Raúl Erlando López is another one of those precariously few young-earth creationists with a real degree so cherished by the creationist community and who are therefore heavily used, promotion-wise, to try to give creationist a sheen of scientific legitimacy to the scientifically illiterate. Of course, López’s degree in atmospheric science is irrelevant to the scientific disciplines creationists most explicitly reject, such as biology, geology and astronomy, but choices are limited when you’re a young-earth creationist. Also, López is hardly a scientist – he might have published some articles in the 1970s, but he currently seems to be publishing exclusively in the Journal of Creation Research, Answers Magazine and similar young earth creationist venues. He is nevertheless a signatory to most of the creationist petitions and lists, such as the Discovery Institute’s bankrupt A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism and the CMI list of scientists alive today who accept the biblical account of creation.
Diagnosis: Yet another denialist who rejects science because of his commitment to religious extremism, but notably for being among the vanishingly few of those who have a real degree, albeit of course in a completely unrelated discipline. Not among the loudest or most flamboyant participants in the anti-science brigade, he still deserves an entry.