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Brown in America

Meet Nathaniel Abraham

By: Santosh :+: Under: Brown in America
On: ⋅ December 12, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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Nathaneil Abraham is the desi Christian scientist who was fired from the prestigious non-profit Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts, for revealing his beliefs (or lack of) in evolution (tip Runa via Uber Stories).

From Reuters:

A Christian biologist is suing the prestigious Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, claiming he was fired for refusing to accept evolution, lawyers involved in the case said on Friday.
Nathaniel Abraham, an Indian national who describes himself as a “Bible-believing Christian,” said in the suit filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in Boston that he was fired in 2004 because he would not accept evolution as scientific fact.

Nathaneil claims he was prepared to work with evolutionary concepts despite his religious convictions.

Abraham, who was dismissed eight months after he was hired, said he was willing to do research using evolutionary concepts but that he had been required to accept Darwin’s theory of evolution as scientific fact or lose his job.

On the surface it looks like he has a valid case because his firing coincided with him outing his religious beliefs. It’s clearly discriminatory if someone is fired solely because of what they believe in, the emphasis being on solely which I will get to in a minute. Lets say, an accounting firm fires a Christian because he/she believed T-Rex dinosaurs and humans existed at the same time or a Hindu software programmer getting canned by a software company because he/she believes in a monkey god who flew across oceans and who Superman was allegedly copied from, and this did not mesh with the personal beliefs of management, we can say these people would have a legitimate claim for discrimination. But things are not that simple in Nathaneil’s case.

When we look at the work some of Nathaneil’s colleagues at WHOI would’ve been performing, the word “evolution” seems to pop-up repeatedly. [link]

Our research has been guided by general questions such as: How did chemical signaling pathways evolve in metazoans?
Our research on the AHR and PAS family combines a comparative/evolutionary approach with the application of molecular methods to understand the unity and diversity of these signaling pathways.
Through this basic research in cell and molecular biology, using environmental contaminants and marine natural products as molecular probes, we hope to contribute to an understanding of the mechanisms by which aquatic animals respond to chemical contaminants and the evolutionary history of the proteins involved. Through this research we also seek to provide insight into the value of aquatic animal models in biomedical toxicology.

I could point out at least 10 other occasions the “E” (evolution) word occurs on that page alone. Seems like Nanatheil did not read the job description when he applied for this job. He seems to have put his employers in a spot by not revealing when he was hired, that he did not believe in the core concepts of their business.

If you worked as a doctor or nurse in an emergency room for some time and suddenly started going around proclaiming you did not believe in treating patients with chemical-based medicines, but you would still continue doing your job, would the hospital be justified in parting ways with you fearing your lack of conviction in the field could have potentially disastrous consequences?

Of course, Nathaneil has not done that bad for himself after he got canned.

Abraham, 35, is now a biology professor at Liberty University, a Baptist school in Virginia founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, a Christian pastor and televangelist.

Hopefully, he doesn’t change his mind and get fired again.

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