Spring 1996
Professor Iijima
Sample Examination
Writer says his belief in Bible's creation story
cost him science magazine job
- New York Times(1)
Forrest M. Mims III has been a science writer for 20 years. His articles on scientific and technical topics have been published in more than 60 magazines and newspapers, including National Geographic World, a sister publication of National Geographic; Science Digest and the American Journal of Physics.
He is also, by his own description, a conservative Christian who accepts the biblical account of creation and rejects the idea of evolution.
Because of this, Mims says, he was denied a job: writing the popular Amateur Scientist column for Scientific American magazine.
. . . .
The column, which has dealt mainly with physics experiments that can be carried out by readers, has inspired generations of amateur scientists since 1952.
Among its fans has been Mims, 46, a Texan who approached the magazine about taking over the column from its writer after he became involved in another project. By the summer of 1989, according to Armand Schwab, who was Scientific American's managing editor at the time, Mims was a strong candidate.
"The trial columns he sent were quite good," said Schwab, who retired in March after nearly three decades at the magazine, "and his proposal outlining future projects was impressive.
But on a trip to New York, Schwab said, "It emerged in conversation with Jonathan Piel that he was a nonbeliever in evolution."
Although Mims said he arrived at his view through scientific study, he does not belong to the creationist movement, which actively promotes the idea that rapid creation can be proved on scientific grounds and therefore should be taught in schools as an alternative to evolution.
Piel, the editor of Scientific American, denied in a recent telephone interview that Mims had been the victim of religious discrimination. "Scientific American has never discriminated against anyone on the basis of their religious beliefs, and it never will," he said. He declined to elaborate or answer other questions.
But others who worked at the magazine at the time said there had been considerable debate over what to do with Mims.
. . .
"I was among those who felt we should have hired him," said [Tim] Appenzeller, now senior editor at The Sciences magazine. If the creationism issue had not come up, he added,"I'm sure we would have."
Schwab said the decision not to use Mims was based on a fear that "Scientific American might inadvertently put an imprimatur on `creation science,'" which would jeopardize its credibility with biologists.
"Imagine," said Schwab, "there comes a public controversy about science textbooks, perhaps a court hearing. What would be the effect on biologists for whom evolution is taken to be the organizing principle of their discipline? Would they think less of the magazine? I considered this carefully and concluded they would not."
. . .
Asked what he thought of the magazine's decision, Everett Olson, a professor emeritus of biology at the University of California at Los Angeles, said the publication's credibility could be threatened if Mims were columnist.
"If it were known that he was a creationist, it would give quite a boost to those pushing creation science, which I take to be an oxymoron," Olson said. "I would be against having such a person writing a column because, at the base, this philosophy could enter everything one does in science. And creationists are not doing science."
Michael Kemp, a professor and associate dean of biology at Texas A&M University, said a "surprising number" of physical scientists are creationists.
"The physical sciences do not require a working knowledge of evolution," he said, "which the life sciences, by any reasonable account, do."
Mims is adamant in asserting that he has never allowed his religious beliefs to influence his scientific writing. "The fact is I have never, ever written about creationism, nor has the subject ever come up with other publishers," he said.
. . .
He said he still hopes that he will someday write the column.
"I even told them I could be their token Christian," he said, " but they didn't smile at that."
Does Mr. Mims have a viable Title VII claim against Scientific American?
1. 0Reprinted in Minneapolis Tribune, October 29, 1990.