[Salgak]

The professor is owed a tax-payer, and student-financed paycheck FOR TEACHING BIOLOGY COURSES. Not for writing letters of recommendation, a purely optional activity. Have you read the professor's page on his policy ? He requires you to:

a) Get an "A" in at least one of his courses.

b) Be well-enough known to him, by any of a number of criteria.

c) As he teaches a science course, he asks a science question. When a scientist writes a recommendation or other opinion, he puts his credibility as a scientist on the line.

So why SHOULDN'T he evaluate a candidate based on the criteria he sets forward ???

[kittymyrib]

We would have no problem had the professor stopped with #1: Make an A in the class. That would be based on merit, not being a buddy with the prof (#2), or agreeing with his religious beliefs regarding evolution (#3). I assume if he's a successful instructor, his students should have learned the theory of evolution and passed the tests with flying colors on this and every other element of the course to get a final A grade. There should be NO qualifications beyond this. He is not hired to attack the personal faith of any student, their parents, and their pastors by requiring them to "truthfully" espouse his belief in evolution.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Except that getting such letters is "REQUIRED" in order to get into medical school. Students who would take a lot of their biology courses from him, but don't believe in evolution BEWARE because time spent with this particular professor will be USELESS in terms of showing themselves "letter worthy."

[HiTech RedNeck]

When a scientist writes a recommendation or other opinion, he puts his credibility as a scientist on the line.

He could quite truthfully and charitably say something like "this student understands very well the evolutionary theory of biological origins, and is a good scientist in XXX and YYY and ZZZ areas of biology" [not related to evolutionary theories of origins] and leave it at that.