Gonzalez’ tenure denial shows universities close ranks to exclude Christians regardless of their credentials

Guillermo Gonzalez’s rise in astrophysics was meteoric, but when he openly espoused Intelligent Design, a scientific theory that allows for God’s involvement in creation, his university dumped him.

Gonzalez had written 68 scholarly articles for peer-reviewed scientific journals, including important work on the Galactic Habitable Zone concept. The Chronicle of Higher Education noted that he had at the assistant professor level “amassed a better publication record than almost any other member of the astronomy faculty,” according to Jeff Schloss on Counterbalance.

Nevertheless, when Gonzalez came up for tenure approval in 2007 at Iowa State University, he was denied.

Just prior to his tenure review, a petition disavowing Intelligent Design had garnered signatures from 130 Iowa State faculty members who feared “the negative impact of Intelligent Design on the integrity of science and on our university.”

It used to be that “free-thinker” meant you weren’t “constrained” to follow a biblical world view. But now, university professors are compelled within a rigid atheistic orthodoxy. Academic freedom is a slogan being emptied of meaning.

Some controversy ensued after Gonzalez was denied tenure. University officials superficially denied that his faith factored into his firing. They said his publishing had declined and he had not won funding for research. But the Des Moines Register obtained emails through a request for public records that indicated that the controversy over Intelligent Design was indeed a factor.

As early as 2005, there were emails discussing how Gonzalez’ belief in Intelligent Design might adversely affect his candidacy for tenure. Iowa State Physics Professor John Hauptman even noted that the anti-Gonzalez sentiments were “starting to smack of a witch’s hanging.” Read the rest of Gonzales’ tenure denial.

The half-truth is not the problem

It’s the half lie that hurts.

MacBeth is tantalized by the possibility of becoming king. Already the witches’ oracle that he would become the Thane of Cawdor is fulfilled, and that was an impossibility.

So now, the next oracle is bound to happen!

MacBeth, egged on by his power-hungry wife, takes matters into his own hands. He kills the existing king and frames the guards. As MacBeth is the most outstanding Scottish warlord and hero, he is named king.

But then everything begins to spiral downward. He hires some wicked assassins to kill would-be rivals. He hallucinates the ghosts of those he has killed with treachery. His wife goes insane and then dies. The more enemies — real or perceived — he kills, the more they multiply. Does he enjoy even one moment of the power he lusted for?

The witches followed the pattern of the serpent in Eden: You won’t die, Eve. You’ll become like God knowing good and evil. It was a half-truth, and it brought temptation to fruition (sorry, couldn’t resist that pun) and the ultimate demise of humanity.

Modern society is now based on half-truths as the Bible has been discarded and new ideals and new moralities are spreading.