01 Aug 2005
Bible Course Becomes a Test for Public Schools in Texas

If you can't get in through the front door, waltz in the back way ...

Some of the claims made in the national council's curriculum are laughable, said Mark A. Chancey, professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, who spent seven weeks studying the syllabus for the freedom network. Mr. Chancey said he found it "riddled with errors" of facts, dates, definitions and incorrect spellings. It cites supposed NASA findings to suggest that the earth stopped twice in its orbit, in support of the literal truth of the biblical text that the sun stood still in Joshua and II Kings.

"When the type of urban legend that normally circulates by e-mail ends up in a textbook, that's a problem," Mr. Chancey said.

There's nothing inherently wrong with teaching the Bible as literature (bad literature, in my not-so-humble opinion, but still literature, and worthy of serious study due to it's tremendous influence on Western culture) but when you add bogus bullshit like the above to the mix, it becomes counter-productive to an education.

A religious advocacy group based in Greensboro, N.C., has been pressing a 12-year campaign to get school boards across the country to accept its Bible curriculum.

(link) [NYT > Home Page]

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