An instructor who taught Western civilization at Southwestern Community College, in Iowa, says he was fired for teaching the biblical story of Adam and Eve as a myth, rather than as a story that should be taken literally. The instructor, Steve Bitterman, says the college took the side of students who threatened to sue the institution over his teaching. The college would not reveal the instructor’s employment status to The Des Moines Register, which reported the instructor’s comments.

“I’m just a little bit shocked myself that a college in good standing would back up students who insist that people who have been through college and have a master’s degree — a couple, actually — have to teach that there were such things as talking snakes or lose their job,” Mr. Bitterman told the Register. —David L. Wheeler