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It's one thing if your Uncle Dave said he doesn't believe in time. But it would be a completely different conversation if the same words came out of a clockmaker.

Inspired by a tweet where a microbiologist expressed his disappointment after learning that one of their colleagues was an anti-vaxxer, Reddit user u/MoniMokshith made a post on r/facepalm, saying "I had to teach a historical geology class because the geologist who was supposed to teach [it] was a Young Earth Creationist."

The post immediately blew up. As of this article, it has over 98K upvotes. And that's not even the most impressive part. The comment section got filled with similar stories, with people talking about "professionals" who made a career despite their controversial -- and often contradictory -- personal views. Here are some of them.

Image credits: foamtherunway

#1

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I'm an RN and worked with FAR too many people in the healthcare field as a whole (not just other nurses, but also lab workers, RT's, pharmacists, hell even some MD's) who think/thought COVID was a hoax or "greatly exaggerated" and are now refusing the new vaccine, even though we all KNOW how mRNA and vaccines work. Plenty of anti-maskers too. It's like they just used their degrees as tissue paper or something, I seriously don't get how you can learn what we learn, understand it well enough to practice in the field, and yet still allow political stances to override all that, it's freaking ridiculous.

zombie_goast , Jonathan Borba Report

#2

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions My high school biology teacher was a super religious creationist. He taught us about evolution while telling us how he thought it was all bulls**t. I always wondered why people go into professions that are directly opposed to their beliefs. Seems like a miserable existence.

Zeno_The_Alien , pxhere Report

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Colin Matthews
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's because they want to prove it to themselves to try and answer the huge doubts they have about religious dogma

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#3

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I’ve worked with an aerospace/aeronautical engineer once that believed the earth was flat. It was so weird because in order for the calculations to function properly, you have to take into account of the earth not being flat.

humanCharacter , pxhere Report

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#4

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I’m an ICU nurse of about 10 years. I would occasionally float to our regular, non-icu and non-covid floors. Plenty of nurses who denied how serious covid was.

The cognitive dissonance is real. Of course none of them came up to help on our covid units

ThisisMalta · , Hush Naidoo Report

#5

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions Degree is Psychology here. So many peers with devout faith, one brain dead moron took psychology as a way “to know god better” he told me and convert more to Jesus.

Once took a course literally called, “Belief in Weird Things” which was for Psych majors. 300 students enrolled, nearly half dropped out because they were offended at some point when we broke down their weird beliefs.

Melancholic_Mando , Startup Stock Photos Report

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Sian Edwards
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm all for people having faith in any religion or moral code, but they have to accept that others don't necessarily share those beliefs.

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#6

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions Used to be a science teacher and I always got flack on the evolution chapter from parents that were doctors. Like babe I hope you at least believe in bacteria and viruses evolving...

I've also come across many nurses who don't think mental illness is real.

deathbychips2 , Andrew Neel Report

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Bowtechie
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I once had an uber driver who claimed she was a semester shy of completing her nursing degree. She said vaccines caused my T1 Diabetes. I was diagnosed so young I didn't even have all my first doses yet.

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#7

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions Professional cook here. Near the beginning of the pandemic I heard about a Sous Chef I worked with in the past being an anti-masker. I asked through the grapevine why he washes his hands before and after handling food and the reply was “that’s common sense”. But somehow the scientific medical community saying that masks help prevent illnesses is just a big hoax. It’s beyond frustrating.

SilkwormAbraxas , Tanya Gorelova Report

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Robert T
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So he'll wash his hands, but will still breathe a respiritory-born virus over people's food. Damn I'm going to need a big bat.

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#8

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions My friends uncle is a '5G gives you cancer while the government controls your mind' conspiracy theorist. He's a 5G installer

BEANSijustloveBEANS , Fabian Horst Report

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Lord Mysticlaw
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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You should play along and ask him how he can do that to people and sleep at night.

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#9

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions My mom's really into homepoathy bulls**t (treating illnesses with the souls of elements or whatever). She's a pharmacist.

S0mber_ , Bru-nO Report

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Martha Meyer
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think the homeopathy trend has more to do with the fact that many people haven't found the medical help they needed from traditional medicine.

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#10

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I worked with a former airline PILOT who was/is a flat earther. He has since went back to being a pilot but I am not sure if he still thinks Earth is flat. When I pressed him on being a former pilot and believing malarkey he claimed the schools indoctrination into round earth didn’t work on him and that the pilots windscreen was a very thick and curved glass that made everything appear to be curved.

epidemic , imcckpit Report

#11

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I remember a few Evangelists and one Catholic ( odd since most Catholics I know aren't creationists) in my major (geography) saying they knew the truth about the age of the earth, but had to lie on tests (classes like oil&gas, hydrology, geology,etc.) in order to get good grades.

How Christian are you when you break one of the 10 commandments and lie about your faith in order to get ahead?

lurked_long_enough , Armin Rimoldi Report

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#12

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions Last career I had, knew people who were flat earthers and moon landing deniers...we were all satellite communications engineers.

Nerdeinstein , pxhere Report

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I I
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

flat earthers have members all over the globe , thats their FB quote

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#13

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I work with a medication aide that refuses to take medication and actively preaches god>medication. Apparently god isn’t paying her bills so she still keeps coming to work.

WhaleIfItIsntJonah , Polina Tankilevitch Report

#14

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I know someone who doesn’t believe in germ theory. We work for a company that builds water sterilization.

Link9454 , Anna Shvets Report

#15

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I worked with a wildland firefighter who was a climate change denier. We fought more wild fires. We got way more OT over 3 years. Yet didnt believe it was true science and started to complain he couldnt enjoy his summers due to work....lol

hangout_wangout , oconino National Forest Report

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Grumble O'Pug
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not at all surprising. My farrier is a professional fire fighter (his group takes their rig all over the Western US to fight those epic fires) big climate denier. Great farrier.

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#16

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I know a dude who works in the oil field who doesn't believe in dinosaurs. "Fossil fuels"

roosell1986 , pxhere Report

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Don't Look
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

He’s not right obviously but fossil fuels aren’t actually dinosaur-based.

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#17

I work with someone who thinks bloodletting is a cure-all.

I work in a children's cancer ward.

Auto-Harper-587 Report

#18

I work with a locomotive engineer who is a flat earther and also said that gravity is a hoax. I can laugh at the flat earth part but not believing in gravity on a fright train in the mountains seems a little crazy to me.

Blackflipflop Report

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Robert T
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Does he work on the ghost trains at an amusement park? (Just wondering what a fright train is)

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#19

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I work with two anti-vaxxers. They are nurses who work with elderly patients.

Sad_Panda1978 , Vidal Balielo Jr. Report

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Serbob
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Recently found out that an anti-vaxxer worked at my step-father's retirement home and contracted Covid. The home's response was that with human rights they couldn't force her to get vaccinated. We all wanted her fired. We have the right to refuse her access to our relatives. It turned into a real s**t show.

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#20

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I used to work with a geologist who used to think minerals ("crystals") could heal you even from cancer.

xenascus , Antranias Report

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Sian Edwards
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Which is hilarious because some minerals can cause cancer or are dangerously toxic. Asbestos and cinnabar, for example.

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#21

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I work in defense. No one there believes government creates jobs. We only get paid by government.

farmguy111 , Touch Of Light Report

#22

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I work with a cancer biologist who fell for the alkaline diet hype. She got persuaded by somebody who is 1000x less educated in the matter than she is.

Verologist , thesmartwatersolutions Follow Report

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#23

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I’m an aircraft mechanic and I work with a guy who believes in chemtrails.

moubu89 , Adrian Pingstone Arpingstone Report

#24

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions My mom is a geologist and she worked with someone who was a young earth creationist. That person's excuse was "god created rocks that were 4.6 billion years old". I guess if it works it works, but that makes no sense to me

IWishIWasAGoomba , mdherren Report

#25

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions One of my teachers (it wasn't a biology teacher) made me do a homework to prove that dinosaurs aren't mammals as, for him, mammals are animals with lungs.

Cocokill , Fausto García-Menéndez Report

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Nicola Roberts
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

All elephants are grey. Not all grey animals are elephants. In the age of enlightenment they figured this out 400 years ago.

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Robert T
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Dinosaurs aren't mammals, they're reptiles. Dictionary definition: any chiefly terrestrial, herbivorous or carnivorous reptile of the extinct orders Saurischia and Ornithischia, from the Mesozoic Era, certain species of which are the largest known land animals. However his definition of a mammal is not correct. A mammal is something with mammaries.

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Becky Samuel
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Dinosaurs aren't reptiles unless we define birds as reptiles. The statement "mammals are animals with lungs" is correct but not sufficient to define a mammal, but that doesn't make it false.

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Lara Verne
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So according to him, birds are mammals, because they have lungs?

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Samantha Lomb
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I had a student describe a bat as a bird. This was an English ( EFL) class for college kids and they were supposed to be practicing vocab by describing words on a list. I had to explain bats are mammals like humans. They have live births and they produce milk.

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Carol Emory
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Actually, dinosaurs aren't mammals, they're reptiles. Mammals give birth to live young. Reptiles lay eggs. Mammals are warm blooded. Reptiles are not warm blooded, they need alternative sources of heat like other animals or the sun.

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John Baker
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some reptiles are live-bearers and some mammals lay eggs. Dinosaurs were warm-blooded, and many were feathered.

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Bex
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wait, am I the only one here who wants to know HOW you (the OP) completes the homework to his satisfaction?? Did you write a paper, and if so, where did you find your evidence???

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PeachPossum
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Maybe he was joking and it was a trick question... but somehow I think not. :(

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David carro
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Are you sure you understood the instructions correctly, or were you a distracted child, looking at how flies fly while getting the homework?

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clive apps
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Dinosaurs are not mammals. They do not have mammary glands. Some recent discoveries point to a possibility of some types being warm blooded, not like other reptiles.

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Tom Hanlin
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Dinosaurs weren't mammals but, did have lungs so, I'm not clear on what his idea was. Nor have I heard of "a homework" so, maybe this is just a fluke of the English translation.

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mcborge1
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm sorry but I would have laughed in that teachers face. Detention be damned.

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Leo Domitrix
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well, good thing the teacher didn't teach biology, because he clearly failed it.

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Ted Expert
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I can't believe how many people think writing "dinosaurs are reptiles" in the comments makes you clever. It's a post about dumb fools; pointing out that the dumb fool is wrong is kinda obvious. Well done for pointing out the obvious.

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N G
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2 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

There's nothing wrong with that. The teachers wants the student to write an article to prove him wrong.

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#26

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I worked with a guy who’s previous job had been designing missile launch systems who also thought the earth was flat, I’m not entirely sure how he slept at night

punkerster101 , Official U.S. Navy Page Report

#27

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I worked with someone who had a PhD in genetics but was young earth creationist. She couldn’t seem to comprehend phylogenetic diagrams, useless as supervisor to PhD students, seeing as she was incapable of discussing a number of highly relevant topics.

Practical-Purchase-9 , National Cancer Institute Report

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Samantha Lomb
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Honestly, research, publication and supervisory skills are totally different anyway. I know a number of PhDs who were horrific supervisors. One actually got banned by the department from taking female grad students as she was horrifically emotionally abusive to them and they had to scramble to find new supervisors. No one would ever warn the incoming students though.

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#28

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions My 4th grade science teacher and my 9th grade history teacher are moon landing deniers...

Alpha_Eagle222 , WikiImages Report

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Amelia Bedelia
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If someone tells you they don't believe in the moon landing, just look them dead in the eye and say "you believe in the moon?!?!?"

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#29

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I had to teach a historical geology class because the geologist who was supposed to teach is was a Young Earth Creationist.

MoniMoksith , Diego Delso Report

#30

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I've met a PhD in Chemistry from a top 5 university that was anti-vax. Their PhD work actually involved the analysis of heavy metals in an environment and how it impacted a childs likelihood to develop autism. I got into it with them, and they were able to reference a handful of scholarly papers to justify their stance.

howmuchforthissquirr , RF._.studio Report

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Samantha Lomb
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Honestly, having a PhD myself, its not about intelligence but more about the ability to complete tasks on time. A lot of really smart people never finish cause they are either perfectionists or terrible at time management. And A LOT of scholars cherry pick information to fit their points of view

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