Of Course He Is...

The war on reason continues, my friends. Reuters (via Yahoo!) is reporting that a biologist formerly employed by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute has decided to sue his former employer. Why? Because he's a "Bible-believing Christian" Creationist, and firing a marine biologist because he refuses to accept Evolution violates his first amendment rights. (So he says.)

His case has already been dismissed by The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, so he's taking it to federal court.

So why doesn't Nathaniel Abraham believe in Evolution? Has he made a scientific breakthrough that gives us a more complete view of the universe? Has he devised a falsifiable test that illustrates that we lived alongside dinosaurs? No, he just believes that the Bible provides a true account of human creation. Who needs reason and evidence when you have the inerrant word of God at your side?

By the way, is he free to believe this? Absolutely. That's why we have the first amendment. But doing biology without Evolution is like doing physics without gravity, or medicine without the germ theory of disease. Imagine you went to the doctor complaining of high fever and he said, "I don't buy this whole 'germ theory' nonsense. Just a theory after all, not a FACT. And nowhere in Genesis did God create the germs! Have an ice pack." What would you do? You'd run, that's what. You'd run, because if your fever was high enough and went untreated, you might die. I doubt a doctor could make an Establishment Clause claim on that one. And if you need to work within a certain framework to do a job, and you refuse to do it, you're S.O.L.

At this point, you may be wondering how this all ties into the title of this post. Of course he is... what? An idiot? Well, yes, but not what I meant. Going to lose his lawsuit? Right again, but not what I had in mind. The question is, what is Dr. Abraham up to now that he's no longer at Wood's Hole?

He's teaching at Liberty University.

Of course he is.

Since I just finished reading High Fidelity, here are the Top Five Things to Know About Liberty University:

• Students can be reprimanded "for attending dances, violating curfew, viewing R-rated movies (on or off campus), drinking, smoking, viewing sexually explicit material, entering the bedroom of a member of the opposite sex (on or off campus), and participating in unauthorized petitions."[1]
• Liberty asserts "there is now mounting evidence that man and dinosaurs did indeed live on earth at the same time."[2]
• Furthermore, they believe that Behemoth and Leviathan (in Job) are specific references to dinosaurs in the Bible.[2]
• Liberty has received a personal smackdown from Richard Dawkins, who called Liberty "an educational disgrace" that "is debauching the whole idea of a university."[3]
• Their public relations director, Don Egle, said that at Liberty, they "follow scripture" regarding homosexuality.[4] I sure hope he read Leviticus 20:13 before he said that. "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them."

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[1] From Wikipedia
[2] From the Liberty University website
[3] From a lecture at Randolph Women's College. The entire lecture is available on YouTube.
[4] From Inside Higher Ed