Florida has a new law this year that allows any citizen, even if he or she doesn’t have a child in the school system, to challenge contents of instructional materials used in the local public schools. Don’t like something you see in a textbook? File a complaint with your local school board and you may get your moment in the spotlight because the new law apparently requires that your complaint triggers a formal hearing complete with an appointed hearing officer. (See our long series of posts about the law at our Instructional Materials bills ’17 blog category.)
That law is now heading out for a test drive in Nassau County. The school board there received a complaint from Mr. Jay W. Shutt last month. I obtained this request via public records request. All bolding and other formatting are his.
PETITION FOR ACTION TO
THE NASSAU COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATIONMy request to the Nassau County Board of Education is that we stop promoting this scientifically inadequate theory of evolution as fact to our students. We should no longer purchase books teaching evolution as proven scientific fact or books that present evolution as proven fact. Until the current books wear out, I propose placing a disclaimer sticker in the front of every textbook that promotes or presents evolution as proven fact. The sticker could read something like the following:
This book contains references or information about evolution leading the reader to believe that evolution is proven fact. Those who believe in Creation Science would argue that evolution is impossible because: (1) evolution cannot explain the chance formation of the first living cell capable of cell division. (2) evolution cannot explain the complexities of life such as the human genome having 3 billion base pairs and the human brain being capable of more than 20 million billion calculations/second. (3)evolution cannot explain the transfer of intelligence to genes. For example, how does a pollen grain know when it is at the right place on the right flower? How does it know what to do next? And (4) evolution cannot explain the lack of transitional forms (missing links) in the fossil record. There is not one “so called” missing link agreed upon by all highly qualified evolutionary scientists.
If the Nassau County Board of Education decides to adopt these measures, there is a strong possibility of a threatened lawsuit by groups such as the ACLU. However, if our lawyer along with a highly qualified molecular biologist (who believes in intelligent design) sit down with these groups and explain that they will need to come up with reasonable, scientific, evolutionary explanations for the serious flaws in their theory, I doubt they would dare a court challenge.
The truth is that the extraordinary advances in microbiology and DNA knowledge have really eliminated evolution as a plausible explanation for life on planet earth. As far back as 1953 Francis Crick and James Watson began mapping the human genome. These men immediately became aware that the complexity of DNA far exceeded what evolutionary science could reasonably produce.
Francis Crick, who was an atheist and a believer in evolution, changed his position to accepting that extra-terrestrials brought life to our world. I’m not sure if he later changed his beliefs, but he still needed to address the issue of “where did the alien DNA come from?”
This is a second reason I don’t think the Board’s decision will actually be challenged in court. The new scenario that life on earth was brought here by extraterrestrials is about ready to be publically promoted. It has been programmed into our literature and our films for many years. UFO sightings and alien encounters have been exploding exponentially for the last few years. Even the Catholic Church has astronomers on Mt. Graham observatories in Arizona searching the skies for the arrival of our “space brothers.”
All this is coming, and I don’t think organizations who oppose Creation Science will risk a certain defeat in a court of law on the issue of evolution being taught as fact in our schools. More than likely, they will do everything they can to keep the Board’s decision from making state or national news.The Board will probably postpone a final decision on this issue until a future date. Maybe the Board would like to call in experts in the fields of evolution and molecular biology to gather more information. However, I request that the Board set a timeline for whatever future measures it decides to take. I make this request because, as human beings, we tend not to rush into areas which may cause us difficulties. If timelines are not set, decisions may be put off almost indefinitely. This issue is too important to allow unnecessary delays, and I hope the Board will elevate it to a high priority issue. Thank you all for your time and consideration.
Sincerely yours,
Jay W. Shutt
Before the new instructional materials law, a request of this type could be dismissed with a polite “thank you for your time.” And that is the proper way to handle nonsense like Shutt’s letter. But no longer. The emails I received in response to my public records request indicate that a hearing was being arranged. An email to Mr. Shutt dated October 6 states:
Mr. Shutt, In follow-up to our conversation and my email to you yesterday, please let me know some dates and times you’re available for a hearing so that I can get it coordinated. Also, it would be helpful if you would provide me an estimate of the amount of time you believe that you will need to make your presentation.
Thanks.
J. Ray Poole
Chief of Legal Services
Nassau County School District
I’m providing here links to the Word documents Shutt submitted: his request (EVOLUTIONARY PETITION FOR ACTION TO BOARD) that I copied above and his summary of the errors found in some Nassau County textbooks(Evolution is an Unscientific Theory). His summary starts with this:
Since the late 1960’s, and even before that in secular colleges, the theory of evolution has been taught as proven scientific fact. That is the case in the 3 Nassau County science textbooks (1 middle school and 2 high school) I read. All 3 textbooks, and almost all science textbooks at any level, begin with a faulty definition of evolution.
I invite you to read his ridiculous summary, which ends with this call to action:
We need to stop teaching a scientifically bankrupt theory which debases our self-worth and eliminates moral absolutes, as proven fact, to our children. And we need to act as soon as possible!
It will be interesting to see how Nassau County handles this request. I can’t imagine this actually impacting the textbooks there, but you never know. I’m in the process of following up my first public records request with additional requests for updates. I believe that the hearing was scheduled for early November, and so I need to find out what happened.
This is merely the first challenge. I guarantee more are to come in other counties. And they’ll likely be a bit more sophisticated than Mr. Shutts’ outdated flailing.
By the way, do you know what’s going on in YOUR school district?
This is crazy. Scientific theorys are not “inadequate“. A theory is the MODEL for an observation; supported by evidence, disproven by none. His reasons given for the theory of evolution being inadequate (first cause, gene knowledge transfer) are not inadequately addressed by the theory as they are not covered by the theory. He’s blaming the theory for not answering a question that it does not intend to address.
Nonetheless, his challenge sounds fancy enough to the untrained ear and I suspect he will be taken seriously, UFOs and all.
I about choked on my corn flakes when I read this. Mr Shutt needs to shut up and go read a couple of science books. He is just the kind of miss informed idiot that Brandon predicted would come crawling out of the woodwork should this bill become law. On a personal note. My daughter is the one of the lead astronomers who work with the Vatican astronomers in Arizona and she assures me they are not there looking for ET LOL
Jonathan
Your daughter working at the Vatican observatory in
Arizona is very cool. Lots of neat stuff in Arizona, I’m sure she lovers her job. I know our world views are near 180 degrees apart but I thought you might be interested in some of the Vatican’s thoughts on aliens. Today with more people believing in the possibility of ET’s than the existence of God, it’s interesting to see where the tail is coming from.
Billy Crone has a pretty good view of the Vatican’s stand on extra-terrestrials. If you google his name and ‘ufo and the vatican’ he has a youtube addressing the subject. He is a preacher, so you’ll have to endure some Bibical facts but the Vatican comes into play around minute 38. Enjoy.
Chris, just to clarify. There are several telescopes on Mount Hopkins, the Vatican scope is just one of them. My daughter works for the one attached to the University of Arizona where she is a professor of astro physics. The Vatican, as a part of their observations, do look for the possibility of intelligent life on other planets other than earth (which is debatable) LOL. As most astronomers’ do, they incorporate both the Drake Equation and the Fermi Paradox in their reasoning, these opposing ideas could mean the Universe is swarming with intelligent life, or, we are uniquely on our own. I share their interest in perhaps and I emphasize perhaps, one day we finding out. If you are ever in Arizona and would like to visit the telescope, I would be more than happy to arrange a tour for you.
“I share their interest in perhaps and I emphasize perhaps, one day we finding out.”
If you think about it, we can only find out that there is alien life out there. Given the size of the universe and the “light-cone” limitations on our ability to reach it, we can never definitively state that there is no life out there, only that we haven’t found any yet. : – )
Jonathan, I didn’t realize there were more telescopes in the area. Your daughter sounds very, very sharp, that gives you and unfair advantage on astronomy, ha ha. The Vatican’s interest in astronomy seems to go beyond looking at the stars. The Jesuit astronomers are insinuating an alien savior will be here to save us very soon. Even though there is no evidence they have spotted one they’ve made their minds up, it will be an alien. Sounds to me like they’re watching to much TV. Thank You so much for the tour offer, I might take you up on that someday. My daughter married a guy from Sierra Vista Arizona and they lived there for a number of years. We headed that way every vacation, Arizona is amazing. They’ve moved near Atlanta, so now we drive north.
Chris, interesting, I’m guessing your son in law must have been with the army or something. I actually own a 4 acre plot just south of Tucson near Green Valley. Small world.
Jonathan, I’ve been away from the computer for a few days. It is a small world. Green Vally looks like it’s about an hour away from Sierra Vista and on the border also. Sierra Vista is a military town with almost everyone in the military or working for a military contractor. Fort Huachuca is there and it has a lot of history. it was established as an army installation in 1877 and among other things today it’s a drone pilot training location. My daughter worked in administration with that program on the base, and my son in law was a worship leader at a local church. They both sing far better than average, and won singing contest In Georgia. The fell in love with Newnan Georgia and ended up moving there. It’s a much closer commute to Ga, but I miss Arizona. Will you be moving west someday?