Bruce Wilson documents the nutty world of far right Christian education that will be taxpayer-funded in Louisiana thanks to that state’s expanded education voucher program.
As Wilson notes, a number of schools approved to receive voucher funding include some that use downright nutty material from the likes of Accelerated Christian Education. Among other things, ACE materials have claim that the existence of the Loch Ness monster proves that evolution is false,
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.
Could a fish have developed into a dinosaur? As astonishing as it may seem, many evolutionists theorize that fish evolved into amphibians and amphibians into reptiles. This gradual change from fish to reptiles has no scientific basis. No transitional fossils have been or ever will be discovered because God created each type of fish, amphibian, and reptile as separate, unique animals. Any similarities that exist among them are due to the fact that one Master Craftsmen fashioned them all.”
Extract from Biology 1099, Accelerated Christian Education Inc. (1995)
And that is actually one of the more credible positions ACE has taken. One of the more amusing things that ACE teaches is that the Sun is not powered by a fusion reaction, but rather by some alternative method. Presumably, they stick to this because it would yield a Sun that has been burning for a much shorter amount of time — a sort of young Sun theory to go along with a young Earth. The Nobel Prize website has an interesting look at how scientists grappled with this issue in the 19th century (and the mystery of the Sun’s source of energy wasn’t solved until the early 20th century).
Wilson produced an excellent short video examining some of the more bizarre claims in this sort of material back in 2009 when Pennsylvania was considering a voucher program.