Lee Spetner

Creationism

Spetner first became interested in evolution after moving to Israel. In Israel he attempted to search for evidence which "contradicted evolution" - based on his religious views. Spetner believes in the Jewish creation myth which tells of 365 originally created species of "beasts" and 365 birds.[1] As a creationist, he has lectured on Jewish creationism.[2]

Spetner became best known for his book Not by Chance, Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution (1996), which attacks a strawman version of modern evolutionary theory, claiming wrongly that that theory portrays evolution as "random", when in fact the theory holds that non-random natural selection selects for adaptive changes. He attempts to replace this strawman version of the modern synthesis with a mixture of divine creation and an idea of "non-random evolution theory" (well, duh, we know it's non-random). Creationists, including intelligent-design creationists, have endorsed Spetner's book.[3]

Science

Even though Spetner is a qualified physicist who has some scientific publications under his belt, he is not qualified in biology and his views on evolution have been rejected by the scientific community as pseudoscience. Critics claim that he bases his views on a religious bias and not the evidence.[4][5]

Spetner and other creationists

Spetner is often quote mined by young earth creationists, other Christian creationists and Intelligent design advocates who pretend he is a "non-creationist" who only rejects the mutation element of the modern synthesis. This is however completely false as Spetner has admitted to being a creationist and only accepts microevolution, he is no different than any of the other creationists. It is quite clear from his religious views that he has no interest in embracing any evidence for evolution.

Spetner is also a signatory to A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism.

gollark: This is less pronounced in people who know advanced maths, but I think that's a selection effect.
gollark: Since anecdotes obviously prove ideas:
gollark: People are perfectly capable of learning maths and treating it as abstract nonsense they refuse to apply anywhere.
gollark: What? How would that help people?
gollark: You should use OpenPOWER.

References
  1. Ronald L. Numbers, The creationists: from scientific creationism to intelligent design, 2006, pp. 427 - 428
  2. Tom McIver, Anti-evolution: an annotated bibliography, 2008 p. 277
  3. A review of Dr. Lee Spetner's book, Not By Chance!
  4. A review of Lee Spetner's "Not By Chance!" by Gert Korthof
  5. Dr. Spetner derives non-random evolution from the Talmud By Mark Perakh
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