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

I was raised as a Roman Catholic from grade school through college. I say this because it may surprise some of you to hear that my introduction to evolutionary biology in college was taught to me by Jesuit priests. They are very big on science in general. Whatever your beliefs, once creation got created (Big Bang, God, or whatever) it works like clockwork and behaves according to natural laws that are discoverable and understandable through scientific observation and methods as the observable universe unfolds before our very eyes. The only alternative to evolutionary change through time would be some sort of theory of absolute and immutable stasis. Good luck embracing some version of a never changing story in your everyday experience. Any theological argument against evolutionary change would have to insist that God was just too lazy, stupid or incompetent to have come up with something that complex and clever. Religions and science share a common border, guarded and enforced through mutual scrutiny. Understanding and appreciating both perspectives helps a lot.

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K. Anderson
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Religion teacher in Catholic school clearly taught us during religion class that Adam & Eve was not a true story. She explained that in times past people used these tales to explain what they don’t understand- in this case how people came to be.

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

My english teacher (i live in norway) told us to not use english so much cause he said we would lose or own language

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

I remember I had a religion teacher (Catholic) who clearly told us during religion class that Adam & Eve was not a true story. She explained that in times past people used these tales to explain what they don’t understand- in this case how people came to be. I appreciate that the school was still able to teach religion & not turn students into idiots but still explain why some stories in the Bible cane to be

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

I had a teacher in grade school who used to tell not to believe a word of his lessons. I may have been in the 5th grade but I didn't believe a word HE said. Not bad for a 5th grader.

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K. Anderson
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I had a teacher in 4th grade tell me & 2 other white female students that black girls were jealous of us. I knew that was weird & inappropriate…

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

Many people nowadays still assume evolution is just a theory and creation is another one (probably better since it matches the religious texts), so both should be taught at school concurrently, and then students can choose which to 'believe" in, according to their own faith. That completely misguided conception of how scientific thought works seems to be more and more widespread, along with all the BS around fake news, alternative truth and complotism, as if we were entering a whole new era of obscurantism. I remember interviewing a very brilliant paleontologist who, beside her scientific research and publishing work, had chosen to teach biology in high school. She was devastated by the agressive refusal she had to face when she wanted to teach about Darwin or the geological ages of Earth, on part of fundamentalist students. And I live in France, the most secular country I can think of. I dare not imagine how it is in other countries.

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

There's a few other things in biology apart from evolution.

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

Shame on the school system that employed someone like that. That type if ignorance is usually reserved for religious schools.

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

My A.P. Biology teacher in high school believed in intelligent design.

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

So they can tell young students that it's all Bull** and on average they will create enough imbeciles to keep the rest of us back. It's a numbers game. They need to keep strengthening the army of blind believers so when they tell equally fake Bulls*** about something affecting their lives more immediately, they don't have the critical skills to tell truth from fiction. This is by design, it's not a quirky byproduct of religious belief.

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Full of Giggles
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Don’t be so quick to judge. I’m an Atheist and both my bachelors and masters degrees are in Religious Studies. I’m fascinated by religion’s role in history, the shaping of civilization, and society evolution. I’m intrigued by its psychological hold on people. And of course, I’m deeply invested in religion’s current impact on global relations. I’ve loved every job I’ve had that utilizes my degrees. What I’m saying is, going into a career field that contradict one’s beliefs doesn’t mean they hate their job and are miserable. Everyone goes into their chosen field for a reason. Maybe this teacher chose biology because he was passionate about nature and teaching.

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

No I can judge. His job as a science teacher is to teach science, not teach that the volumes of scientific papers on the subject are all wrong. Teaching religios dogma isn't approriate in a science class, it is in Social Studies classes.

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

They are told go into those jobs to by their fundamentalist churches. To teach people exactly what he taught you. It would be like if atheists got jobs at Fundamentalist Schools and taught evolution and atheism. Often members of those churches don’t fit to choose who they marry they are told, they aren’t allowed to be friends with people outside their churches, group of churches.

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

I understand how this is not professional, but we have to understand this man has his own beliefs, weather we believe that or not. Should he be teaching biology? no. Should we attack him for it? Also no

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

Well don't worry, Scientists are more likely to be religious and believe in god than people in the Humanities. We have had multiple Noble Prize winning scientists who believed in the Bible as literal and their writings on it are intersteing to see how they balance their two worlds.

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

That's simply not true. While there may be a Nobel Price scientist who is religious, the data is pretty clear. There have been several studies on it. This study shows a stark difference in scientists vs others: https://www.pewforum.org/2009/11/05/an-overview-of-religion-and-science-in-the-united-states/ This one showing correlation that religiosity and negative attitudes toward science: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0207125 This one saying that social sciences are more religious than natural sciences: https://news.rice.edu/2005/08/25/social-scientists-more-likely-than-natural-scientists-to-be-religious/

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

no. really? they're masochists, and love...holycowlove!!!...that. what you get, doing that, i mean.

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

Just because he disagrees with one segment of the course he's teaching. If the rest of the year is teaching what you enjoy about science , you'd probably take the job too.

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

evolution and creationism aren't mutually exclusive. not that I believe theirs some creator(s) out there floating around and apparently totally disinterested (maybe ashamed?) in their creation.

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miss miss
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2 years ago

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It is OK to teach creation as well. Don't be so judgemental or religion haters.

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Dave Jones
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2 years ago

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How organism came to be is a very small part of biology. Whether we guess that it was some type of evolution (yes, it was not observed so it is still a hypothesis) or life and the universe was created by a higher power is not in direct conflict with the study of biology.

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

Not believing in evolution is in direct conflict with biology

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Truth Monster
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2 years ago

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"Directly opposed to their beliefs". God doesn't prohibit the study of animals. And setting all religion aside, I think there is several large gaping holes in evolutionary theory. Namely the lack of emergent new species. Out of all the species on earth, we should have observed several hundred by now. Why have we not? I'm linking the definition of species, in case you want to go find an example to prove me wrong. https://www.britannica.com/science/species-taxon/Speciation

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

Speciation is an incredibly slow process which is why we don't just see a new specie pop up every few centuries. Evolution theory has gaps for sure, but scientists acknowledge those gaps and are always on the lookout for new evidence. Creationism on the other hand has absolutely nothing going for it besides vague scripture. I'm not familiar with Christianity, but as a Muslim I've come to understand that a lot of what is described in the Quran is metaphoric and not a substitute for hard science.

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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
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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
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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
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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

#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
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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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