On the cover of yesterday's New York Times, the article Believing Scripture but Playing by Science's Rules raised an interestnig question about the role of faith within the life of a student whose geosciences doctoral dissertation did not include reference to the earth creationist views he holds. Once again, the science vs. religion issue arises, this time with some within the scientific community crying foul over the possible repurcussions of a newly-minted scientific Ph.D. who approaches religion from a fundamentalist and evangelical perspective.

While the academy promotes academic freedom, I find it interesting how this issue is not seen as cutting both ways–from the faculty as well as from the student perspectives. While I cannot understand from this article what Dr. Marcus Ross advocates or believes about his academic or professional or religious work, I do wonder whether academic freedom should not only be from the perspective of those fully entrenched in tenured academic institutions. What kind of freedom is it that this fellow can fulfill all his academic obligations but still be penalized from those with whom he is not "academically free" to disagree? That seems to me what academic freedom is all about.