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Gonzalez tenure appeal denied

By tfk on February 7, 2008.

Guillermo Gonzalez, Privileged Planet author and self-styled ID martyr, lost his last administrative appeal of his tenure denial. He has previously stated that he is looking for other tenure-track jobs, and I'm confident that some Bible college will be glad to take him.

Whether Disco. Inst. and Gonzalez' lawyers will follow up on implied threats to file suit over the tenure denial remain to be seen. Such suits are risky business, since they dramatically reduce the likelihood that you'll get hired for a different job while you're in the process of suing your former employer. Gonzalez hasn't got a case, in any event, so such a suit would be staged for the camera crews of Expelled: No Intelligence, not for Gonzalez himself. We'll see just how many bridges Disco. is prepared to burn for their own allies, I suppose.

Update: New news link, since old ones have been dropping faster than an IDolator's scientific productivity.

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Josh -

Bible colleges if I'm not misstaken tend to be of the YE variety, and if if I'm also not mistaken, they require signing of a statement to that effect. That might be kinda awkward for who I presume is still an astronomer who'd be hard pressed to accept a 6000 year old universe. And even absent a lawsuit, how many universities would want a professor who is slacking off in publications, brings little money in, doesn't successfully supervise grad students, and calls press conferences to whine and complain when things don't go his way?

Dave, that's a good point. Gonzalez has made it clear that he's an old earth creationist, based on his work with Reasons to Believe, so those Bible colleges could look askance at him. Has Biola got a young earth pledge? A lot of DI folks are there.

In any event, Bible college profs don't publish research, so his productivity wouldn't be an issue, and anything that catches public attention is a victory for them.

Dave, that's a good point. Gonzalez has made it clear that he's an old earth creationist, based on his work with Reasons to Believe, so those Bible colleges could look askance at him. Has Biola got a young earth pledge? A lot of DI folks are there.

Yes, but a lot of DI folks are YE Creationists too. Only a very few are on record as accepting an old Earth. I can think of Behe, and Gonzalez. And Dembski's views are hard to descern either way.

I checked the Biola website and found the following in the FAQ to students:

2. Will the program take a young-earth or recent-creation position?

While the young-earth model is a popular contemporary view on creation, it is not the only view held by conservative evangelicals. The Biola program will attempt to represent fairly the range of evangelical positions on issues like the age of the earth and the time intervals involved in creation.

Since the challenges from naturalistically based interpretations often take aim at creationist models in general, there is plenty of common ground for evangelicals of various persuasions to work together to develop effective responses to these secular arguments. The program seeks to foster such a spirit of cooperation.

Biola University and its faculty hold to the full inerrancy and inspiration of Scripture, but we recognize that our interpretation of Scripture may not be absolutely certain at all points. We expect there to be harmony between the data from nature and the words (data) of Scripture, but we realize that apparent conflicts can arise when we interpret and integrate these data. One goal of this program is to identify, minimize and resolve those apparent conflicts.

From this we can probably conclude that faculty don't have to sign a YE pledge.

In any event, Bible college profs don't publish research, so his productivity wouldn't be an issue, and anything that catches public attention is a victory for them.

Depends, he may still have aspirations of being taken seriously as an academic astronomer.

Weird fact: Tennis player Michael Chang is on the Board at Biola.