By DYLAN LOVAN
The Associated Press
Friday, December 17, 2010; 5:12 PM
[size=85]This Dec. 26, 2005 photo provided by Mark Dahmke,
shows astronomer Martin Gaskell. Dahmke argues
that his faith and questions about evolution
kept him from getting a prime job as
director of a brand new student observatory
at the University of Kentucky. He has filed
a lawsuit against the university in federal
court in Lexington.
(AP Photo/Mark Dahmke) (Mark Dahmke - AP) [/size]
My question is, if someone who has the credentials and the educational background to head a scientific department, should their religious affiliation affect a promotion within any school of higher learning?
If you are interested in reading the rest of this report go here.
That would be a problem in any venue with possibly the exception of place of worship. This gentleman expresses that he is not even a creationist. How it got out that he is a Christian I’m not privy to. It is not reported in the article he made his religious leanings a constant point of knowedge.
I think his religious affiliation is his personal business and should not affect the hiring decision…EXCEPT that he is a scientist and, therefore, if he holds (and, more importantly teaches) views that question scientific matters regarding the earth and its development that are already generally resolved, then that’s a problem for a university. I don’t know the details, but it sounds like that’s what happened. So if the hiring committee reviewed his lectures and publications and found such things, then not offering him the position was appropriate. This will be an interesting case to follow.
I personally don’t see any conflict between someone who worships God and being interested in any scientific consideration. There is no disconnect or divisional problem in my opinion. Our pastor worked for NASA and is responsible for the advent of U-Verse from ATT.
If science endeavors from the framework of unbias, then there shouldn’t be contention in any regard. There are those though in religious and scientific venues who use the backdrops of each to try to discredit each other. This isn’t necessary. Both can coexist if there is an effort to do so.
After all, most children in the public school system have parents that attend church and don’t mind that their children are taught in science classes. It fun to learn how our universe works around us. Without science there wouldn’t be engineers, doctors, lab technicians etc. Science is a very important aspect in our lives. At the same time we shouldn’t deny ourselves if we so desire to look towards a Creator for comfort and pay homage to said entity.
So what was it specifically in which he disputes the theory of evolution? I would dare to say other scientists may have disagreements concerning the subject. He was using the basis of one opinion to fault another opinion. Perhaps he was questioning something that was not based in scientific fact. Just as some theologians question other assumptions in which they feel don’t align with certain religious beliefs.
The article doesn’t answer your question. But what he did was enough to get him labeled as a creationist, and that was enough to lose him the job, according to the article.
It depends on the quality of the person’s religious affiliation. If a person’s religious affiliation is certain or likely to interfere with their ability to perform the job, then yeah.
I’m not sure it would be useful to think up a generic benchmark for being able to perform a job - because performance benchmarks should be significantly related to the particular job.
Even if an applicant is fully qualified, there are other essential skills that employers [must] consider in their hiring decisions. Responsibility, effective communication skills, and cooperativeness, for example. And a scientist ought to demonstrate the ability to critique or advance theories in accordance with the scientific method.
as long as he only teaches what is in the curriculum I see no problem with him getting the job, but if he injects his own opinions and puts them forth as the truth then he should not get the job. They were wrong in jumping the gun thinking he would push his beliefs in his classes.
Not good. If he’s a religious studies prof, that’s one thing. But if he’s an astronomer, then he better be flying pretty straight scientifically on how life on earth developed, because that’s gonna apply to the rest of the cosmos. I’m not sure how deep the expertise of an astronomer even goes when it comes to evolution, but one would think at his level, he’d have had some background coursework. And since he’s out there sharing his doubts by lecturing on evolution and the Bible to his fellow Christians, one would assume he’s researched the former as thoroughly as he has the latter.
And the theory of evolution is not considered to have ‘significant scientific problems’ among the scientific community. Maybe that’s a prominent view of the intelligent design or creationist community, but not among the legitimate scientific community.
Finally, the label “unwarranted atheistic” as applied to evolutionary theory is just ridiculous. I’m surprised he made it past the first cut.
It kind of falls in line with something like hiring a person who is excellent at taking care of childern, but doesn’t like them. Or an excellent tattoo artist who has no ink on his own body. The skill set can be in place, but you want the person to believe in what they are doing, or at least have a deeper level of commitment to it than what is written onto a paper resume.
If it were me I would not have hired the dude. And if I did hire him and found out about his religious beliefs later on I would have done my best to get rid of him and not get sued for it.
Good points. Now it’s probably true that this guy is getting stricter scrutiny b/c of his religious beliefs. We’ve all believed in wacky things before at some point. I’d bet that of the other job applicants, some of them had some wacky personal beliefs, too, albeit non-religious wacky beliefs.
[size=200]Update: Christian Astronomer Settles Lawsuit Over Discrimination Claim[/size] January 19, 2011
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — An astronomy professor who sued the University of Kentucky after claiming he lost out on a top job because of his Christian beliefs reached a settlement Tuesday with the school.
The university agreed to pay $125,000 to Martin Gaskell in exchange for dropping a federal religious discrimination suit he filed in Lexington in 2009. A trial was set for next month.
Gaskell claimed he was passed over to be director of UK’s MacAdam Student Observatory because of his religion and statements that were perceived to be critical of evolution.
Court records showed Gaskell was a front-runner for the job, but some professors called him “something close to a creationist” and “potentially evangelical” in interoffice e-mails to other university scientists.
“We never thought from the start that everybody at UK was some sort of anti-religious bigot,” said Frank Manion, Gaskell’s attorney. “However, what I do think this case disclosed is a kind of endemic, almost knee-jerk reaction in academia towards people, especially scientists, of a strong religious faith.”
A statement from University of Kentucky counsel Barbara Jones Tuesday said the school’s “hiring processes were and are fundamentally sound and were followed in this case.” The university does not admit any wrongdoing.
“This successful resolution precludes what would have been a lengthy trial that, ultimately, would not have served anyone’s best interests,” Jones said in the statement.
Gaskell has said he is not “creationist,” or someone who believes the Bible’s origin story puts the age of the universe at a few thousand years. He also said his views on evolution are in line with biological science.
