Astronomer Sues University of Kentucky Over Faith

A federal trial will decide whether an astronomer’s religious beliefs wrongly cost him a science job at a state university, The New York Times Reports. The astronomer, C. Martin Gaskell, filed suit against the University of Kentucky after his faith and its potential impact on his work were discussed during a search for someone to run the school’s observatory.

The dean of astronomy and physics at Kentucky told Gaskell that “he had personally researched Gaskell’s religious beliefs” and said they were “a matter of concern,” the lawsuit says.

The university hired another candidate.

Gaskell, an evangelical Christian who works at the University of Nebraska, has written about conflicts between biblical creationism and scientific theories of evolution, but told the Times he believes in evolution and is not a creationist. The trial is set for February.