Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 18:49, 4 June 2011

Michael George Pitman OBE (7 February 1933 – 30 March 2000) was an English-born Australian biologist, who was Chief Scientist of Australia from 1992 to 1996. He is most well known for his book Adam and evolution: a scientific critique of neo-Darwinism.

Early life

Pitman was born in 1933, at the family home in Bristol, England to Percy George Pitman (a butcher) and Norma Ethel née Payne (a milliner). His family lived in Bedminster where Michael attended Southville Primary School in an adjacent suburb. When World War II began, Michael and his mother and brother lived in the village of East Harptree which was relatively safer from the threat of German bombs. Returning to Bedminster, Michael attended Colston's School as his father and grandfather had, although the family's financial circumstances required him to qualify for a scholarship to attend Colston's. Whilst attending a Christian student conference in 1951, he met his future wife, Maureen Room, with whom he corresponded while attending university and whom he married in 1955.

University education and academic career

Whilst attending Colston's School, Pitman had achieved high marks in science subjects, particularly in botany, on which he decided to focus at university. He won two scholarships to attend Sidney Sussex College at the University of Cambridge, and he started his studies there in 1952. Graduating with a first class degree, another scholarship from the Agricultural Research Council enabled him to complete a PhD in botany in 1959. He continued to work at Cambridge in teaching and post-doctoral research, and was appointed a Junior Fellow of St John's College.

In 1962, Dr. Pitman was offered a job as a lecturer at the University of Adelaide in South Australia, which he accepted, intending to return to England eventually. However, his family found the lifestyle in Australia very enjoyable, and when Pitman was offered the position of Professor of Biology (Plant Physiology) at the University of Sydney in 1966, he and his family decided to remain in Australia permanently.

Organisational career

In 1983, Dr. Pitman retired from the University of Sydney, and was appointed as the Director of the Institute of Biological Resources, one of the divisions of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia's peak scientific body. He became an associate member of the CSIRO's Executive in 1985, and was Deputy to the Chief Executive from 1987 to 1988.

In 1992, Pitman was made the second Chief Scientist of Australia, advising the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet on scientific matters.

Creationism

Pitman was believer in creationism who wrote the book Adam and evolution: a scientific critique of neo-Darwinism. Pitman however pointed out in his book that his critique of evolution is non-religious in basis. In his book Pitman discussed a wide range of topics from palaeontology to molecular biology in which he contrasts the evolutionary explanation with to him the superior creationist explanation. Pitman discussed in length in his book the problem of complex adaptive structures, down to the molecular level, the problem of the origin of Cytochrome c and the gaps in the fossil record. According to Pitman there has never been any chemical evolution or macroevolution on earth, but there has been microevolution.

In an article Pitman openly admitted that he was in opposition to religious fundamentalist creationism, he also was a critic of young earth creationism, Pitman believed in a creator but never discussed who it was, he however explained that the creator had created a number of archetypes which Pitman used as an explanation for parallelism and homology.

According to Pitman:

I personally have had no inward revelations as to how or why creation occurred. Did a complete creation or successive creations occur? Was life on earth made once-for-all or was its complexity purposely increased by stages on an age-old earth? Perhaps we will never know. What matters is the fact of a coded design and the sensible inference of creation that it is possible to draw from a study of the biological machines we call plants and animals.

See also

• Creationism
• Intelligent design
• Michael Denton
• Gordon Rattray Taylor
• Richard Milton

References

1. ^ Biographical Memoirs: Michael George Pitman 1933–2000, Australian Academy of Science.
2. Pitman, Michael George (1933–2000), Bright Sparcs (University of Melbourne), 10 September 2004.
3. Michael Pitman, Adam and evolution: a scientific critique of neo-Darwinism, 1984, p. 255
4. ^ "Review of Pitman's book in the New Scientist Feb 21, 1985"
5. "Michael Pitman responding to his book review in New Scientist Apr 4, 1985"
6. Michael Pitman, Adam and evolution: a scientific critique of neo-Darwinism, 1984, pp. 254 - 255

Template:Persondata

• Australian people of English descent
• 1933 births
• 2000 deaths
• Australian biologists
• Intelligent design advocates
• Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
• Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge
• University of Adelaide faculty
• University of Sydney faculty
• Officers of the Order of the British Empire
• English immigrants to Australia
• People from Bristol
• Chief Scientists of Australia