Originally published in Christian News Network
A legal defense organization filed a lawsuit this week against California State University, alleging that the school fired a biologist for discovering scientific evidence that contradicted evolutionary theory.
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Mark Armitage was a scientist at California State University—Northridge (CSUN), where he worked as a researcher and supervised the school’s electron microscope laboratory. He was also a member of several scientific organizations, including the Microscopy Society of America, the American Society of Parasitologists, and the Southern California Academy of Sciences.
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However, CSUN suddenly terminated Armitage’s employment two years ago after he discovered soft tissue on a Triceratops fossil. Evolutionists at the university were evidently displeased by Armitage’s discovery, since they were convinced that the fossil was tens of millions of years old.
Even though Armitage’s findings were published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, the university decided to fire him, saying his findings were unacceptable. According to Armitage, his supervisor entered the lab and declared, “We will not tolerate your religion in this department!”
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In an interview with GenesisWeek, Armitage said he was shocked and frustrated when the university terminated his employment.
“It is frustrating because I made no conclusions in the paper, I just presented the factual data,” he said. “The only conclusions I drew were that ‘This needs to be investigated further. We have a lot of work to do.’ And that was it.”
Armitage believes he lost his job because evolutionists in the department were unwilling to consider the implications of his discovery.
“Suffice it to say,” Armitage added, “some people in the department didn’t appreciate [the soft tissue discovery], and somehow they seemed to work a way to have me very quickly removed from my position.”
After the incident, Armitage promised to pursue legal action, arguing that the school had fired him for no good reason. According to a press release this week from the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), the scientist is finally receiving the legal representation he desired.
“Terminating an employee because of their religious views is completely inappropriate and illegal,” stated PJI President Brad Dacus in the release. “But doing so in an attempt to silence scientific speech at a public university is even more alarming. This should be a wakeup call and warning to the entire world of academia.”
PJI has now filed a lawsuit with the Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of Armitage, which argues that CSUN wrongfully terminated Armitage’s employment on the basis of his Christian religious beliefs.
“It has become apparent that ‘diversity’ and ‘intellectual curiosity,’ so often touted as hallmarks of a university education, do not apply to those with a religious point of view,” PJI staff attorney Michael Peffer said in the release. “This suit was filed, in part, to vindicate those ideals.”
The Triceratops tissue discovery by Armitage is not the first time evolutionists have been counfounded by soft tissue in “ancient” fossils. As previously reported, Canadian researchers recently found well-preserved dinosaur skin from a fossil that evolutionists believed to be over 60 million years old.
