Score one for science!
From the SF Chronicle:
A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution.
Rejecting claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said UC's review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking.
I think I need a cigarette. That's the ballgame right there - a college-bound education requires certain fundamentals, regardless of whether they jell with your personal version of God.
Of course, the cries are coming from the persecuted, but they don't seem to be making much of an impression.
"It appears the UC is attempting to secularize private religious schools," attorney Jennifer Monk of Advocates for Faith and Freedom said Tuesday. Her clients include the Association of Christian Schools International, two Southern California high schools and several students.
Charles Robinson, the university's vice president for legal affairs, said the ruling "confirms that UC may apply the same admissions standards to all students and to all high schools without regard to their religious affiliations." What the plaintiffs seek, he said, is a "religious exemption from regular admissions standards."
So soul-satisfying. Nice to see reason prevail once in a while. My other favorite bit:
But Otero said in March that the university has approved many courses containing religious material and viewpoints, including some that use such texts as "Chemistry for Christian Schools" and "Biology: God's Living Creation," or that include scientific discussions of creationism as well as evolution...
[snip]
Another rejected text, "Biology for Christian Schools," declares on the first page that "if (scientific) conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong," Otero said.
I guess I'm ignorant, but - those are real books? Christians have different rules of nature? I mean, I guess I always knew they did and should have assumed that someone along the way must have figured out that there were bucks to be made by putting that crap in textbook form.
Anyway, I don't have much to add, other than praise for another sensible California judge.