I'm not suggesting that anything should replace it.

What do you suggest replace it?

Coin toss?

Internet discussion board posts?

Often spitting out the deserving and rewarding the undeserving. Too arbritrary and subjective.

You're right. here is an article about how George Mason University took advantage of the prejudices of other universities to build a world class economics department (not to mention a final four basketball team).

That's a good observation. Why don't you give it a post of its own, instead of hiding it down here?

So why was Beckwith denied tenure?

I don't know, Mike. As Myers said,

it is nearly impossible to speculate on what's going on in tenure committees - he could have been denied tenure on the whim of some old fart with a grudge

In my personal opinion, making disingenuous arguments in favor of teaching discredited, creationist anti-evolutionary arguments in public school science classrooms would be a pretty good reason to deny someone tenure, but I have no idea to what extent, if any, that was considered by the tenure committee. For all I know, they just didn't like him because Sloan brought him in.

According to Brayton:

This is a struggle over theological and political positions at a private Baptist university. Had Sloan and his backers won the power struggles, things would have turned out differently.

According to Myers:

Tenure is a brutal, evil machine that puts everyone through a hellish torture, and often spits out the deserving and rewards the undeserving. Do not ever judge someone by whether they have got tenure or not"”it's too arbitrary for that, and often represents a kind of insubstantial and subjective matching or mismatching between a person and an institution.

Theological and political struggles. Outcomes dependent on the world views of higher ups. Often spitting out the deserving and rewarding the undeserving. Too arbritrary and subjective.

The faith in peer review takes another hit.

It looks like the neo-Darwinists have a stronghold a Baylor. It seems that some of the biologists there don't want to be painted with the ID brush. We do live in a puzzling world.

Not so puzzling at all. Baylor isn't a seminary, and the biologists there are real scientists, just like at many other universities affiliated with churches, so they recognize pseudoscientific bs when they see it.

"As I have never met the man, I know that its possible that Beckwith is a real pain to be around once you get to know him, therefore justifying the claim of "lack of collegiality"."

Yes, and it's also possible that "lack of collegiality", like this this Baylor gradstudent explains, is "a code for unjustified discrimination or the practice of ruthless politics." Anything's possible.

"Is there any chance that Baylor is dominated by Young Earth Creationists? I know that many YECs view anyone who does not interpret the Bible as they do to be heretics worthy of burning at the stake."

Again, anything's possible. To test this speculation, one need only look at other professors granted tenure at Baylor and see if they are all young earth creationists.

It looks like the neo-Darwinists have a stronghold a Baylor. It seems that some of the biologists there don't want to be painted with the ID brush. We do live in a puzzling world.