EUGENIE SCOTT

'Eugenie Carol Scott' (born October 24 1945) is an American physical anthropologist who has been the executive director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) since 1987. She is a leading critic of creationism and its offshoot, intelligent design.

Contents

Biography

Academic career

Academic recognition

Worldview

Authorship

Media appearances

Church-state separation

''California Wild'' Controversy

References

External links

Transcripts

Biography

Academic career

Scott grew up in Wisconsin and first became interested in anthropology after reading her sister's anthropology textbook.What inspired me to take up science?, Eugenie Scott
Scott received a BS and MS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, followed by a PhD from the University of Missouri - Columbia. She joined the University of Kentucky as a physical anthropologist in 1974 and shortly thereafter attended a debate between her mentor James A. Gavan and the young earth creationist Duane Gish which piqued her interest in the creation-evolution controversy.^[1] She also taught at the University of Colorado and at California State University, Hayward. Her research work focused on medical anthropology and skeletal biology.
In 1980 Scott was at the forefront of a successful attempt to prevent creationism from being taught in the public schools of Lexington, Kentucky. From this grassroot effort in Kentucky and other states, the National Center for Science Education was formed in 1981. Scott was appointed the NCSE's executive director in 1987, the year in which teaching creation science in American public schools was deemed illegal by the Supreme Court in ''Edwards v. Aguillard''.
Scott and her husband, Thomas C. Sager, a lawyer, reside in Berkeley, California. They have one daughter.

Academic recognition

In 1993 the University of Missouri honored Scott as a distinguished alumna.^[2] She was elected to the California Academy of Sciences in 1994. She served as president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists from 2000 to 2002. She was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2002 and was its chair. She is also a member of Sigma Xi.
Scott has received many awards from academic organisations. In 1999 she was awarded the Bruce Alberts Award by the American Society for Cell Biology. In 2001 she received the Geological Society of America's Public Service Award.^[3] She received the 2002 Public Service Award from the National Science Board for "her promotion of public understanding of the importance of science, the scientific method, and science education and the role of evolution in science education".^[4][5] In 2002 the American Institute of Biological Sciences awarded her the first Outstanding Service Award.^[6] Scott also received the 2002 Margaret Nicholson Distinguished Service Award from the California Science Teachers Association.^[7] The National Association of Biology Teachers gave her honorary membership in 2005^[8]
In 2006 she was awarded the Anthropology in the Media Award by the American Anthropological Association for "the successful communication of anthropology to the general public through the media".^[9]. In 2007 Scott and Kenneth R. Miller were jointly awarded the Outstanding Educator’s Award by the Exploratorium Museum.^[10]
Scott has been awarded honorary degrees by McGill University in 2003,^[11][12]
by Ohio State University in 2005^[13][14][15]
and in 2006 by Mount Holyoke College^[16][17][18]
and her ''alma mater'' the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.^[19][20] In 2007 she was awarded an honorary degree by Rutgers University.^[21]

Worldview

Scott was initially brought up in Christian Science by her mother and grandmother, but later switched to a Congregational church under the influence of her sister; she describes her background as liberal protestant.A Conversation with Eugenie Scott Science and Theology News Scott is now a secular humanist and describes herself as a nontheist. In 2003 was one of the signers of the third humanist manifesto, ''Humanism and Its Aspirations''.^[22] She is also a fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.^[23] In 2003 she was awarded the "Defense of Science Award" from the Center for Inquiry for her "her tireless leadership in defending scientific evolution and educational freedom".^[24]
In 1998 Scott received the American Humanist Association's Isaac Asimov Award in Science. In her acceptance speech she explained how a statement adopted by the National Association of Biology Teachers that evolution was "unsupervised" and "impersonal" was attacked by creationists such as Phillip E. Johnson, and the initial reaction of the NABT was not to bow to pressure from creationists to change it. However, Scott agreed with theologians Huston Smith and Alvin Plantinga that "unsupervised" and "impersonal" should be dropped from the statement as they made philosophical and theological claims beyond those science could claim to make based on its principle of methodological naturalism -- and the statement was altered.^[25]
Officially, the NCSE is religiously neutral and has members who hold a variety of faith-based beliefs or no beliefs at all.^[26] Nevertheless, both Scott and the NCSE are criticized as being "atheistic" by creationist groups.^[27] Scott jokes that she sometimes thinks her first name is "Atheist" for the frequency with which she is referred to as "Atheist Eugenie Scott" by creationists.

Authorship

Scott is widely considered to be a leading expert on creationism (including intelligent design), as well as one of its strongest opponents. Her book '' was published by Greenwood Press in 2004 and then in paperback by the University of California Press in 2005. It has a foreword by Niles Eldredge.
She also co-edited with Glenn Branch the 2006 anthology ''.
In 2006 Jon D. Miller, Scott and Shinji Okamoto had a brief article published in ''Science'' entitled "Public Acceptance of Evolution", an analysis of polling on the acceptance of evolution from the last 20 years in the United States and compare that to other countries.^[28][29] Turkey had the lowest acceptance of evolution in the survey, with the United States having the next-lowest, though the authors saw a positive in the higher percentage of Americans who are unsure about evolution, and therefore "reachable" for evolution.^[30]
Less seriously she has co-authored with Glenn Branch and Nick Matzke a 2004 paper on "The Morphology of Steve" in the ''Annals of Improbable Research'' which arose from the NCSE's Project Steve.^[31]

Media appearances

Creationist David Berlinski describes Scott as a "small squirrel-like creature who is often sent out to defend Darwin".^[32] However, Scott prefers to see herself as "Darwin's golden retriever". Scott says that her job "requires coping with science illiteracy in the American public".
Scott has been profiled in ''Scientific American'', Teach the Science: Wherever evolution education is under attack by creationist thinking, Eugenie Scott will be there to defend science--with rationality and resolve, Steve Mirsky, Scientific American ''The Scientist''^[33], the ''San Francisco Chronicle'',^[34] and the ''Stanford Medical Magazine''.Ain't it the truth? Two plus two equals four — spread the word, Joel Stein, ''Stanford Medicine Magazine'' She has had been interviewed for Science & Theology News, CSICOP,^[35] Church & State^[36] and Point of Inquiry.^[37][38] She has commentary published by ''Science & Theology News'',^[39] Metanexus Institute.^[40].
She also acted as the education spokesperson for the 2001 TV series^[41]
Scott has taken part in numerous interviews on MSNBC and the Fox News Channel, debating various creationist and Intelligent Design advocates. On 29 November 2004, Scott debated astrophysicist Jason Lisle of Answers in Genesis on CNN.^[42][43] On May 6, 2005 Scott debated Stephen C. Meyer of the Discovery Institute, on ''The Big Story'' with John Gibson.^[44]
In 2004, the National Center for Science Education was represented by Scott on Penn and Teller's Showtime television show ''Bullshit!'', on the episode titled "''Creationism''", on which Dr. Scott offered philosphical views about the creationist and intelligent design movements. She noted "it would be unfair to tell students that there is a serious dispute going on among scientists whether evolution took place" because there is no such debate between scientists. She further noted that "a lot of the time the creationists... they'll search through scientific journals and try to pull out something they think demonstrates evolution doesn't work and there is a kind of interesting rationale behind it. Their theology is such that if one thing is wrong with the Bible you have to throw it all out so that's why Genesis has to be interpreted literally. They look at science the same way. If one little piece of the evolutionary puzzle doesn't fit the whole thing has to go." Scott then explained, "that's not the way science is done."

Church-state separation

In 2005, Scott and other NCSE staff served as scientific and educational consultants for the plaintiffs in the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District case, which originated in Dover, PA. Judge John Jones ruled against teaching intelligent design or creationism in the public schools.
Scott serves on the National Advisory Council of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and on the National Advisory Council of Americans for Religious Liberty. In 1999 Scott was awarded the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award for "for tirelessly defending the separation of church and state by ensuring that religious neutrality is maintained in the science curriculum of America's public schools",^[45] and in 2006 was one of the three judges chosen to make the awards.

''California Wild'' Controversy

In 2005, Scott was party to a libel suit in which she was accused by Larry Caldwell of the intelligent design group Quality Science Education for All of making false claims in an article published in ''California Wild'', the magazine of the California Academy of Sciences.^[46][47][48] Scott said that the points alleged to be false were details not central to the subject and conclusions of the article, but the suit characterized them as a "false smear", a "campaign of disinformation", and showing a "pattern of making false claims and character attacks".^[49][50] Although the suit did not name ''California Wild'' as a defendant, its editor, Keith Howell, agreed to remove the online link to Scott's article and to publish a letter from Caldwell as well as a letter from Scott containing corrections.^[51][52]
Scott's letter corrected mistakes in the article, principally that it was not Caldwell but an unidentified citizen who had submitted creationist books to the Roseville school board as had been reported, and that Caldwell ally Cornelius G. Hunter was the person described in the article by a scientist as having a "gross misunderstanding of the nature of science" in analyzing the Holt textbook.^[53] The letter also corrected the date of the Georgia evolution disclaimer and the spelling of Jonathan Sarfati's surname. The NCSE then published a version of the article showing the corrections.^[54]

References

1. My Favorite Pseudoscience, Eugenie Scott, from ''Skeptical Odysseys: Personal Accounts by the World's Leading Paranormal Inquirers''. Paul Kurtz, ed. Amherst (NY): Prometheus Books, 2001, p 245-56.
2. Special Event Programs and Records, Archives of the University of Missouri
3. GSA Announces Public Service Medals for Scott and Dalrymple Mary Lou Zoback
4. Scott receives public service award from National Science Board
5. National Science Board - Honorary Awards
6. AIBS News April 2002
7. Scott Receives Teacher Association Award
8. Eugenie C. Scott to receive NABT award
9. Scott honored with Anthropology in the Media Award
10. Exploratorium 2007 Awards Dinner
11. Scott to Receive Honorary Degree
12. Spring 2003 Convocation Honorary Doctorates
13. Scott to be honored by OSU
14. Scientific literacy advocate will give commencement address
15. Ohio State honors four at winter 2005 commencement
16. NCSE's Scott to be honored by Mount Holyoke
17. Honorary Degree Citation, Eugenie Scott
18. Honorary Degree Address Eugenie C. Scott
19. Scott honored by UWM
20. UWM alumna Dr. Eugenie Scott to receive honorary degree from UWM
21. NCSE's Scott to be honored by Rutgers
22. List of original signatories to ''Humanism and its Aspirations''
23. List of fellows of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
24. Scott Receives "Defense of Science" Award
25. Science and Religion, Methodology and Humanism, Eugenie Scott.
26. About NCSE
27. How Religiously Neutral are the Anti-Creationist Organisations? ask Don Batten and Jonathan Sarfati of Answers in Genesis
28. "Public Acceptance of Evolution" in Science, NCSE, August 15, 2006
29. SCIENCE COMMUNICATION: Public Acceptance of Evolution Miller et al. Science 11 August 2006: 765-766 DOI: 10.1126/science.1126746
30. Well, at least we beat Turkey, Nick Matzke, The Panda's Thumb, August 10, 2006
31. The Morphology of Steve, Eugenie C. Scott, Glenn Branch and Nick Matzke, , , Annals of Improbable Research, 2004
32. An Interview with David Berlinski: Part One, Intelligent Design the Future, March 7, 2006
33. [http://web.archive.org/web/20020606015439/http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2002/may/watanabe_p60_020527.html Profile: Eugenie C. Scott: 'Giving ammo to the choir' ''The Scientist'' 16[11]:60, May. 27, 2002]
34. PROFILE: EUGENIE SCOTT: Berkeley scientist leads fight to stop teaching of creationism
35. An Interview with Dr. Eugenie Scott, By Bill Busher, CSICOP
36. Not In Our Classrooms! Leading Science Educator Explains Why ‘Intelligent Design’ Is Wrong For Our Schools, Church & State, Americans United
37. Eugenie Scott - Evolution vs. Religious Belief? Point of Inquiry
38. Eugenie Scott - The Dover Trial: Evolution vs. Intelligent Design
39. Still waiting for ID proponents to say more than 'Evolution is wrong'
40. The Big Tent and the Camel's Nose, Eugenie Scott, Metanexus Institute.
41. Evolution Project Overview, PBS.
42. NCSE's Scott on Fox, CNN, NCSE
43. Jason Lisle vs. Eugenie Scott on CNN!, Answers in Genesis, 1 December 2004
44. Kansas Debates Evolution: Stephen C. Meyer, Eugenie Scott, May 6, 2005 from the Discovery Institute
45. 1999 winners, Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards
46. Creationism Skirmish, Science
47. NCSE Sued by Caldwell, NCSE
48. Nuisance libel lawsuit against Eugenie Scott Timothy Sandefur, The Panda's Thumb (weblog), April 26, 2005
49. Parent Sues Eugenie Scott and the NCSE for Libel, Discovery Institute
50. Darwin defender sued for libel: Parent-activist says evolutionist published false claims about him, WorldNetDaily, May 13, 2005
51. Taken to Task: California Academy of Science Mag Publishes Scott's "Mea Culpa", Discovery Institute
52. Darwin defender retracts accusations: Eugenie Scott responds to lawsuit by parent-activist, WorldNetDaily, July 26, 2005
53. Letters to ''California Wild'', summer 2005
54. In My Backyard: Creationism in California (corrected version)

External links

★ NCSE page

Transcripts

★ the science show - Eugenie Scott talking with Robyn Williams about Project Steve.