Biology has attracted what you might call crackpots (particularly in the area of human evolution and evolution in general) of all persuasions, some of whom were quite successful in their local arenas (Lysenko in the Soviet Union controlled the direction of biological research for several decades, much to the detriment of Soviet agriculture for example).
Another one I encountered personally was the group of academics who got behind the "AIDS is an autoimmune disorder, not a viral infection" theory. It was a bit uncomfortable talking to them about it, they really had a kind of evangelical / persecuted visionary complex. These were people with advanced degrees and even a university professor (in chemistry, not biology) was involved. A similar small group of academics in paleontology continue to deny that an asteroid impact had anything to do with the extinction of the dinosaurs, despite vast evidence supporting that conclusion.
A common factor seems to be that such people are susceptible to ideological fixation. They get ideas in their heads that they aren't willing to question, and promoting them becomes more of an article of faith rather than something that can be addressed by scientific methods.
Another one I encountered personally was the group of academics who got behind the "AIDS is an autoimmune disorder, not a viral infection" theory. It was a bit uncomfortable talking to them about it, they really had a kind of evangelical / persecuted visionary complex. These were people with advanced degrees and even a university professor (in chemistry, not biology) was involved. A similar small group of academics in paleontology continue to deny that an asteroid impact had anything to do with the extinction of the dinosaurs, despite vast evidence supporting that conclusion.
A common factor seems to be that such people are susceptible to ideological fixation. They get ideas in their heads that they aren't willing to question, and promoting them becomes more of an article of faith rather than something that can be addressed by scientific methods.