If there is a professor at a university that believes in some bat#$%^ crazy book that is obviously a fraud, is there a way to make those beliefs known to rating services and peer groups in order to give people the heads up that the professor is possibly delusional? I would want to know that the professor teaching me history has actually written papers in favor of hebrews sailing to America in submarines 4000 years ago. BYU professors shouldn't just skate by just because their delusional beliefs are "religious" should they?

If a person chooses to go to a college or university which is owned or controlled by a specific religion, then this kind of thing can usually be expected.

In some cases (possibly Notre Dame...maybe?) it would likely be less (or would be more carefully finessed) than at an institution like BYU...Bob Jones University...or the college (the name of which I can't remember) where the really fundamentalist, right-wing, Christian homeschoolers send their kids.

Sometimes this isn't as true. Brandeis University (in Massachusetts) is a top-ranked university which is very heavily Jewish-connected in all sorts of ways, and I would expect that this kind of thing at Brandeis would be limited to (perhaps) some kind of "politically acceptable" writings on the most controversial topics having to do with Israel (as an example). If donor money was threatened, then this MIGHT happen, just because this is the way universities at that level operate.

In general: if you go to a tertiary institution controlled or influenced in any way by a specific religion, it's probably not going to be 100% truly objective.

On the other hand: neither is a public college or university whose donor money comes heavily from corporations who are interested in furthering corporate ends, one way or another.

"...or the college (the name of which I can't remember) where the really fundamentalist, right-wing, Christian homeschoolers send their kids."

I believe "Liberty University" was what you were searching for.

There's a website, ratemyprofessors, that lets you leave ratings others can read. Of course, if people are looking at BYU, they aren't looking for academic honesty in the first place.

Generally, professors with tenure can believe any insane !#$$% they wish as long as it doesn't impact their assigned curriculum.

At BYU, you can expect the crazy with the religion professors. But even if your mechanical engineering instructor believes in <insert crazy religious book here>, it doesn't matter.

And this isn't isolated to private schools. Public schools hire crazy instructors -- hard-core Marxists, racists, reverse racists, anti-Semitics (witness the latest ASA flap), anti-Republicans, anarchists, etc., all the time.

Do you want to identify and out all the Muslim, Mormon, and Christian professors? Because for all that's laughable in the BoM, the Bible comes with its own, far less plausible (water to wine? parting the sea? making the dead live again?) history.

Back to my first point -- unless their beliefs conflict with what should be taught in a class and they teach their beliefs as true -- it doesn't, and probably shouldn't, matter.

Luckily there is a way that academia and potential students can learn that a professor is possibly a quack, who believes in a mystical book about ancient American Jews living in America, that was written by a conman. It's called, "Is he a teacher at BYU?"

Thanks for my first laugh of the day!!!