THOUSANDS of American school pupils are to be taught that the Loch Ness monster is real – in an attempt by religious teachers to disprove Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Pupils attending privately-run Christian schools in the southern state of Louisiana will learn from “bizarre” textbooks next year, which claim Scotland’s most famous mythological beast is a living creature.
Thousands of school children are to receive publically-funded vouchers enabling them to attend the schools – which follow a strict fundamentalist curriculum.
Thousands of pupils will be taught Nessie is real.
The Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) programme teaches controversial religious beliefs, aimed at disproving evolution and proving creationism.
Youngsters will be told that if it can be proved that dinosaurs walked the earth at the same time as man then Darwinism is fatally flawed.
Critics have slammed the content of the religious course books, labelling them “bizarre” and accusing them of promoting radical religious and political ideas.
One ACE textbook called ‘Biology 1099, Accelerated Christian Education Inc’ reads: “Are dinosaurs alive today? Scientists are becoming more convinced of their existence. Have you heard of the ‘Loch Ness Monster’ in Scotland? ‘Nessie’ for short has been recorded on sonar from a small submarine, described by eyewitnesses, and photographed by others. Nessie appears to be a plesiosaur.”
Another claim taught is that a Japanese whaling boat once caught a dinosaur. It’s unclear if the movie Godzilla was the inspiration for this lesson.
Pupil
One former pupil, Jonny Scaramanga, 27, who went through the ACE programme as a child, but now campaigns against Christian fundamentalism, said the Nessie claim was presented as “evidence” that evolution couldn’t have happened.
He added: “The reason for that is they’re saying if Noah’s flood only happened 4000 years ago, which they believe literally happened, then possibly a sea monster survived.
“If it was millions of years ago then that would be ridiculous. That’s their logic. It’s a common thing among creationists to believe in sea monsters.”
Private religious schools, including the Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake, Louisiana, which follows the ACE curriculum, have already been cleared to receive the state voucher money transferred from public school funding, thanks to a bill pushed through by local state Governor Bobby Jindal.
Boston-based researcher and writer Bruce Wilson, who specialises in the American political religious right, compares the curriculum to Islamic fundamentalist teaching.
He said: “They are being brought up to believe that they’re at war with secular society. The only valid government would be a Christian fundamentalist government. Obviously some comparisons could be made to Islamic Fundamentalists in schools.
“One of these texts from Bob Jones University Press claims that dinosaurs were fire-breathing dragons. It has little to do with science as we currently understand. It’s more like medieval scholasticism.”
Wilson believes that such fundamentalist Christian teaching is going on in at least 13 American states.
He added: “There’s a lot of public funding going to private schools, probably around 200,000 pupils are receiving this education.
“The majority of parents now home schooling their kids are Christian fundamentalists too. I don’t believe they should be publicly funded, I don’t believe the schools who use these texts should be publicly funded.”
Daniel Govender, managing director of Christian Education Europe, which is part of ACE, said the organisation would not comment to the press on what is contained in the texts.
The Scottish tourism industry may reap the rewards of the American education system.
Expert
Nessie expert, Tony Drummond, who leads tours as part of Cruise Loch Ness, has a few words of advice to the US schools in question: come to the loch and try to find the monster.
“They need to come and investigate the loch for themselves,” says the 47-year-old. “We’ve got some hi-tech equipment. They could come out on the boat and do a whole chunk of the loch.
“We do get regular sonar contacts which are pretty much unexplainable. More research has to be done, but it’s not way along the realms of possibility.”
But he’s not convinced that the legend of the Loch Ness Monster is being taught the right way. “That’s Christian propaganda,” he says. “And ridiculous.”
Textbooks of some state-funded Christian schools praise the Ku Klux Klan.
The violent, racist organisation, which still exists in the US, advocates white supremacy, white nationalism and anti-immigration.
Other views taught include claims that being gay is a learned behaviour.
