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.”