Re: Acadmic thought police

Glenn R. Morton (grmorton@waymark.net)
Fri, 18 Jun 1999 13:22:10 -0500

Bertvan wrote:
>I don't think geologists, as a group, are particularly committed to a
>philosophy of deterministic science. Darwinists, those committed to an
>accidential universe, are committed to materialism. I doubt you would see
>the same tolerance in their journals.

Let me point to the case of Nicolaas Rupke who was a young-earth
creationist and wanted to publish an article on polystrate fossil tree
trunks. His professor who learned of this was horrified that Rupke, his
student was a YEC. The professor warned Rupke that if he continued that it
would lead to bad things. BUT, and this is a BIG but, Rupke's professor
HELPED Rupke write the paper and get it published in the Bulletin of the
GSA. The professor then went on to graduate Rupke and help him get into
Princeton.

This sounds like the professor, while disagreeing with the student, was
quite helpful to him. The professor was one of those geologists that you
characterized so badly. Your generalization is wrong!