It's Not Okay
It's been a very long time. I must admit that Facebook has been filling much of the information exchange Live Journal had provided. However, the the following on Facebook is too large to post some of the things on my mind.
The problem now? I work with creationists.
Let that set in. It is a biological research division where creationism is accepted.
I work for a company that provides life-saving treatment that allows creationism to influence research.
This was made known to me when I gave a seminar on the evolution of the particular region of the genome in which we are interested. It was well-received and many compliments were directed my way. What stuck with me, though, were the number of people that gave comments from, "I believe evolution, but I don't believe humans evolved," to, "you shouldn't try to pass off religion as science."
Being in bioinformatics, I am well acquainted with departments filled with engineers who believe they have a solid understand of biology. That seems biased, but I would justify it by the number of times these engineers have rediscovered something known for decades or pursued fruitless projects because they didn't know humans are diploid organisms. I expect a certain amount of ignorance from them and can even forgive some of their arrogance. They probably haven't had a biology course since high school, much less a graduate course in population genetics.
The harm? In their zeal, they design experiments without taking into account convergence or long-branch attraction. When things don't meet expectation, they assume the results are erroneous rather than entertaining the concept they are attempting to aggregate distantly related alleles. "Correcting" their results, the research becomes recommendations to physicians.
I've made objections and now have marks against me as a naysayer. I layout my argument and am dismissed with, "it's what everyone else is doing." Well, no. It isn't. Some are doing it and they are doing it on a region that is well behaved in relation to the assumptions. Our region is not. When I explain the problem, I am again dismissed with, "I don't think in evolution."
An alleged "bioinformatician" who doesn't think in evolution. Fuck.
I remember my master advisor telling me not to be concerned with the Evolution v. Creation debate being fought in the public because, "the truth always wins out." For him, that ended the matter. For me, I find myself in a research division where creationism is accepted and it harms the science.
This isn't something I should have to be combating in the workplace. For one, these are supposed to be educated people who understand and employ science, not use religion to dismiss results. We should be doing our job as scientists. Also, educating people about the evidence underlying evolution and why it is important to our work is a good way to be reprimanded by the HR department.
People accuse scientist of being "strident" when it comes to creationism. I even had a friend in graduate school talking about how we need to find some middle ground. Science should give way to respect the beliefs of others.
Science is a methodology to try to discover the unknown. In my workplace, we're looking more more effective treatment for horrific diseases. Should be sacrifice quality of work because some people are uncomfortable with evolution? Think about that while sitting in the doctor's office.
I'm beginning to think my workplace a lost cause. It just depresses me that an institution that has so much influence over the treatment of certain diseases is rejecting biological understanding.
It's not okay. In the long run, this will harm people. Most frustrating, I've found nothing that I can do about it.
The problem now? I work with creationists.
Let that set in. It is a biological research division where creationism is accepted.
I work for a company that provides life-saving treatment that allows creationism to influence research.
This was made known to me when I gave a seminar on the evolution of the particular region of the genome in which we are interested. It was well-received and many compliments were directed my way. What stuck with me, though, were the number of people that gave comments from, "I believe evolution, but I don't believe humans evolved," to, "you shouldn't try to pass off religion as science."
Being in bioinformatics, I am well acquainted with departments filled with engineers who believe they have a solid understand of biology. That seems biased, but I would justify it by the number of times these engineers have rediscovered something known for decades or pursued fruitless projects because they didn't know humans are diploid organisms. I expect a certain amount of ignorance from them and can even forgive some of their arrogance. They probably haven't had a biology course since high school, much less a graduate course in population genetics.
The harm? In their zeal, they design experiments without taking into account convergence or long-branch attraction. When things don't meet expectation, they assume the results are erroneous rather than entertaining the concept they are attempting to aggregate distantly related alleles. "Correcting" their results, the research becomes recommendations to physicians.
I've made objections and now have marks against me as a naysayer. I layout my argument and am dismissed with, "it's what everyone else is doing." Well, no. It isn't. Some are doing it and they are doing it on a region that is well behaved in relation to the assumptions. Our region is not. When I explain the problem, I am again dismissed with, "I don't think in evolution."
An alleged "bioinformatician" who doesn't think in evolution. Fuck.
I remember my master advisor telling me not to be concerned with the Evolution v. Creation debate being fought in the public because, "the truth always wins out." For him, that ended the matter. For me, I find myself in a research division where creationism is accepted and it harms the science.
This isn't something I should have to be combating in the workplace. For one, these are supposed to be educated people who understand and employ science, not use religion to dismiss results. We should be doing our job as scientists. Also, educating people about the evidence underlying evolution and why it is important to our work is a good way to be reprimanded by the HR department.
People accuse scientist of being "strident" when it comes to creationism. I even had a friend in graduate school talking about how we need to find some middle ground. Science should give way to respect the beliefs of others.
Science is a methodology to try to discover the unknown. In my workplace, we're looking more more effective treatment for horrific diseases. Should be sacrifice quality of work because some people are uncomfortable with evolution? Think about that while sitting in the doctor's office.
I'm beginning to think my workplace a lost cause. It just depresses me that an institution that has so much influence over the treatment of certain diseases is rejecting biological understanding.
It's not okay. In the long run, this will harm people. Most frustrating, I've found nothing that I can do about it.