An evangelical Christian scientist got fired from his job because of a dinosaur's fossil and his findings about it that put a question mark on evolution.
Trouble started for Mark Armitage, a scientist at California State University—Northridge (CSUN), when he discovered soft tissues on a large triceratops horn that was believed to be at least 65 million years old, Christian News reports.
Armitage said his discovery had "the evolutionists on the run," since they could not explain how the "delicate and life-like cells and tissues" he found on the horn of a triceratops—a dinosaur with a massive skull, a large frill and three horns—could "survive the ravages of deep time."
"In fact, it is astounding that they are there even after the thousands of years since the Great Flood of Noah. Even if we allow only 3,000 years since the Flood, these observations of soft tissues are stunning," he said.
When Armitage described his findings in a journal article, the other scientists at the university became furious, thinking that he was trying to promote evidence against evolution. His supervisor reportedly told him, "We will not tolerate your religion in this department!"
He was subsequently fired from his post. He then filed a complaint in a Los Angeles court against the university, contending that CSUN fired him on the basis of his religion.
Pacific Justice Institute President Brad Dacus defended Armitage, pointing out that "terminating an employee because of their religious views is completely inappropriate and illegal."
Dacus added: "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."
Last month, after two years of legal proceedings, CSUN reportedly settled the lawsuit by granting Armitage a huge six-figure payout, which was large enough to represent "about 15 times [Armitage's] annual part-time salary," according to his lawyer, Alan Reinach.
"In our view, they certainly would not have paid that kind of money if they did not recognise that we had them dead to rights," Reinach said in an interview with The College Fix. "The state doesn't put large, six-figure settlement money out unless they are really concerned they are going to lose."
Reinach described the settlement as "groundbreaking," adding that as far as he knows no other Bible-believing scientist was awarded such a favourable settlement.
