When I saw the video I link to in this post, I had a mixture of sadness and anger. I was sad because the students on camera say some stupid things about evolution for their age and I was angry because the so-called science teacher refused to tell them they were wrong.
Tag: intelligent design
The case of John Freshwater, the Mount Vernon Ohio teacher who tried to teach his religious beliefs in his 8th grade class room is still going on more than a year since the news broke. They are currently finishing up direct witness testimony for an employment hearing that has lasted 14 months and cost has cost the school district more than $500,000 in legal fees.
On Friday, June 20th, the Mount Vernon Ohio school board voted 5 to 0 to terminate John Freshwater, an 8th grade science teacher, from his job. He is at the center of a dispute over his pushing of his religious beliefs on his students during school hours.
What bothers me about John Freshwater and his actions is they border on obsession, an unhealthy obsession. They HAVE to proselytize 24/7 and if they aren’t they feel like losers or they want to blame others and become the victims.
Most people who have unhealthy obsessions usually require mental help or worse they get put in jail for hurting others – but it seems no one really considers religious obsession wrong.
NOVA, the premiere science program on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) here in the US, will showing a timely and important show for those of us who support separation of church and state and Evolution this coming Tuesday November 13th.
Although the film, “Inherit the Wind”, uses the Monkey trial as the starting point it was never meant to be a documentary of that trial. The film was based on the stage play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee as a statement against McCarthyism – not religion vs. science. However it offers a good look at the still constant struggle of science against religious fundamentalism.