Entry #129: Deborah Owens Fink
Insofar as the enormously popular Chopra ally, the fluffily moronic Marilyn Ferguson, hit the fan a year and a half ago, and the entry to follow Ferguson was … uh … postponed for prudential reasons (which some will presumably identify with what’s wrong with the world), we’ll continue with an appropriate counterpoint to yesterday’s Louis Farrakhan.
Deborah Owens Fink used to be the resident creationist on the Ohio Board of Education, where she (obviously) actively advocated ‘teach the manufactroversy’. She was rather nonplussed that her efforts were opposed by the other members: “I don't understand why they are even engaged on the topic. Ohio isn't Kansas.” Parse that one! She lost, fortunately.
Owens Fink is a professor of marketing at the University of Akron, and she ran on that old, transparent ploy ‘I didn’t advocate Intelligent Design Creationist, I am just urging students to subject evolution to critical analysis, something scientists should endorse.’
She did, however, think that the idea that there was a scientific consensus on evolution was “laughable.” Well, given that her definition of ‘scientist’ would probably include Marc Blaxill and Duane Gish, the claim might make sense in creationist newspeak - after all she dismissed the National Academy of Sciences as “a group of so-called scientists”. More here.
Her campaign against Tom Sawyer ran on “If you are Christian, vote for Debbie. If you believe in evolution, abortion and sin, vote for Sawyer.” Sawyer and his backers were “members of the dogmatic scientific community”.
The other outspoken creationists on the board at the time included Michael Cochran, Richard E. Baker (known for demonstratively reading newspapers during pro-science presentations during the proceedings), and Colleen D. Grady (here and here).
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Diagnosis: Arrogant simpleton. Completely clueless. Apparently relatively neutralized by now, however.