evangelical scientist persecuted by fundamentalist scientists in academia

This is what happens when...

a.) people conflate and confuse "old-earth" and "young-earth" versions of "creationism" (a form of ignorance that is often, frustratingly, perpetuated by the media)

b.) one deals with fundamentalists on Evolution (the science-laced narrative that evolution can [or at least will be able to] "explain" everything we see around us in terms of the development of life)-- in the face of someone who advocates critical thinking and the investigation of alternative hypotheses

c.) one deals with academics who supposedly value tolerance and academic freedom

d.) all of the above

The answer, sadly is D.

From Peter Smith of the C-J...

No one denies that astronomer Martin Gaskell was the leading candidate for the founding director of a new observatory at the University of Kentucky in 2007 — until his writings on evolution came to light.

Gaskell had given lectures to campus religious groups around the country in which he said that while he has no problem reconciling the Bible with the theory of evolution, he believes the theory has major flaws. And he recommended students read theory critics in the intelligent-design movement.

That stance alarmed UK science professors and, the university acknowledges, played a role in the job going to another candidate.

Now a federal judge says Gaskell has a right to a jury trial over his allegation that he lost the job because he is a Christian and "potentially evangelical."...

Originally, Gaskell was rated the leading candidate by the UK search committee, which was looking for a founding director for the observatory, which opened in 2008.

Gaskell had a doctorate in his field, had published extensively on such subjects as black holes in space, and had developed an observatory at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln atop a campus parking garage — an innovative approach UK eventually would use...

But search committee members also learned of lecture notes Gaskell posted on his University of Nebraska website for a talk, "Modern Astronomy, the Bible and Creation."...Much of the lecture seeks to show the harmony between modern astronomy and the biblical book of Genesis. But on the topic of biology, Gaskell says there are “major scientific problems in evolutionary theory," even though he accepts it...

Gaskell, in his lecture notes, calls [young-earth] creationism “very bad scientifically and theologically” and said it “actually hinders some scientists becoming Christians.”...

One of Gaskell's attorneys, Francis J. Manion, said Gaskell “would have been the perfect foil to what those (UK) decision-makers view as the kind of scientific obscurantism represented by the Creation Museum: an openly Christian man of science who accepts evolution.”...