Giuseppe Sermonti

Early life and career

Born in Rome, graduated in agriculture and genetics, he entered the Superior Institute of Health in 1950, founding a department of Microbiological Genetics. He became professor of genetics at the University of Camerino, then at the University of Palermo in 1965, and finally moved to the University of Perugia in 1970, where he is emeritus professor and where he manages the Genetics Institute of the University from 1974. From 1970-1971 he presided over the Associazione Genetica Italiana.

He is the discoverer of the genetic parasexual recombination in antibiotic-producing Penicillium and Streptomyces species. He was vice-president of the XIV International Congress of Genetics held in Moscow and he was appointed as president of the International Committee of the Working Group on Genetics of Industrial Microorganisms. In 1994 Sermonti attended an AIDS denial conference in Bologna where he spoke on the damages of campaigning against AIDS rather than HIV.

Publishing

In 1971 Sermonti published Il Crepuscolo dello Scientismo (in English The Twilight of Scientism), a post-modernist, critique of science. In 1980 Sermonti published an anti-evolution book Dopo Darwin (After Darwin), co-authored with Roberto Fondi. From 1979 to 2012, Sermonti was chief editor of Rivista di Biologia-Biology Forum.

Between 1986 and 1989 Sermonti produced three books on the hermeneutics of fairy tales, entitled Fiabe di Tre Reami (Fairy Tales of Three Realms), arguing that they contained unexpressed principles of science: Snow White is the narrative of cupellation as well as of the phases of the moon; Red Riding Hood is the story of mercury; Cinderella is the tale of sulfur. In 1987 Sermonti was one of the founding members of the Osaka "Group for the Study of Dynamic Structure" which holds the view of process structuralism, a view which is not widely held.

Creationism

Along with physicist Antonino Zichichi, Sermonti is considered one of the two leading creationists in Italy. In 1993 Sermonti published in Answers in Genesis's young earth creation magazine, an article entitled "Not from the apes". The young earth creationist Henry M. Morris cited Sermonti (along with Guy Berthault, Roberto Fondi and Wolfgang Smith) as a Roman Catholic creationist in response to John Paul II's 1996 statement on evolution, however, Sermonti has not described himself as either a Roman Catholic or a creationist.

Sermonti has been involved with the intelligent design movement. He is one of the signatories of the Discovery Institute's "A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism", a petition which the intelligent design movement uses to promote intelligent design by attempting to cast doubt on evolution. Sermonti attended the Kansas evolution hearings with the Discovery Institute in 2005 but no transcript of his testimony exists as the court reporter could not understand what he was saying due to his strong Italian accent. His book Dimenticare Darwin (Forgetting Darwin) was published in 2003 and was translated into English as Why Is a Fly Not a Horse? which was published by the Discovery Institute and edited by Jonathan Wells. In the book, he denies being a creationist, saying that "For the reservations I harbor about Evolutionism, I have been accused of being a Creationist. I am not: if I am allowed, I would only aspire to being a creature".