"The Madison,Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) and the Washington,
D.C.-based Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (RDFRS) recently sent a letter to the Lucia Mar Unified School District to complain about the methods of Arroyo Grande High School teacher Brandon Pettenger.
The organizations state that they were contacted by a family who takes issue that Pettenger presents both evolution and creation, they believe that only one side should be taught to students and that religion should be left out of the classroom. The letter outlines that Pettenger showed his students the Bill Nye/Ken Ham debate and had students provide summaries of creation beliefs from websites that disagree with evolutionary theory.
The family had contacted Pettenger to protest creation being taught in addition to evolution, but Pettenger responded that students should have the ability to make up their own minds about what they believe.
“I understand that you might be worried I am teaching religion in a public school science class, which is not the case,” he wrote. “There is debate within the scientific community about how to answer the question where did life come from. I feel it would be a disservice to my students not to present both sides of the argument.”
“We are investigating the main theories that are presented in this debate and the evidence used to support those claims,” Pettenger continued. “It is up to each student to decide for themselves which side they believe based on the evidence.”" CNW
....for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
Ecclesiastes 5:2
The organizations state that they were contacted by a family who takes issue that Pettenger presents both evolution and creation, they believe that only one side should be taught to students and that religion should be left out of the classroom. The letter outlines that Pettenger showed his students the Bill Nye/Ken Ham debate and had students provide summaries of creation beliefs from websites that disagree with evolutionary theory.
The family had contacted Pettenger to protest creation being taught in addition to evolution, but Pettenger responded that students should have the ability to make up their own minds about what they believe.
“I understand that you might be worried I am teaching religion in a public school science class, which is not the case,” he wrote. “There is debate within the scientific community about how to answer the question where did life come from. I feel it would be a disservice to my students not to present both sides of the argument.”
“We are investigating the main theories that are presented in this debate and the evidence used to support those claims,” Pettenger continued. “It is up to each student to decide for themselves which side they believe based on the evidence.”" CNW
....for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
Ecclesiastes 5:2
