Michael Egnor



Egnorance: The Egotistical Combination of Ignorance and Arrogance.

Michael Egnor is a neurosurgeon, creationist/IDiot, and promoter of neuro-woo, specifically of non-materialist neuroscience and dualism. Egnor became a writer for the Discovery Institute's online newsletter Evolutionary News and Views in 2007. In 2011, he decided he needed his own blog and called it "Egnorance."

Creationism
When it comes to creationism, Egnor eschews the weaselly escape hatch-style arguments often employed by its proponents in favor of blatant ignorance. He is, however, highly fond of points refuted a thousand times. Egnor claims his views are based largely on Evolution: A Theory in Crisis by Michael Denton, a book which its own author later largely disowned. Most of his arguments are based on the argument from incredulity — that life is just too damn complex to not have been designed by a creator.

The worthy professor equates evolution with Darwinism though reasonable evolutionary biologists understand that the theory of evolution has progressed since Darwin. He states that Darwin failed to explain molecular pathways, but molecular pathways were not understood by anyone in Darwin’s time; later biologists explained them. He keeps on about random causation, but evolutionary biologists never suggest random causation: the whole point of natural selection is that only mutations that help an organism to survive are preserved in the genetic record. Based in particular on his complete ignorance of the history of biology, PZ Myers called Egnor "the Swiss army knife of creationist hackery".

One of his more ridiculous arguments was that evolutionary theory had made no contributions to medicine. This was slapped down by Burt Humburg of The Panda's Thumb, who gave numerous examples of such contributions, such as the explanation for the biochemistry behind the use of aspirin to treat patients who have suffered heart attacks. He also coined the term "Egnorance" in his fisking. Orac referred to him as the "Energizer Bunny of antievolution."

He has attracted criticism from evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne, who wrote a rebuttal to a column Egnor had published in Forbes.

Steven Novella has played arch-nemesis to Egnor with regard to all subjects that Egnor promotes his woo upon, including creationism.

Dualism and non-materialist neuroscience
Creationism plays into Egnor's defense of dualism as he believes that a materialistic explanation cannot fully explain the brain and behavior. One of his most infamous arguments is that the brain itself cannot be fully responsible for behavior because, for example, no part of the brain is "altruistic," so altruistic behavior cannot arise from the brain (thus, a dualist explanation is necessary). This is a straw man of neuroscientific explanations. More specifically, it is a fallacy of division. Altruism is simply a label we give to a set of behaviors — behaviors which arise from the brain. Egnor also makes a classic category mistake in assuming ideas cannot "arise" from physical substance (like neurons) because they are not made of the same "stuff," which means he totally fails at understanding the concept of emergence.

PZ Myers has dismantled his arguments and Novella has had numerous, long-winded correspondences with him on the subject. Novella and Egnor were featured in dueling interviews on NPR, ultimately resulting in further embarrassment to Egnor (if that's possible). Novella vs. Egnor on neuroscience:
 * Egnor Dishes on Meat and Materialism, 5 June 2007
 * More on Dualism and Denial, 3 December 2007
 * The Mind-Brain Problem – A Creationist Rebuttal, 15 January 2008
 * Intelligent Design of the Brain, 11 February 2008
 * Dr. Egnor on Neuroscience – Wrong Again. 29 April 2008
 * More Sloppy Thinking from Michael Egnor on Neuroscience, 20 May 2008
 * Michael Egnor, Cartesian Dualism, David Chalmers, and the Hard (non)Problem, 9 June 2008
 * Ether of the Mind: Chalmers and Dennett on Dualism, 10 June 2008
 * B. Alan Wallace and Buddhist Dualism, 13 June 2008
 * Egnor vs PZ Myers, 27 June 2008
 * Persistent Vegetative State – From Schiavo to Egnor, 15 August 2008
 * Schiavo and the Persistent Vegetative State, 18 August 2008
 * Mind and Brain on NPR, 21 February 2009

As a neurosurgeon
Demonstrating that someone can be a complete crank in one area but ridiculously competent in another, Egnor made news when he performed brain surgery on two-year-old Bobby Palange, who was close to brain death after his skull had been crushed by his father's SUV. Egnor revived Palange and the boy recovered with only some scarring on his scalp and a slight vision problem in one eye, which is expected to gradually improve with age.