Should the University of Kentucky have hired a qualified astronomer to lead their new observatory, despite his strong religious views and his public doubts about evolution? Or was their decision to pass him over discrimination?

Alas for those who would relish a public hashing out of these thorny questions, a lawsuit over the matter has been settled.

C. Martin Gaskell, the astronomer who allegedly lost the observatory directorship because of his beliefs, and his attorneys will pocket $125,000. Gaskell will drop his suit and refrain from any related claims of discrimination. UK does not admit wrongdoing, and its attorney, Barbara Jones, released a statement saying that “the University believes its hiring processes were and are fundamentally sound and were followed in this case.”

Gaskell is now at the University of Texas, and is planning to move to Chile to work at the Universidad de Valparaiso, according to an excellent Inside Higher Ed story on the case, which delves into the details of Gaskell’s beliefs.

This case may be closed, but the issues it raised are not likely to be settled so easily. Scientists are less religious than non-scientists, but they are by no means uniformly atheist. According to the Pew Research Center, some 33% of US scientists believe in God. For astronomers, the figure is similar: 29%. Interestingly, it is the chemists who are most religious, with 41% counting themselves among the faithful. Of course these statistics don’t tell us how many of these scientists have beliefs that don’t accord with mainstream scientific consensus. Most religious scientists in the US are Protestant, Catholic or Jewish–and all of those religious groups are likely to accept evolution and scientifically derived estimates for the age of the earth and universe.

But fundamentalist scientists, though small in number, may connect more often with the public about their ideas. After all, many fundamentalist Christian churches encourage their members to evangelize and reach out–perhaps with more fervor than University press offices. Groups like the Fresno, California-based 4th Day Alliance hold star parties to spread the word about Christian astronomy, and the Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY has a planetarium, just less than two hours drive from the UK observatory.

It isn’t clear at all that Gaskell would have used his positon to evangelize, but the prospect clearly spooked some faculty members at UK. So is there a distinction between a scientist with faith-based beliefs and one who actively tries to spread his or her beliefs? For now, this is one question a judge won’ t be losing sleep over.