TFN President Condemns Shocking Book Endorsement by Texas SBOE Chairman
New Book Attacks Evolution Supporters as ‘Atheists,’ ‘Monsters’ and ‘Morons’
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 18, 2009
Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller is calling on the chairman of the Texas State Board of Education to withdraw his irresponsible endorsement of a new book that portrays scientists as “atheists,” parents who want their children to learn about evolution as “monsters,” and pastors who accept the science of evolution as “morons.”
“Maybe Chairman McLeroy doesn’t realize how deeply offensive those insults are to people who want our schoolchildren to get a 21st-century education their science classrooms,” Miller said. “But it’s shocking that he would endorse a book that viciously attacks the faith of people who simply disagree with him about sound science.”
A review by McLeroy of “Sowing Atheism: The National Academy of Sciences’ Sinister Scheme to Teach Our Children They’re Descended from Reptiles” has been posted on the Web and promoted by Christian Newswire. McLeroy characterizes the book, self-published by Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr., as “unique” and “insightful” and affirms the book’s central conclusions. “The questions it raises are important; they deserve a hearing,” he writes.
The book is available for free download here. Following are some of the “unique” and “insightful” passages in the book.
· “The hierarchy of the (National Academy of Sciences) has stolen true science; they are sacrificing our children to their atheism, and at the same time, destroying our children’s faith in God.” (p. 27)
· “The obvious problem here is that it is simply not possible to be a Christian in any meaningful sense of the word, and at the same time, embrace the tenets of atheistic evolution.” (p. 54)
· Regarding parents who support teaching their children about evolution: “What kind of monster parents teach their children that they’re descended from rodents and reptiles?” (p. 66)
· Regarding pastors who have signed on to the pro-science Clergy Letter Project: “In my judgment, only morons more than 11,500 morons in this case could sign a letter maintaining that the ‘timeless truths of the Bible’ are compatible with the billions of unpredictable aberrations of evo-atheism. What do these apostate morons celebrate at their Sunday services, the lies about humanity’s origins told by Moses, Jesus, and Paul?” (pp. 57-58)
The State Board of Education is set to take a final vote on proposed new public school science curriculum standards next week. Evolution opponents are insisting that the standards include a requirement that students learn “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution. In 2003 they used that requirement to attack passages on evolution in proposed new science textbooks. McLeroy and other evolution opponents on the board have said they will do the same when new science textbooks are adopted in 2011.
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The Texas Freedom Network is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization of religious and community leaders who advance a mainstream agenda supporting public education, religious freedom and individual liberties.
