The Freedom From Religion Foundation is responding to an alarming trend in Pennsylvania's science education, by sending a memo to every Pennsylvania public school district superintendent (nearly 500 of them) on July 25.
The memo follows the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's investigative journalism, recently uncovering that 20% of the state's public high school teachers teach creationism in their science classrooms.
The memo, signed by FFRF Co-Presidents Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker, reminds Pennsylvania superintendents that Supreme Court precedent declares that public schools may not advance or promote religion. Creationism is not based on scientific facts. It is purely a religious belief that is inappropriate to teach as a legitimate scientific theory in a public school.
"Time and again courts have exposed creationism instruction as an attempt to foist religious beliefs onto vulnerable school children, often after a costly legal battle," FFRF wrote. "We trust that you will take all necessary steps to guarantee your students are not being robbed of a comprehensive education."
The memo also explains that calling evolution a "scientific theory" does not mean it's an "educated guess."
"It is as factual an explanation of the universe as the atomic theory of matter or the germ theory of disease," the American Association for the Advancement of Science notes.
Throughout history, religious extremists have fought to keep people in the dark on major science facts as basic as gravity or that our spherical planet rotates around the sun.
Will we let them hide and distort the truth from today's students too?
FFRF is a national nonprofit that works to promote the separation of state and church and has more than 19,000 members across the country including more than 650 members in Pennsylvania.
FFRF thanks interns Josh Glasgow and Sarah Eucalano