Biologist sues for being expected to believe science

Biology is a science. So isn't it fair that a biologist should believe science?

I wasn't the greatest science student, but one thing I learned in school was that science is based on natural laws and reasoning. Pi, for example, is what it is anywhere in the universe. It would be physically impossible for pi to not be what it is. We can hope all we want that pi is equal to 5, just so we can say, "Pi out of pi," and mean the same as my favorite expression from 8th grade. But, alas, it can never be so! The laws of science cannot be repealed!

If you have an important occupation that requires you to know geometry, try setting pi at 5 when you need to compute a circle's area. See how long you last at that job. (With anti-science wingnuts in charge of everything now, probably longer than you should!)

This is important, because conservatives have built a whole industry out of crying victim so they can shake down people and organizations that believe science.

I'm usually not one to ridicule a person's beliefs - but if someone won't accept scientific facts that have centuries of research and work behind them, it's my occupational duty to point out how preposterous they're being.

Off Cape Cod there's something called the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. There was a biologist at this prestigious institute named Nathaniel Abraham. The key word here is 'was', for Abraham was fired because he refused to accept scientific facts. Abraham claimed accepting evolution would violate his religion. Now he's suing over being fired for not accepting science.

OK, how about if I refuse to accept that pi isn't equal to 5? I can call my new religion Fivism (worship of the number 5), and if I ever get my civil engineering degree, I can sue over not being hired as a civil engineer for not accepting that pi isn't 5.

Seriously, that's about what this guy's claim is like.

The fired biologist wants $500,000 in compensation for being expected to believe science. You know what this is? To quote a Bob Seger song that was popular during the "5 out of 5" craze: Shakedown, breakdown, takedown...Everybody wants into the crowded line...Breakdown, takedown...You're busted, Nathaniel!

If someone won't accept scientific facts that they need to use for their job, then they should be fired. This guy's got a lot of nerve enlisting some wingnut legal firm to help him fleece a respected marine biology research center of a half-million bucks (much of it just for hurting his pwecious widdle feewings).

He has no case. The state's Commission Against Discrimination has already ruled against him. But conservatives have a neat little racket they've got going where they get their followers to set themselves up for trouble and play the victim so they get a huge payout. It turns out that Nathaniel Abraham took the biologist job after reading an ad that made it perfectly clear that evolution was central to the project. So it sounds like a setup to me. It's like a person who's afraid of toilets taking a job as a plumber.

The more you think about this case, the stupider it is.

Now Abraham is a professor at - can you guess where? Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, of course. Guess Falwell U is the place for whack-a-doos who reject science.

(Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071210/od_nm/evolution_lawsuit_dc;
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/12/slackjawed_creationist_surpris.php)