Believing Scripture but Playing by Science’s Rules

Apparently, establishment evolutionists think that their worldview and epistemology are the default settings for human consciousness. At least that’s the impression I get when reading about how some science professors are reacting to Ph.D. candidates who believe in young earth creationism.

The New York Times reports that some science Professors would like to exclude young earth creationists from studying at their schools, even if the students are competent and qualified.

Dr. Scott, a former professor of physical anthropology at the University of Colorado, said in an interview that graduate admissions committees were entitled to consider the difficulties that would arise from admitting a doctoral candidate with views “so at variance with what we consider standard science.” She said such students “would require so much remedial instruction it would not be worth my time.”

That is not religious discrimination, she added, it is discrimination “on the basis of science.”

Dr. Dini, of Texas Tech, agreed. Scientists “ought to make certain the people they are conferring advanced degrees on understand the philosophy of science and are indeed philosophers of science,” he said. “That’s what Ph.D. stands for.”

These professors would exclude creationists from Ph.D. programs based solely on the applicants’ religious views. Dr. Scott can claim that this does not amount to religious discrimination all she wants, but if it walks like a duck, talks like duck . . . well, you know the rest.

What these professors want to avoid is producing more Ph.D. graduates who dissent from evolutionary orthodoxy, graduates like Dr. Kurt Wise who teaches at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and who is featured in the article. Dr. Wise has a Ph.D. in Paleontology from Harvard University, and many scientists are irked that a committed creationist such as he carries with him a degree from one of America’s elite universities.

But my question is this. Why do the religious beliefs of creationist applicants even matter? If they are willing to work within the paradigm of evolution (a paradigm they may disagree with) in order to get their degrees, why should it matter what the Ph.D. candidate believes? Maybe the evolutionary establishment needs to realize that their view of the world is every bit as much of an “orthodoxy” as creationism is. It’s just not the orthodoxy that they like.

I’m sure it’s hard for the evolutionists to compute how an intellectually competent person (as a graduate from Harvard must be) could hold to creationism. The existence of such persons suggests that there might be some rational plausibility to the theistic worldview. It raises questions about how reliable the evolutionary worldview actually is. Those kinds of questions simply can’t be tolerated in universities where students and professors are free to think or believe whatever they want so long as they think thoughts that conform to evolutionary orthodoxy.

So much for the vaunted academic freedom of the elites. Now who’s the ideologue?

Source: “Believing Scripture but Playing by Science’s Rules” – New York Times