Creationism and the Nebraska Supreme Court

News item: Governor Pete Ricketts has just appointed Omaha attorney Jonathan Papik to the State Supreme Court.

Backstory: Jon Papik (there may be another Jon Papik in Omaha, but I can't find him) apparently presides at various events at Harvest Community Church (PCA) in Omaha. PCA is a conservative denomination, and most of its pastors espouse young-earth creationism. They hold something called the Omaha Worship Conference; the last two years, their lead speaker was Allen P. Ross, a young-earth creationist theologian from Godawful, Alabama. In the absence of other evidence, and based on his religious participation, it is reasonable therefore to conclude that Mr. Papik believes the world was created in 7 days about 4000 years ago.

If so, he is the second creationist the Ricketts/Sasse tag-team have elevated to the judiciary (the first was Steve Grasz).

Can anyone reasonably expect Mr. Papik will be able to evaluate scientific evidence if he believes the central paradigm of biology is wrong? Or if he has to rule on Church/State separation?

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