{"id":594,"date":"2010-12-22T21:47:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-22T21:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/12\/can-an-astronomer-have-faith-in-the-bible.html"},"modified":"2010-12-22T21:47:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T21:47:00","slug":"can-an-astronomer-have-faith-in-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/12\/can-an-astronomer-have-faith-in-the-bible.html","title":{"rendered":"Can An Astronomer Have Faith In The Bible?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I guess when your state hosts a museum of creationism and is about to help fund some kind of wacky Noah\u2019s ark theme park, you might be a little over-sensitive.\u00a0 That\u2019s clearly part of what led the folks at the University of Kentucky to rule out C. Martin Gaskell for a position as director of their observatory.<\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s suing.\u00a0 According to the New York Times<\/i><\/a>:<\/p>\n

Dr. [Moshe] Elitzur [who was involved in hiring decisions], in his deposition<\/a>, said he feared that bad publicity could arise from bringing Dr. Gaskell to the university, which is less than 100 miles from the Creation Museum<\/a>, in Petersburg, Ky.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way you can avoid the headline in The Herald-Leader saying \u2018U.K. hires a creationist for public outreach,\u2019\u00a0\u201d Dr. Elitzur remembered saying.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well that would be a problem if it were true.\u00a0 The fact is that it\u2019s a little hard to figure out this Gaskell fellow.\u00a0 He has a fascinating piece online called \u201cModern Astronomy, the Bible, and Creation<\/a>\u201d that he wrote while a professor at the University of Texas at Austin (my alma mater \u2013 Hook \u2018em \u2018Horns!<\/i>).<\/p>\n

From a quick reading, it\u2019s clear that he\u2019s no young earth creationist.\u00a0 I don\u2019t agree with any of his conclusions and the man could sure do with some exposure to biblical scholarship.\u00a0 Yet none of that means he\u2019s unfit to run an observatory.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know whether he deserved to be hired or not.\u00a0 I do know that his beliefs don\u2019t necessarily have to be a problem.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m well used to the fact that very intelligent people can hold very irrational beliefs.\u00a0 Fortunately, most scientists do not<\/a>.\u00a0 As long as the few who do put empirical evidence before before bible stories, then we can\u2019t hold their ludicrous beliefs against them.\u00a0 The fact that he was explicitly asked about his religion during his interview opened up a huge, unnecessary can of worms.\u00a0 Open cans of worms always spew forth lawyers.<\/p>\n

I recommend you read Gaskell\u2019s piece.\u00a0 It could serve as a case study of how someone with a highly developed scientific intellect overextends biblical apologetics in order to maintain a faith that there are really no contradictions at all.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I guess when your state hosts a museum of creationism and is about to help fund some kind of wacky Noah\u2019s ark theme park, you might be a little over-sensitive.\u00a0 That\u2019s clearly part of what led the folks at the University of Kentucky to rule out C. Martin Gaskell for a position as director of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11,12,38],"class_list":["post-594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-evolution-and-creationism","tag-fundamentalist-christianity","tag-science-and-reason"],"yoast_head":"\nCan An Astronomer Have Faith In The Bible?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I guess when your state hosts a museum of creationism and is about to help fund some kind of wacky Noah\u2019s ark theme park, you might be a little\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/12\/can-an-astronomer-have-faith-in-the-bible.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can An Astronomer Have Faith In The Bible?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I guess when your state hosts a museum of creationism and is about to help fund some kind of wacky Noah\u2019s ark theme park, you might be a little\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/12\/can-an-astronomer-have-faith-in-the-bible.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-22T21:47:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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