Mims was fired because he was a creationist
From EvoWiki
Contents |
History
Creationists claim that the journalist Forrest M. Mims III, who edited a Scientific American column, was fired from the magazine by its editor, Piel, because he was a creationist (Hartwig 1990, van der Meer 1995). Mims himself publicly spoke against Piel after the event, contributing to the life of this claim. In fact, Mims was not fired by the magazine, simply was not hired for a full time post. But if the magazine had discriminated against Mims, would their actions have been wrong?
In the fields of biology and geology in particular, and also other scientific fields such as astronomy, Creationists, to varying degrees, deny mainstream science and established facts and theories. While all journalists inevitably have their own subjective view of the world, a Creationist would be particularly incapable of reporting objectively on the fields above. Creationists who make this claim often use the religious discrimination card, but in this case it was clear that the anti-scientific bias of the journalist, rather than anti-religious bias of the editor, was the cause.
Whether Piel was correct in this case however is disputed, with claims from both sides of the debate that Piel's actions were more to save the magazine's public image than objectivity.
Relevance
Does this claim make any difference to the science of evolutionary biology? Like many creationist claims this is not actually about science, not even criticising mainstream science, let alone presenting evidence for Creation. Those making the claim use the Appeal to Pity fallacy, claiming that Creationists are subject to religious discrimination.
This incident is often used as implicit anecdotal evidence that Creationism is not accepted because Creationists are persecuted into obscurity.
References
- Hartwig, Mark D., 1990 (21 Nov.) Defending Darwinism: How far is too far? Origins Research Archives 13(1). [1]
- Isaak, Mark, 2003-5. "An Index of Creationist Claims" on TalkOrigins.org [2]
- Mims, Forrest M. III, 2004. Feedback letter. [3]
- Piel, J. and Mims, F., 1991. Science's litmus test (telephone transcript). Harper's, March 1991, pp. 28-30, 32.
- van der Meer, Jitse, 1995 (12 Jul.). Letter. [4]
