kiwimac

Comments please?

What is known about Jerry Bergman & his Phd?

Kiwimac

Mod Note: Quoted material shortened and link added. -Rufus

Jesse

Well, if you couldn't guess, Jerry Bergman is a creationist, as this answersingenesis page shows. And "Northwest State College" is actually Northwest State Community College...why did they leave "Community" out of the title? Because it doesn't sound as prestigous, I suppose?

By the way, since this is a topic about Darwin and a creationist critic, I think it'd be better off in the evolution & creation forum.

anthrosciguy

Also, Talk Origins notes that Bergman's "Ph.D." comes from a diploma mill.

From Talk Origins

Notice that his degree in "human biology" is from Columbia Pacific University which as discussed in the Some Questionable Creationist Credentials FAQ is a diploma mill. Quackwatch documents that it has been shut down.

Jackalope

A whole lot of things in that article pegged my bullshit meter. But the bit about being excited about hunting (a normal occupation for his social class at that time) being evidence of sadistic impulses is what really got me. That, and the fact that he mentions twice the theory that Darwin's symptoms were born of guilt and fear that there was a real divine creator. Let's see, what else smells like BS to me:
his definition of agoraphobia is off (in fact, the way it's worded it doesn't make sense)
"treading on air and vision" WTF? I'm not sure what the author even meant here. It's certainly not part of any commonly-used clinical descriptions.
Which is a nice theory, but we're finding more and more that panic attacks and a number of GI disturbances have real, physical causes. Bergman is trying to set Darwin up to look like a hypochondriac. What many non-clinicians misss is that seriously ill people have a heightened body awareness for good reason. Among other things, a health diary is exactly what many doctors ask their patients to do these days in an attempt to document what's going on outside the doctor's office.

Anonther thing non-clinicians often don't understand is that depression is often caused by chronic illness, not the other way around. And most especially during a period when men were expected to be stoic and uncomplaining, being ill all the time would have had the potential to cause extreme depression.

I notice that Bergman's PhD is not in psychology (what a suprise) and he appears to have very little clinical experience in the field. Not the person I'd think was terribly qualified to diagnose case studies. Most especially since his diagnoses are...somewhat eccentric. The point of having a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual was to make sure everyone defines disorders the same way. Bergman has pulled the typical creationist tricks of redefining terms and confusing effects for causes.

edited to add:
For all we know, Darwin could have had Chron's Disease or peptic ulcers, both of which are made worse by stress. Which very well could have caused some of the later disturbances, including agoraphobia. Many people with chronic illnesses become afraid to venture away from home, where they can at least manage their symptoms in a fairly controlled manner.

Happy Wonderer

Of course the appropriate response to this is "so what?" Although it may make creationists feel better to think of Darwin as a tortured soul (on earth) it has absolutely no relevance to the power of his theory. He happened to have the right idea long before there was the kind of experimental evidence that we have today. It is not necessary for him to be some sort of superman; there were lots of equally smart guys with theories that didn't work out. This is one of the silliest counter-arguments, essentially "Darwin was not God." If Jesus suffered from chronic diarrhea that would be one thing, but nobody makes the claim of divinity for Darwin.

Lots of very smart people who have advanced humanity's knowledge have suffered from both physical and mental problems. It is called being human, and I hate to break it to the young'uns but youall are incredibly unlikely to get out of this life without suffering some major defect (unless you leave early.)

Note also that a sufferer of diarrhea may reasonably not want to travel very far...

hw

Jackalope

Actually, the point of the article was to try and insinuate that Darwin was a tortured soul because he secretly feared that he'd dethroned a real, divine creator. Not even a very subtle attempt, actually. But most non-wary readers would get distracted by all the superflous details Bergman has put in there.

Albion

I think it's to Darwin's credit that he could get so much good work done while being ill all the time. Rather him than me, that's for sure!

Gwen Raverat's autobiography, "Period Piece," seems to describe most of the Darwin family as making quite a hobby out of illness (she was one of Charles Darwin's granddaughters), so either it ran in the family or physical weakness was just a lot more common then, what with the arsenic-laced wallpaper and lead-based paint that all the houses were full of. Whatever the cause, I doubt that Darwin's whole family were tormented agnostic evolutionists, so it seems strange to single him out from among a family full of ill people. And considering the length of time he'd spent in remote parts of the world handling dead animals, it wouldn't be beyond the realms of the possible for him to have picked up some sort of chronic parasitic or viral illness, unlike all the sick aunts and uncles.

RufusAtticus

I don't know about Darwin, but Bergman definately seems rather paranoid with his acussations that the "evolutionists" were out to get him because he didn't join their conspiracy. He sued Bowling Green University for not granting him tenure, claim his creationist religious beliefs were discriminated by the mean evolutionists.

theyeti

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember hearing that Darwin probably picked up a number of endoparasites while touring around in South America. Many of the symptoms he has sound like what you'd expect from ameobiasis or any one of a number of nematode infections.

As for what Bergman is trying to make out of it.... typical creationist. What would these people do if ad hominems were suddenly rendered impermissable? What would they have left?

theyeti

pangloss

Which is odd, considering that he taught math there. Of course, he told David Duke's organization that it was reverse discrimination because he is white. I remember reading somewhere - so it is all hearsay, of course - that one of the factors was the fact that he was gone so often attending creationist meetings and such and his pu8blications were all in creationist magazines.

Though, pertaining to earlier questions, he does have at least one legit PhD from my alma mater, Wayne State University, in something called 'testing and evaluation' or something like that. I assume it was from the math department of maybe education?