Biography:Tom Bethell
Tom Bethell (/bəˈθɛl/; born July 17, 1936) is an American journalist who writes mainly on economic and scientific issues.
Life and career
Bethell was born and raised in London,[1] England. He was educated at Downside School and Trinity College, Oxford. A resident of the District of Columbia, he has lived in Virginia, Louisiana, and California . From 1962 to 1965 he taught math at Woodberry Forest School, Virginia. He is married to Donna R. Fitzpatrick of Washington, D.C.[2][3][4] He is a senior editor of The American Spectator and was for 25 years a media fellow of the Hoover Institution. He was formerly Washington editor of Harper's, and an editor of the Washington Monthly.[5]
In 1980, he received a Gerald Loeb Award Honorable Mention for Columns/Editorial for "Fooling With the Budget."[6][7][8]
Bethell was hired as a researcher by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison to assist with his prosecution of Clay Shaw for conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy.[9] Bethell gives no credence to Garrison's charges that Shaw was involved.[10] Shaw was acquitted after the jury deliberated for about an hour.
Controversy
In 1976, Bethell wrote a controversial article titled Darwin's Mistake. According to Bethell there is no independent criterion of fitness and natural selection is a tautology.[11] Bethell also stated that Darwin's theory was on "the verge of collapse" and natural selection had been "quietly abandoned" by his supporters.[12] These claims were disputed by biologists.[11][12] The paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould wrote a rebuttal to Bethell's arguments.[12]
Bethell was a member of the Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV-AIDS Hypothesis,[13] which denies that HIV causes AIDS. In The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science (2005), he promotes denial of the existence of man-made global warming, AIDS denialism, and denial of evolution (which Bethell denies is "real science"),[14] promoting intelligent design instead.[15] Bethell has endorsed the intelligent design documentary Expelled.[16]
Selected publications
- Darwin's Mistake (1976) Harper's Magazine.
- Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity through the Ages (1998) St Martin's Press.
- The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science (2005) Regnery Press.
- Eric Hoffer: The Longshoreman Philosopher (2012) Hoover Institution Press.
- Questioning Einstein: Is Relativity Necessary? (2009) Vales Lake Publishing, LLC.
- Darwin's House of Cards (2017) The Discovery Institute Press.
References
- ↑ See: Jerry P. Shinley Archive: Thomas Bethell: Biographical Sketch from CA
- ↑ Trinity College, Oxford – missing members
- ↑ Tom Bethell explains why property matters
- ↑ Tom Bethell, Beliefnet Columnist Beliefnet.com Accessed July 20, 2008
- ↑ Biography at Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc.
- ↑ "2 California Papers Lead Loeb Awards". The Washington Post: p. D3. May 30, 1980.
- ↑ "Loeb Award winners 1958–1996". https://ahbj.sabew.org/awards/03302013loeb-award-winners-1958-1971/.
- ↑ "Historical Winners List". https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/news-and-events/signature-events/gerald-loeb-awards/winners/historical-winners.
- ↑ Tom Bethell, "Reality Check for Another Movie Myth," Los Angeles Times, December 1, 1991.
- ↑ Tom Bethell, "Was Sirhan Sirhan on the Grassy Knoll?", The Washington Monthly, March 1975.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Ruse, Michael. (2007 edition). Philosophy of Biology. Prometheus Books. p. 22. pp. 133-141. ISBN:978-1591025276
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Gould, Stephen Jay. Darwin’s Untimely Burial. Natural History 85 (1976): 24-30. Republished in Gould, Stephen Jay. (2007, edition). Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 39-45. ISBN:978-0-393-34041-9
- ↑ AIDS proposal. Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS Hypothesis.
- ↑ Don’t Fear the Designer Tom Bethell
- ↑ Banned in Biology Washington Times December 25, 2005
- ↑ Branch, Glenn. (2008). Expelled and the Reviewers. National Center for Science Education 28 (5–6): 24–25.
External links
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