User talk:Filll/dabrera

Bernard d’Abrera (b.1940), is a butterfly photographer and a publisher. He is a fervent creationist and has taken to injecting anti-evolution diatribes into his books of butterfly pictures.

Education and career

d'Abrera was born in the United Kingdom, and attended the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He received a Bachelor's degree from UNSW in 1964, with a double major in History & Philosophy of Science and History. He published his first book, Butterflies of the Australian Region, in 1966.

In 1982, d'Abrera and his wife Lucilla founded Hill House Publishers, a publishing house based in Melbourne and London, to publish his own work. Hill House has also published reproductions of naturalist John Gould's work, copies of antiquarian maps, an atlas of the Dutch Indies, and other historical materials.

d’Abrera produced most of the photographs, illustrations, and text in his 31 volumes (so far) about the butterflies and moths from different areas around the world. His wife Lucilla served as editor and co-author on some volumes.

d'Abrera visits a variety of museums to inspect and use their collections for his books, including the Natural History Museum in London, the Macleay Museum in Sydney, Australia, the Museum Victoria in Melbourne, the Royal Museum for Central Africa at Tervuren, Belgium, and assorted private collections.

Although sometimes he is addressed as "Dr." in the literature, d'Abrera does not have a PhD. In fact, he refers in print to a PhD as a "doubtful honour of mutual respectability."

Creationist activities

d'Abrera signed the Discovery Institute's petition known as "A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism", where he is listed as "Visiting Scholar, Department of Entomology, British Museum (Natural History)". This is not quite accurate, since the Museums and Galleries Act 1992 changed the name of this museum formally to the Natural History Museum over a decade ago. An affiliation with the British Museum (Natural History) might sound more impressive to some, however misleading and incorrect, but is consistent with other complaints about the Dissent list. Also, the Entymology Department's website reveals no mention of a "Visiting Scholar" named "Bernard d'Abrera" in the staff directory, nor are any of his publications in the museum's staff publications list.

d'Abrera is strongly opposed to the theory of evolution. He regards the theory of evolution as one of the largest factors contributing to environmental problems around the world. He reasons that energy that should have been available for conservation was instead spent "worthlessly" learning about evolution. Creationist Carl Wieland, of Answers in Genesis, writes that

Those he calls the ‘elite’ in ‘ivory towers’ bear, in his view, ‘a deadly responsibility for their criminal neglect if they should continue to ignore the plight of our planet, in their futile pursuit of the phantom of Evolutionism.

In addition his 2001 opus, Concise Atlas of the Butterflies of the World is salted with anti-evolution rhetoric. In one choice phrase, d'Abrera describes evolution as 'viscid, asphyxiating baggage’.

References

• Bernard d'Abrera - a brief biography, Bernard d'Abrera 2007, Learn About Butterflies website, Adrian Hoskins.