Unclear on the Concept
Christian biologist canned for refusing to believe in evolution:
BOSTON - A Christian biologist is suing the prestigious Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, claiming he was fired for refusing to accept evolution, lawyers involved in the case said on Friday.
Nathaniel Abraham, an Indian national who describes himself as a “Bible-believing Christian,” said in the suit filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in Boston that he was fired in 2004 because he would not accept evolution as scientific fact.
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The zebrafish specialist said his civil rights were violated when he was dismissed shortly after telling his superior he did not accept evolution because he believed the Bible presented a true account of human creation.
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Abraham, who was dismissed eight months after he was hired, said he was willing to do research using evolutionary concepts but that he had been required to accept Darwin’s theory of evolution as scientific fact or lose his job.
The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination dismissed the case this year, saying Abraham’s request not to work on evolutionary aspects of research would be difficult for Woods Hole because its work is based on evolutionary theories.
It would be a little like expecting NASA to retain a Ptolemist. He probably would have done better before the MCAD if he argued that he was a female fundamentalist trapped in a male fundamentalist’s body, but while there are a lot of MCAD decisions to find fault with, this isn’t one of them.
h/t John Hawks
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:06 am on Saturday, December 8, 2007
2 Responses to “Unclear on the Concept”
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December 8th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
How can one be a biologist without believing in evolution? Of course, I never understood why you weren’t supposed to believe in evolution if you believed in God.
December 8th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
It’s not terribly hard to be a creationist biologist. A good friend of mine work in a research laboratory while remaining a creationist. (He also knew to keep his mouth shut) To be honest, evolution’s role for typical work is only background material. After all, biology as a field existed before Darwin. I’d assume Mr Abraham holds the standard belief in large-scale evolution not being equivalent to natural selection. [Natural selection has been accepted by 99% of creationists, as it is a well documented phenomenon. (See antibiotic resistance) They just don't believe it necessarily leads from an array of chemicals to humans.]
With that in place, he could do anything except evolutionary theory.
He was most likely a geneticist, as the zebrafish is one of most commonly used experimental animals in that field. If he was hired to do evolutionary genetics research, then he misrepresented himself. If he was working as a technician or something similar, they were just being vindictive.