between himself and Stephen C. Meyer, which led to an invitation from DI president Bruce Chapman to create it as a unit within the DI. At the 1995 DI-sponsored 'Death of Materialism' conference out of which it was born, he delivered an address entitled 'The Death of Materialism and the Renewal of Culture', which was an early articulation of the

Wedge Strategy The Wedge Strategy is a creationist political and social action plan authored by the Discovery Institute, the hub of the pseudoscientific intelligent design movement. The strategy was put forth in a Discovery Institute manifesto known as the We ...

(later leaked in 1998 as what became known as the ''Wedge Document'', with an introduction identical to West's opening paragraphs).

Darwin Day in America

In both his 2007 book ''Darwin Day in America'' and in lectures, West presents his case for linking Darwin to the

eugenics Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or ...

movement. Historian of Science Mark Borrello criticized West's argument in writing, "West means blaming biologists in general and Darwinian theory in particular for the coerced sterilization laws that passed many state legislatures in the first half of the 20th century. This will not do. Historians of science know that the passage of the first sterilization laws at the beginning of the 20th century occurred during the '

eclipse of Darwinism Julian Huxley used the phrase "the eclipse of Darwinism" to describe the state of affairs prior to what he called the "modern synthesis". During the "eclipse", evolution was widely accepted in scientific circles but relatively few biologists be ...

'." Borrello further states that this popular support for eugenics was matched with popular opposition to teaching evolution. Moreover, modern scientists, such as

Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Jay Gould (; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely read authors of popular science of his generation. Gould sp ...

spoke out against eugenics.

Bibliography

* ''The Politics of Revelation and Reason: Religion and Civic Life in the New Nation (American Political Thought)'' (1996) * ''Public life in the shadowlands: What C.S. Lewis can teach us about politics'' (1998) * ''The

C.S. Lewis CS, C-S, C.S., Cs, cs, or cs. may refer to: Job titles * Chief Secretary (Hong Kong) * Chief superintendent, a rank in the British and several other police forces * Company secretary, a senior position in a private sector company or public se ...

Readers' Encyclopedia'', (ed., with Jeffry D. West) (1998) * ''Encyclopedia of Religion in American Politics (American Political Landscape Series)'', with Iain Maclean, and Jeffrey D. Schultz (1998) * ''The Theology of Welfare: Protestants, Catholics, & Jews in Conversation About Welfare, with Sonja E. West (2000) * ''Celebrating Middle-Earth:

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

As a Defense of Western Civilization'' (2002) * ''Traipsing into Evolution: Intelligent Design and the

Kitzmiller v. Dover ''Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District'', 400 Federal Supplement, F. Supp. 2d 707 (M.D. Pa. 2005) was the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts testing a public school district policy that required the teaching of ...

Decision'', with David K. Dewolf, Casey Luskin, and Jonathan Witt (2006) * ''Darwin's Conservatives: The Misguided Quest'' (2006) * ''Darwin Day In America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science'' (2007) * ''The Magician's Twin: C. S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society'' (2012) * ''Walt Disney and Live Action: The Disney Studio's Live-Action Features of the 1950s and 60s'' (2016)

Notes

References

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External links