Dr. Andrea M. Weisberger, a Forgotten Atheist Scholar

There has been a great deal of talk by secular women about the need to support women and women's issues. I endorse that goal most emphatically. Let me tell my readers about the tragic case of Professor Andrea M. Weisberger. She is on a short list of atheist scholars I admire the most. She first introduced me to the problem of animal suffering that I have written so much about. Have you heard her story? You should.

Weisberger earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Vanderbilt University in 1991. She became an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Jacksonville University from 1991-1998, and then the Chair of the Philosophy & Religion department from 1992-1998.

Her major areas of interest include:
Philosophy of Religion
Ethics (Theoretical and Applied)
Animal Rights, Environmental Issues

Her publications include:
Suffering Belief: Evil and the Anglo-American Defense of Theism, 1999.
"The Problem of Evil" in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, ed. Michael Martin. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
"The Nature of the Relationship Between Religion and Ethics: A Case Study of Animal Rights Within Judaism." Sophia (Aust.), Vol. 42, No. 1 (2003): 77-84.
"The Pollution Solution: A Critique of Dore's Response to the Argument from Evil." Sophia (Aust.), Vol. 36, No. 1 (1997): 19-35.
"Depravity, Divine Responsibility and Moral Evil: A Critique of a New Free Will Defence." Religious Studies, Vol. 31, No. 3 (1995): 375-390.

Internet Infidels tells us:.

Andrea was evicted from academe most inhospitably after complaining about being told that she, as well as a candidate being interviewed for a position at the moment, had "Jewish germs" by another faculty member. After voicing concern about a number of anti-Semitic incidents at Jacksonville University, she was asked to leave.

Although she brought charges against the university for discrimination, a federal judge ruled that she had no standing to bring a case based on anti-Semitism since she was an atheist and, therefore--the judge reasoned--could not possibly be a Jew. She is probably the first (and only) person in the US who was legally stripped of an ethnic identity based on a lack of religious belief.

After repeated failed attempts to get them to reverse their decision, and filing a brief, the federal judge reversed his decision and allowed Andrea to once again join the ranks of the Jews. The case was eventually settled and, after the lawyers were compensated, she received a bit less than the two years salary she had lost while fighting the discrimination. Since Andrea was successfully litigious, no other academic institution has risked hiring her on a full time basis. Link.

Right now she's working in a business related field. She has only written one article in the last twenty years. She was effectively silenced and she had so much to offer. It's quite tragic.