Accelerated Christian Education's fundamentalist curriculum is used by more than 50 British schools. It is known for silent classrooms where students teach themselves, using workbooks in isolated booths. Professor Harry Brighouse describes ACE's view as "a teleological account of American history as leading to the ultimate fulfilment of God's will". You may be unsurprised to learn that ACE was founded in Texas. ACE made headlines last year for a science textbook that cites the existence of the Loch Ness monster as evidence against evolution. Despite this, government agency UK NARIC defended its decision to deem ACE's in-house qualification, the International Certificate of Christian Education, comparable to A-levels. Incredibly, Nessie isn't ACE's most bizarre claim. Here are five more:
1) God is a right-winger. "Liberals" are the root of all political evil. God's values are rightwing, and anything else is a rejection of His will. On a politics chart, "right" is associated with "absolute" and "God", while "left" is connected to "no values" and "atheism." The term "leftwing", we learn, exists because "left" means "sinister", "to twist something", or "to corrupt." Jesus, by contrast, taught that "we should use what we have to earn a profit." If your political views lean left, you are neither a true Christian, nor a good citizen.
2) No transitional fossils exist. Despite the avalanche of transitional fossils, ACE still shouts about mysterious "gaps": "Though evolutionists have been searching for transitional fossils for more than 100 years, they have found none," narrates one Presenting Accelerated Christian Education video. Nope, none. Not only that, but we can be certain "no transitional fossils have been or will ever be discovered because God created each type of fish, amphibian and reptile as separate, unique animals." I'm sure the scientists who excavated tiktaalik will be crushed to learn that their discovery doesn't, in fact, exist. But even without fossils, evolution is thoroughly supported by DNA and a wealth of other evidence.
Read more at The Guardian.
