I am not arguing for mere excitement. Painted fire never burns, and an imitated enthusiasm is the most empty thing that can possibly exist in a preacher. Given the preacher with a message...I cannot understand that man not being swept sometimes right out of himself by the fire and and force and the fervency of his work.
G. Campbell Morgan

Creationist Fired By Scientific

Creationist Fired By Scientific

CREATIONIST FIRED BY SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

Copyright, 1990. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

By KILEY ARMSTRONG
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — A widely published writer on scientific topics says Scientific American magazine wooed him, then left him at the altar because he believes in the biblical account of creation.

Forrest M. Mims III alleged Wednesday that an editor at the respected publication asked if he’d like to take over its column about amateur experiments and rejected him after learning of his beliefs.

Mims, 46, of Seguin, Texas, insisted his own writing is unbiased and said he has never written about creationism.

“I’ve wanted this opportunity for 20 years,” he said. “To have the opportunity and then lose it because of what I do on Sunday is absolutely incredible.”

Scientific American publisher John Moehling refused to address Mims’ allegations in detail but said, “We don’t discriminate in our pages among the people who work here or write for us.

Mims said that he has complained to two professional societies, which “said if I identified them they would drop the complaints.”

Mims has written in more than 60 publications, including Science Digest, The American Journal of Physics and National Geographic World, a sister publication of National Geographic.

He said that in 1989 a Scientific American editor expressed enthusiasm for his work and asked if he’d like to become the magazine’s “Amateur Scientist” columnist.

He said he canceled practically all his writing assignments and was flown to New York, where Scientific American staffers congratulated him for getting the job.

But the editor who invited him there suddenly grew cold when Mims mentioned he’d written for Christian magazines on such topics as “how to organize bicycle trips for church kids,” the writer said.

The editor asked if Mims accepted Darwin’s theory of evolution, Mims said. “I replied that I did not.”

Later, he said, the editor warned him he would be fired or docked in pay if he “ever wrote anything about creationism for any magazine.” The editor ended the meeting by telling Mims he had not made up his mind whom to hire, Mims said.

The magazine ended up publishing three of his columns this year: about safely observing sunspots, about monitoring ultraviolet radiation, and about taking aerial photographs from helium-filled trash bags.

Mims now edits a new amateur science magazine, Science Probe!