Creationism and science

I received from interesting comments from an acquaintance who writes about science regarding this article from today's New York Times. The article is strange fare for the front page, where it appeared, since it takes as its subject a single doctoral student at the University of Rhode Island. But it's pretty thought-provoking.

This student is a Young Earth Creationist, which means he thinks God created the Earth roughly (or exactly?) as described in the Bible, and did so no more than 10,000 years ago. Meanwhile he's a paleontologist who researches creatures that vanished in the Cretaceous Era, which ended about 65 million years ago. The guy does some rhetorical gymnastics when pressed, which is exactly what is required of him, I think:

"I am separating the different paradigms.”

He likened his situation to that of a socialist studying economics in a department with a supply-side bent.

But would that econ student write a dissertation that argued--nay, took as a baseline assumption--that supply side is right on the money? If so, we'd call him hypocritical, wouldn't we? The science writer says: "I don't know how he can live with the split: doing the science that says one thing but somehow believing another. My word for people like that is 'phony.'"

[Revised 6:12 p.m.]