John Corrigan "Jonathan" Wells (September 19, 1942 – September 19, 2024) was an American molecular biologist, cell biologist, and theologian. He was an advocate of intelligent design, a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God.
After dropping out of Princeton University, Wells joined the Unification Church of the United States in 1974. He earned a doctorate in religious studies from Yale University in 1986 and a second doctorate in molecular and cellular biology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1994. He subsequently wrote that the teachings of Sun Myung Moon and his studies at Unification Theological Seminary convinced him to devote himself to "destroying Darwinism". He became a member of several scientific associations and published in academic journals.
In his book Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth? (2000), Wells argued that a number of examples used to illustrate biology textbooks were erroneous or exaggerated. Wells said that this shows that evolution conflicts with the evidence, and so argued against its teaching in public education. Some reviewers of Icons of Evolution have said that Wells misquoted experts cited as sources and took minor issues out of context, basing his argument on a flawed syllogism.
Early life and education
Wells was born on September 19, 1942, in New York City. and grew up in northern New Jersey. He was raised Presbyterian. In 1960, Wells graduated from Montclair High School. During high school, he excelled academically and launched makeshift rockets from his home. He attained a perfect score on the SAT and won a full scholarship provided by the National Merit Scholarship Program to attend Princeton University. As an undergraduate at Princeton, Wells majored in geology. Despite being ranked in the top one percent of his class, he dropped out of Princeton in his junior year.
After attending the 1963 March on Washington, Wells became a pacifist and worked as a taxi driver in New York City. He was drafted into the U.S. Army and served two years of military service in Germany. After being discharged from the army in 1966, he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, where he led a protest against the Vietnam War draft at Sproul Plaza. He was arrested for draft dodging and incarcerated in solitary confinement for four months, then imprisoned for eight months at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth.
Upon his release from prison, Wells re-enrolled at Berkeley and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in geology and physics with a minor in biology in 1970. He recalled that, as an undergraduate, "I became an agnostic and a Darwinist". His doctoral dissertation at Yale, completed under theologian David Kelsey, was titled, "Charles Hodge's critique of Darwinism: The argument to design".
In 1994, Wells earned a second doctorate, a Ph.D. in molecular biology and cellular biology, from the University of California, Berkeley. His doctoral dissertation at Berkeley was titled, "A confocal microscopy study of microtubule arrays involved in cortical rotation during the first cell cycle of Xenopus embryos". Among his doctoral advisors at Berkeley was the herpetologist David B. Wake. during which time he wrote articles critical of Darwinism. In 1996, Wells became a research fellow at the Center for Science and Culture (then the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture), where he was appointed the Karl Ernst von Baer Fellow in Developmental and Evolutionary Biology. He served as one of the associate editors of the Origins & Design intelligent design journal, along with William A. Dembski and Stephen C. Meyer. He also worked at the International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design, which also promoted intelligent design.
Wells had written on the subject of marriage within the Unification Church, and had been called a "Unification Church marriage expert" by church sources. Wells defended Unification Church theology against what he said were unfair criticisms of it made in 1977 by the National Council of Churches.
Wells appeared on a panel at Harvard with Stephen Palumbi in November 2001, which his supporters lauded as a "home run". Other observers stated that Wells' performance was "uneventful".
Opposition to Darwinian evolution
Of his student days at Unification Theological Seminary (1976–78), Wells said, "One of the things that Father [Reverend Sun Myung Moon] advised us to do at UTS was to pray to seek God's plan for our lives." Wells later described that plan: "To defend and articulate Unification theology especially in relation to Darwinian evolution."
Wells stated that his religious doctoral studies at Yale, which were paid for by the Unification Church, focused on the "root of the conflict between Darwinian evolution and Christian doctrine" and encompassed the whole of Christian theology within a focus of Darwinian controversies. He said: