[Hac-announce] Creationism and Science

[Thomas Platt]

Hi folks,

It does seem like creationists are putting on the pressure to  
insinuate themselves into mainstream science.  This one is tricky:
http://tinyurl.com/35vo4gk - Tom Platt


December 18, 2010  NY Times
Astronomer Sues the University of Kentucky, Claiming His Faith Cost  
Him a JobBy MARK OPPENHEIMER
In 2007, C. Martin Gaskell, an astronomer at the University of  
Nebraska, was a leading candidate for a job running an observatory at  
the University of Kentucky. But then somebody did what one does  
nowadays: an Internet search.

That search turned up evidence of Dr. Gaskell’s evangelical Christian  
faith.

The University of Kentucky hired someone else. And Dr. Gaskell sued  
the institution.

Whether his faith cost him the job and whether certain religious  
beliefs may legally render people unfit for certain jobs are among  
the questions raised by the case, Gaskell v. University of Kentucky.

In late November, a federal judge in Kentucky ruled that the case  
could go forward, and a trial is scheduled for February. The case  
represents a rare example, experts say, of a lawsuit by a scientist  
who alleges academic persecution for his religious faith.

Both sides agree that Dr. Gaskell, 57, was invited to the university,  
in Lexington, for a job interview. In his lawsuit, he says that at  
the end of the interview, Michael Cavagnero, the chairman of the  
physics and astronomy department, asked about his religious beliefs.

“Cavagnero stated that he had personally researched Gaskell’s  
religious beliefs,” the lawsuit says. According to Dr. Gaskell, the  
chairman said Dr. Gaskell’s religious beliefs and his “expression of  
them would be a matter of concern” to the dean.

Federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion, so  
interviewers typically do not ask about an applicant’s faith.  
Depositions and e-mails submitted as evidence suggest why Dr.  
Cavagnero may have raised the issue with Dr. Gaskell.

For the plaintiff, the smoking gun is an e-mail dated Sept. 21, 2007,  
from a department staff member, Sally A. Shafer, to Dr. Cavagnero and  
another colleague. Ms. Shafer wrote that she did an Internet search  
on Dr. Gaskell and found links to his notes for a lecture that  
explores, among other topics, how the Bible could relate to  
contemporary astronomy.

“Clearly this man is complex and likely fascinating to talk with,”  
Ms. Shafer wrote, “but potentially evangelical. If we hire him, we  
should expect similar content to be posted on or directly linked from  
the department Web site.”

In his deposition, Dr. Cavagnero recalled reading Ms. Shafer’s e-mail  
and said he discussed Dr. Gaskell’s faith with the department  
chairman at the University of Nebraska, where Dr. Gaskell worked at  
the time. Dr. Cavagnero also said a colleague, Moshe Elitzur, worried  
that Dr. Gaskell “had outspoken public views about creationism and  
evolution.”

Dr. Elitzur, in his deposition, said he feared that bad publicity  
could arise from bringing Dr. Gaskell to the university, which is  
less than 100 miles from the Creation Museum, in Petersburg, Ky.

“There’s no way you can avoid the headline in The Herald-Leader  
saying ‘U.K. hires a creationist for public outreach,’ ” Dr. Elitzur  
remembered saying.

Referring to Ms. Shafer’s concern that Dr. Gaskell was “potentially  
evangelical,” Francis J. Manion, Dr. Gaskell’s lawyer, said: “I  
couldn’t have made up a better quote. ‘We like this guy, but he is  
potentially Jewish’? ‘Potentially Muslim’?”

Dr. Elitzur and Dr. Cavagnero did not return phone calls for comment.  
Reached by phone, Ms. Shafer said that “it would not be a good idea”  
for her to answer questions. Jay Blanton, a university spokesman,  
said the hiring committee “had a responsibility to discuss his  
comments on evolution and science in general. Part of the job is  
lecturing publicly on science.”

Dr. Gaskell has written that “there are significant scientific  
problems in evolutionary theory (a good thing or else many biologists  
and geologists would be out of a job.)” And in the lecture notes Ms.  
Shafer found online, Dr. Gaskell tried to reconcile the creation  
account in Genesis with recent astronomical findings.

Dr. Gaskell, however, said he accepted standard evolutionary science.  
In e-mail responses to questions, he said he was not a creationist  
and did not deny the theory of evolution.

The University of Kentucky says it chose another candidate for the  
job based on “bona fide occupational qualifications.”

With his faith, Dr. Gaskell, who now works at the University of Texas  
but has accepted a job in Chile, does embrace views that most of his  
peers find indefensible. In a 1998 survey, 7.5 percent of physicists  
and astronomers in the National Academy of Sciences said they  
believed in God — and many of the believers would still concede that  
science explains the universe better than a reading of Genesis.

Daniel Mach, who works on religious freedom issues for the American  
Civil Liberties Union, said he knew of no cases similar to the one  
filed by Mr. Gaskell.

At least two scientists have made accusations of similar  
discrimination, but neither sued. Richard Sternberg, a biologist,  
said he was harassed after a journal he edited published a paper, in  
2004, supporting the “intelligent design” theory of the universe,  
which scientists generally say owes more to religion than to science.  
And an astrophysicist, Guillermo Gonzalez, said he was denied tenure  
by Iowa State University in 2007 because of his advocacy of  
intelligent design.