A few weeks ago I was in LaGrange, Georgia for a Creation Today Worldview Conference. On Saturday evening around 450 people came to Troup County High School for a debate on the subject of Creation vs Humanism. Mike Smith, a local attorney and president of the LaGrange Humanist Society, represented Humanism while I represented Christianity.

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During the course of the debate I presented and defended the following three statements:

  1. Science does confirm the Bible.
  2. Evolution is indeed a religious worldview.
  3. Without God it is impossible to explore scientific study.

Since our conference went through Tuesday, I had the opportunity to speak to a debate class at the local public high school on the subject of Critical Thinking. However, when I posted this picture on Facebook, the atheists came out of the woodwork, protesting my appearance in a public school! 

 

Just got done speaking at a public school in LaGrange Georgia. We talked about critical thinking. The students loved it!

Posted by Eric Hovind on Monday, March 23, 2015

 

The Friendly Atheist requested information from the school about my invitation and obtained a copy of the Power Point presentation I used to address the class. He then wrote the following blog about my visit.

Creationist Eric Hovind Preached Creationism at a Georgia Public School This Week and We Have Proof

I reached out to the writer of the article to let him know that he had several incorrect statements and bad conclusions, wanting to find out if he was willing to correct them. Although he did write an update for the blog, he still came to wrong conclusions by assuming that I was teaching Creation to the students simply because we were learning critical thinking skills and using scientific facts for examples.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a group of self-proclaimed atheists who frequently employ scare tactics to conform public schools to their way of thinking, wrote a letter to the superintendent of the school claiming that what happened was unconstitutional. (Download Letter HERE) In it Elizabeth Cavell, Staff Attorney for the FFRF wrote:

“It is unconstitutional and completely inappropriate for TCCHS to host a fundamentalist Christian speaker whose sole purpose and goal is the promotion of biblical creationism.”

In a comment on Facebook Deana Holmes said: (* Edit: Article previously said “Atheist Deana Holmes.” Deana contacted me and said she does not consider herself an atheist because she does believe in Jesus. When I asked her if she believed in God she said she would not answer that question.)

“Eric, I hope the hammer comes down on the school HARD for bringing you in. You were preaching in a public school. That’s illegal. Full stop.”

Here is the problem, I was not preaching in public school. I even wrote this to them when I saw the first article and let them know, “I spoke on Critical Thinking and gave scientific facts – never mentioned God or the Bible or Creation.”

This didn’t seem to affect the atheists who were simply looking for an excuse to exercise pretend control over the school with a threatening letter. Nathan Kellum, Chief Counsel for the Center for Religious Expression (CRE) said, “They are using bullying tactics that are not based in law or logic to scare Christians into giving up their freedom of religion.” I was thrilled when Mr. Kellum offered to write a response to the school on my behalf, correcting the false information presented by the FFRF.

This letter was sent to the school superintendent and the high school principal to let them know they were not in violation of the law. The five page letter from the CRE included about a dozen court cases showing the exact opposite of what the FFRF was claiming as the truth.

Here’s a portion of the press release from CRE:

Mr. Hovind was not in violation of the Establishment Clause by teaching Critical Thinking to a debate class. However, if they had prevented Mr. Hovind from speaking because of his religious views, a true violation of the law would have occurred. “Even if Mr. Hovind had actually challenged evolution in this talk,” Kellum wrote, “it would not have violated the Establishment Clause.”

I do find it ironic that the FFRF claims they don’t want religion in the schools. Well, I have news for you, WE HAVE RELIGION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.  Anyone who says otherwise needs to learn some “critical thinking” skills. The very basis of our education system today is Naturalistic Humanism. This philosophic foundation is itself a religion.
Henry Morris addressed this issue in the following article.

The Religion of Evolutionary Humanism and the Public Schools

FFRF is the radical extremist part of atheism. Just as extremist groups overseas are at war with all those opposed to their religious beliefs, so too the FFRF – which embraces the religion of atheism – is at war with anyone who even thinks differently than its worldview.

Think about this, if the Atheists are afraid that one 40 minute presentation on critical thinking is enough to unravel years of evolutionary indoctrination, maybe they need to get a new theory that can hold up to a little more scrutiny!

I also find it sad that the very thing I was speaking on, “Critical Thinking” is not being used by many people commenting about the event on Facebook. It is not being used by the FFRF, nor is it being used by the Atheist bloggers covering this story.

When reading the blogs and comments on this story, no one has argued against the evidence I presented in the talk. All they do is whine about the fact that I, a Christian Creationist, was teaching in a public school. Clearly critical thinking needs to be addressed a little more in the education system.

I had a wonderful time presenting simple scientific facts and critical thinking tactics so that students could study and review scientific facts for themselves. Isn’t that what education is supposed to do?

Now, all I ask is that the Friendly Atheist, and the FFRF read the letter from Mr. Kellum and issue an apology statement for all the fuss they caused and the false statements they made. Their attempts to bully the school by presenting false conclusions were inappropriate at best and downright lying at worst. I won’t hold my breath waiting for it, but it sure would be nice if at least the Friendly Atheist would acknowledge his errors. It would go a long way in showing that he doesn’t have an agenda!

Thanks for reading,
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Please thank the Center for Religious Expression for their assistance in this matter by sending them a donation enabling them to help others overcome modern persecution in the public sphere.

Center-for-Religious-Expression-MissionCenter-for-Religious-Expression-Donate

 

 

 

 

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