A geologist who bases his work around Christian beliefs concerning the age of the Earth has been given a permit to study rocks at the bottom of Grand Canyon National Park, according to his attorney.
The National Park Service initially had declined his permit request, and that ignited a three-year long campaign by Dr. Andrew Snelling, who earlier this year sued the Park Service over the matter.
Dr. Snelling back in November 2013 had sought a permit to collect roughly 30 pounds of rocks from the Inner Gorge of the park for use in explaining "geological phenomena and other endeavors from a Biblical perspective." He wanted to collect the samples from the floor of the Grand Canyon "to study the folding of Paleozoic sedimentary structure."
That request, his lawsuit alleged, led to an odyssey during which park staff asked two other outside geologists to weigh in on the merits of Dr. Snelling's proposal. One of those geologists, Dr. Karl Karlstrom of the University of New Mexico, in reviewing the proposal demonstrated, in the lawsuit's words, "antipathy for Dr. Snelling’s religious faith."
Dr. Snelling's attorneys withdrew the lawsuit last week after the Park Service relented and agreed to issue the necessary permit.
“When the government refuses to allow a Christian geologist simply to collect information because it dislikes his views, it undercuts science and violates the law,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Gary McCaleb, co-counsel for Snelling. “We commend Park Service officials, Interior Secretary (Ryan) Zinke, and the Trump administration for understanding that specifically targeting Dr. Snelling’s faith as the reason to stop his research was both inappropriate and unconstitutional. As the Park Service finally admitted, ‘Dr. Snelling’s proposal is well stated with methods that are similar or equal to standard scientific practice to test the hypothesis provided,’ so it is the right choice to let the research go forward.”
Comments
Numerous town halls, QED.
PACs and party donations aren't so limited by law as donations to individual campaign. Surely, alternative vehicles of influence peddling have nothing to do with deliberate specificity.
Or, you could just work for the Republican Party. It would explain why you only comment on "national" issues. Aside from your rank cowardice when confronted with passionate locals.
"I dunno. Most GOP senators have been hiding out lately. At least from anyone who might disagree with them and not have enough $$ to catch their attention."
Lee, can you really blame them? I recently tried to attend two separate town hall meetings to learn some details and express my own opinion. The first was ended early due to protesters constant disruption and the second was outright canceled do to concerns it would just end up like the first. The ironic part is I actually shared some of the concerns of the protestors yet was unable to ask my question and voice my concerns in person. The circus the left has made of any attempt to hold a town hall is why you don't see them happening any more and that is unfortunate. There may be cases of the conservatives behaving poorly too but I have not seen it. Everyone needs to be more respectful and civil even if our president isn't setting the best example.
There are civility problems on both sides. Too many of our legislators stack their townhall meetings by requiring anyone attending to submit written questions or comments that are then screened by their staff to prevent any tough questions or embarrassing comments from coming forward.
It's next to impossible to contact our Utah congress people by phone or email. And when you do receive a reply it's invariably a mushpot of slush that says absolutely nothing beyond a few pet talking points.
People are fed up. About the only diffenence between what's happening now and the Tea Party riots is the point of view of participants.
None of it is good. I'm old enough to remember when we could attend meetings with lawmakers and people from all sides were treated with respect. We've lost that and it's going to be very, very hard to regain it until we find a way to turn off fake news and hate outlets on radio, in print, on cable and on the Internet.
I met a man and woman from New Zealand a few weeks ago who were both appalled at what they've seen and heard on this trip to the US. They told me that down there people pride themselves on honesty and good manners. Extremists such as we have mouthing off here simply wouldn't find an audience. Instead, they'd be run out of town.
Some of our loudest mouths have forgotten that with freedom comes responsibility.
Tea Party Riots? I missed that. I know there is a thread somewhere where we might converge and have an epiphony but the riots Im seeing are ALL on the Left. So much BS out there pushed by those ingrained and well paid that do not want that to happen.
Dishonest Lee wants to believe there were Tea Party riots, probably has fake news stories to backup his claims, and has to make up stories to rationalize the behavior of his side of the isle. Makes you wonder how truthful his articles are here.
This was a gross display of left controlled NPS. I am glad the NPS was forced to let him conduct his research.
Well, not entirely sure how we moved from collecting rocks at the bottom of the Grand Canyon to partisan riots, but suffice to say this thread had drifted. What's disappointing is not only that drift, but also the lack of common courtesies in some of the comments.
If anything, political dissent and raging tempers are a longstanding part of this country and bipartisan. No one holds a monopoly on it.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/10/donald_...
With that said, let's all try to keep on topic and avoid thread drift. And if you're going to throw the term "fake news" around, please provide evidence to support your use of it.
Finally, please restrain yourself from gratuitous language and ad hominem attacks. I don't have time to edit those out of comments; deleting the comments entirely is much quicker.
Thank you Kurt.