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| An undated photo of a shadowy shape that some people say is the Loch Ness monster. (AP) |
A biology textbook used by a Christian school in Louisiana that will be accepting students with publicly funded vouchers in the fall says that the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland is real. And it isn’t just any monster but a dinosaur — an effort to debunk evolution and bolster creationist theory.
The story, reported in the Scotsman newspaper in Scotland, says that Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake is one of the many Christian schools in the United States that uses these books published by Accelerated Christian Education.
The Biology 1099 edition includes a passage about the Loch Ness Monster that says, in part, according to the newspaper:
“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.”
FULL MISERY.
What's really funny here is that plesiosaurs weren't dinosaurs. The term "dinosaur" specifically denotes terrestrial creatures. Marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, and marine crocodiles, and flying reptiles such as pterodactyls, were not dinosaurs. This nomenclature has become complicated in recent years by the discoveries of feathered dinosaurs and their close relation to birds, which aren't extinct.
ReplyDeleteMike Flynn has a good takedown of this whole kerfuffle. To summarize:
ReplyDeleteI assume the reasoning proceeds as follows:
a) Evolution says that dinosaurs died out long before humans appeared. [Not so; evolution says nothing about how long anything survives.]
b) Nessie is a holdover dinosaur. [Um, no, she ain't.]
c) Dinosaurs therefore lived at the same time as humans. [Um, if birds are dinosaurs, this is controversial why?]
d) Therefore, evolution is falsified.
"An undated photo of a shadowy shape
ReplyDeletethat some people say is the Loch Ness
monster. (AP)"
Even the photo in the article is bullshit; that's the famous "Surgeon's photo" allegedly taken by Colonel Robert Wilson but actually photographed by Christian Spurling as part of a hoax involving his step-father Marmaduke Wetherell and Col. Wilson in 1934. The hoax was in revenge of a previous Nessie hoax on Wetherell, a big game hunter hired by the Daily Mail newspaper, who had been fooled by footprints around the Loch made by a hippo foot umbrella stand (!).
I found that out in less than five minutes using a Google search*; what is the Associated Press' excuse?
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* Information stolen from the Museum of Hoaxes.
And I just saw a friend of a facebook "friend" complaining about "indoctrination" in public schools. Oy.
ReplyDelete