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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Dr A E Wilder-Smith
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NJA
Shipmate
# 13022
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Posted
Did anyone ever meet him?
He is well spoken of.
In this clip he says he's getting on for his 90s but Wiki says he died aged 80, can anyone confirm?
Posts: 1283 | From: near London | Registered: Sep 2007
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chive
Ship's nude
# 208
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Posted
Being well spoken off by anti science nut jobs is hardly something to be proud of.
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'Edward was the kind of man who thought there was no such thing as a lesbian, just a woman who hadn't done one-to-one Bible study with him.' Catherine Fox, Love to the Lost
Posts: 3542 | From: the cupboard under the stairs | Registered: May 2001
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Wesley J
Silly Shipmate
# 6075
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Posted
I met him once or twice in the late 80ies/early 1990ies. I found him quite pleasant and well-reasoned to talk to, which unfortunately couldn't really be said of Chive's "anti science nut jobs" who swarmed around him.
Other than that, can't say much.
And yes, according to http://www.wildersmith.org/, he's dead, Jim.
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Be it as it may: Wesley J will stay. --- Euthanasia, that sounds good. An alpine neutral neighbourhood. Then back to Britain, all dressed in wood. Things were gonna get worse. (John Cooper Clarke)
Posts: 7354 | From: The Isles of Silly | Registered: May 2004
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Wesley J
Silly Shipmate
# 6075
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by NJA:
[...] In this clip he says he's getting on for his 90s [...]
Nope, he doesn't. He says "I'm not quite 95", but may need a break later "for a moment pause in the jaw work." That's his sense of humour. Which he had, again quite unlike some of his more eager followers.
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Be it as it may: Wesley J will stay. --- Euthanasia, that sounds good. An alpine neutral neighbourhood. Then back to Britain, all dressed in wood. Things were gonna get worse. (John Cooper Clarke)
Posts: 7354 | From: The Isles of Silly | Registered: May 2004
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
There's no doubt that he was a well-regarded scientist in his day but he seems to have lost the plot at some point - which is reflected in his own copyrighted "curriculum" which has a couple of oddities, most notably that he was a "NATO three-star general".
It is a fact that he was one of the four participants in the 1986 Huxley Memorial Debate at the Oxford Union. The motion was "That the Doctrine of Creation is more valid than the Theory of Evolution". Wilder-Smith spoke for the motion with Edgar Andrew - sometime president of the Biblical Creation Society; opposing the motion were Richard Dawkins and Professor John Maynard Smith.
The motion was defeated by 198 to 115 votes.
Oddly, Wilder-Smith prefers to mention this on his CV as "Presented the 1986 Huxley Memorial Lecture at the invitation of the University of Oxford" which is untrue - the University of Oxford doesn't have a regular Huxley Memorial Lecture. [The annual Huxley Memorial Lecture is given under the auspices of the Royal Anthropological Institute and in 1986 was delivered by Lewis Binford.]
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Honest Ron Bacardi
Shipmate
# 38
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Posted
L'organist wrote quote:
There's no doubt that he was a well-regarded scientist in his day but he seems to have lost the plot at some point - which is reflected in his own copyrighted "curriculum" which has a couple of oddities, most notably that he was a "NATO three-star general".
Possibly even odder is the line entry stating he is "deceased", which claims to have been copyrighted by himself in 2002.
The 3-star general thing may be legit. Some NATO countries will assign a temporary rank to you if you are doing some sort of work for them. It's more an honorary thing I think. Three star rank is Lt. Gen. or equivalent in most forces.
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Anglo-Cthulhic
Posts: 4857 | From: the corridors of Pah! | Registered: May 2001
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by NJA:
He is well spoken of.
By Duane Gish? You're taking the piss! ![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Honest Ron Bacardi:
The 3-star general thing may be legit. Some NATO countries will assign a temporary rank to you if you are doing some sort of work for them. It's more an honorary thing I think. Three star rank is Lt. Gen. or equivalent in most forces.
I know times change but three-star generals are rare birds, eg, Monty was a three-star general in Africa. What is strange though is that he doesn't appear to have any rank in any nation's armed forces, just "NATO", making it as difficult to disprove as it is to prove. How odd for a Yeccie.
I reckon he was a good scientist who went off the rails late on. Not so very unusual. Dawkins isn't so very different in that respect.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Honest Ron Bacardi
Shipmate
# 38
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Posted
Sioni Sais wrote quote:
I know times change but three-star generals are rare birds, eg, Monty was a three-star general in Africa. What is strange though is that he doesn't appear to have any rank in any nation's armed forces, just "NATO", making it as difficult to disprove as it is to prove. How odd for a Yeccie.
Yes, it's meaningless on its own without knowing who might have bestowed the rank. It's difficult to know at this distance whether such a claim was made by him or is due to a naive acolyte. His website has obviously been edited.
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Anglo-Cthulhic
Posts: 4857 | From: the corridors of Pah! | Registered: May 2001
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Wesley J
Silly Shipmate
# 6075
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Posted
The only source I've found for "A E Wilder-Smith NATO general" is German-language Wikipedia, which claims he was a NATO advisor on drugs (drug abuse within NATO forces, that is) from 1970 to 1977, with said rank. He appears to have developed drug rehab programmes, given lectures and all that. Could make sense, I reckon, seeing he was a pharmacologist.
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Be it as it may: Wesley J will stay. --- Euthanasia, that sounds good. An alpine neutral neighbourhood. Then back to Britain, all dressed in wood. Things were gonna get worse. (John Cooper Clarke)
Posts: 7354 | From: The Isles of Silly | Registered: May 2004
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
It was nothing to do with the UK - we don't give honorary military rank to anyone other than honorary regimental colonels, usually royalty.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
AIUI civilians on attachment to or doing work for the forces are or were sometimes given an equivalent rank to allow them to use particular messes and ease any questions of seniority in respect of their forces colleagues - am I right? Ex-service shipmates may know.
But even if I'm correct about this, I've never heard of this being continued after the job has ended- even if the job required an equivalent rank as exalted as Lieutenant-General.
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My beard is a testament to my masculinity and virility, and demonstrates that I am a real man. Trouble is, bits of quiche sometimes get caught in it.
Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
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