An uppercut to the jaw ...

[Jorge]

Cal State Northridge settles with Christian lab manager who said he was fired for creationist beliefs. Will case change academic science's approach to creationism?

My answer: No, things will not change at all. The Evo-Faithful are in control of the Establishment and will continue pushing their religion with intimidation, harassment, firings, censorship, discrimination, etc ... etc.

Note the highlighted sections below:

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Submitted by Colleen Flaherty on October 7, 2016 - 3:00am

"California State University at Northridge has settled a lawsuit brought by a former employee who said he was fired for sharing news of an archaeological discovery that supported his young-Earth creationist beliefs. The university says it settled for $399,500 to avoid a protracted legal battle, but some scientists say the outcome has implications for how scientists critique creationist colleagues going forward.

The plaintiff, Mark ArmitageBut he engaged students he was training in a Socratic dialogue about the possible age of the horn -- one of whom enthusiastically shared the conversation with a faculty member in the biology department, according to the suit.

Armitage said he complained verbally of religious discrimination to two administrators, who told him to forget about it and never investigated.

[What they say - in the interest of political correctness - and what they do are polar opposites.] Uh, Mr Coyne, how do YOU explain the soft tissue in this find? Question is rhetorical, of course.https://www.insidehighered.com/news/...00&iframe=true

Links:

[1] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...65128113000020

[2] https://cbsla.files.wordpress.com/20...-complaint.pdf

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuGf...ature=youtu.be

[4] https://www.insidehighered.com/news/...ationism-class





Jorge

[rogue06]

Since this was reported over a year ago (for instance in Christian Times although without giving a specific dollar amount^[1]), glad to see that you're right on top of things as usual.

The fact is that Armitage was not fired for his what he said he discovered since he made essentially the same claims that Mary Schweitzer of North Carolina State University did when she announced that her team had recovered the remains of soft tissue-like structures from the femur of a T. rex back in 2005. Not only was she not "expelled" (as some YECs shrilling proclaimed) despite being a conservative evangelical Christian -- in fact she has received a good deal of funding to continue her research^[2].

Instead he got popped for what essentially amounted to misappropriation of funds. He was a mere part-time employee who doesn't get to do his own personal research using University facilities, supplies and personnel. What's more it appears that the quality of this research was poor at best.

CSUN, on their part, apparently handled it in a ham-fisted manner and that is what came back and bit them on the butt (they listed budgetary concerns as one of the reasons for terminating him while they were simultaneously looking at making the position a full-time one).













1. Simply saying that he was "awarded a six-digit financial settlement" that "represent[ed] about 15 times his annual part-time salary."

2. One notable example came from a YEC known as nephiliumfree, who posts numerous evolution denialism videos on YouTube, and declared that she had been fired as a result. Schweitzer personally responded "If they fired me, why did they give me a $300,000 grant to investigate further?"

[shunyadragon]

Old Fake News. See rogue06's post for the correct complete story.

[oxmixmudd]

Cal State Northridge settles with Christian lab manager who said he was fired for creationist beliefs. Will case change academic science's approach to creationism?

My answer: No, things will not change at all. The Evo-Faithful are in control of the Establishment and will continue pushing their religion with intimidation, harassment, firings, censorship, discrimination, etc ... etc.

Note the highlighted sections below:

************************************************** ****

Submitted by Colleen Flaherty on October 7, 2016 - 3:00am

"California State University at Northridge has settled a lawsuit brought by a former employee who said he was fired for sharing news of an archaeological discovery that supported his young-Earth creationist beliefs. The university says it settled for $399,500 to avoid a protracted legal battle, but some scientists say the outcome has implications for how scientists critique creationist colleagues going forward.

The plaintiff, Mark ArmitageBut he engaged students he was training in a Socratic dialogue about the possible age of the horn -- one of whom enthusiastically shared the conversation with a faculty member in the biology department, according to the suit.

Armitage said he complained verbally of religious discrimination to two administrators, who told him to forget about it and never investigated.

[What they say - in the interest of political correctness - and what they do are polar opposites.] Uh, Mr Coyne, how do YOU explain the soft tissue in this find? Question is rhetorical, of course.https://www.insidehighered.com/news/...00&iframe=true

Links:

[1] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...65128113000020

[2] https://cbsla.files.wordpress.com/20...-complaint.pdf

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuGf...ature=youtu.be

[4] https://www.insidehighered.com/news/...ationism-class





Jorge

This is a legal case Jorge. It has nothing to do with whether or not it makes any sense whatsoever to assume that all dating methods must be wrong because 'soft tissue' may be able to be preserved longer than expected. You are picking and chosing, arbitrarily and without any rational basis, which bits of scientific theory you will employ and which ones you will dismiss.

The reality is that the likelyhood all the radiometric dating methods are wrong and the assumptions about the potential to preserve various proteins or other elements of once living tissue over deep time are without error is next to zero. And anyone with an ounce of competence as a scientist would know that. And this is why the work in this area has not resulted in an ounce of additional credulity for the YEC position.


Jim