Ian Plimer

Professor Ian Plimer is a geologist at the University of Adelaide (South Australia) and has been an outspoken anti-creationist.

In 1988 Plimer, then employed by the University of Newcastle, debated Duane Gish at the University of New South Wales. Gish apparently described it as one of the most disgusting performances he had seen. The Creation Science Foundation (C.S.F., now Creation Ministries International) noted that: Even a sympathetic news report in The Sydney Morning Herald (June 25, 1988, p. 74) talked about the fact that Plimer’s talk was ‘blistering’, that he ‘mocked’ and ‘ridiculed’, that he was ‘aiming for his opponent’s kneecaps’ and that ‘much of what he said in the Gish debate cannot be repeated for legal reasons’.

Evolutionist Jim Lippard has taken Plimer to task in a number of articles, including in the NCSE's magazine Creation/Evolution in an article titled "How not to argue with creationists". He describes the debate with Gish thus: Plimer, rather than treating the event as an academic debate, used the occasion to abuse and ridicule Gish--at one point even offering Gish a chance to electrocute himself on bare wires to demonstrate that electricity is "mere theory."(1) The mostly creationist audience was not amused.(2) The ICR (Acts & Facts 1988) characterized Plimer's behavior as "by far the worst behavior ever encountered by Dr. Gish."

In 1992 Australian Allen Roberts conducted a lecture tour about Ron Wyatt's claimed site for Noah's Ark. Plimer responded that the site was not Noah's Ark, but a syncline, a naturally-occurring formation. Creationary geologist Andrew Snelling wrote an article in Creation ex Nihilo the same year, in which described the formation as being the result of a mud flow. In 1994 Plimer appeared on a television program with Ron Wyatt disciple David Fasold, challenging Fasold on his claims regarding the Noah's Ark site. Visiting the site, Fasold was unable to substantiate his claims and admitted that Plimer was correct. Plimer declared that he was correct about the site, that it is the result of a mud flow.

Roberts subsequently sued Plimer for defamation, and won (Plimer settled out of court). Plimer, with Fasold, counter-sued, claiming that Roberts made false and misleading claims, and that he had used material from Fasold's book without permission. Plimer lost, and was instructed to pay Roberts' costs.

In 1994, Plimer published Telling Lies for God. In this book Plimer employs straw-man arguments, innuendo, guilt by association, and outright false accusations to malign creationists in general and C.S.F. in particular. C.S.F. produced a document rebutting many of Plimer's claims. They also arranged for an independent committee to examine Plimer's accusations against C.S.F.

Plimer's book includes some interesting bloopers, including referring to "the 23 letters of the alphabet", and the claim that "In my view, the Bible is not true. However, it is the Truth." Even other evolutionists have problems with the book, with one pointing out that it contains "falsehoods, misrepresentations and distortions".

Plimer has claimed to be a "practising Christian", yet was awarded the title "Humanist of the year" in 1995, being a member of the Humanist Society of Victoria.