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Plaintiff who claims that teaching evolution endorses 'the religion of atheism' wants all public schools abolished and issues a challenge to the Discovery Institute

February 12, 2011 By 9 Comments

science vs religionTom Ritter, the former school teacher who has filed a federal lawsuit against  the The Blue Mountain School District in the Middle District of Pennsylvania for teaching evolution because in his view, evolution promotes "the religion of atheism", says he will drop his lawsuit if the Discovery Institute will meet a challenge that he has proposed.  The Discovery Institute promotes "intelligent design," a version of creationism.

Ritter claims that the Discovery Institute has asked him to drop the lawsuit because he will lose, but he says he's not planning on losing.  Nonetheless, he's willing for an exchange.

Ritter wants the Discovery Institute to find at least ten sets of parents in Pennsylvania to protest public schools, which he says suppress parents' constitutional rights to teach religious values.  In his "Predatory Pricing" website that takes issue with public schools, Ritter proclaims that public schools are "the home base of atheism" and that in a free society, the government is not involved in teaching children.  According to Ritter, if public schools were abolished, "academically superior schools that teach the civic virtues would quickly replace them."  In his opinion, Catholic and Protestant schools would be academically superior.

Ritter says that he is "a reluctant Christian, meaning he needs a personal Savior, but does not like a lot of what most of the modern Church does."

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Deborah is the owner and administrator of the site, starting it in February 2009. She received her business education at the University of Texas and operates a number of websites and small businesses. She hosts the God Discussion show and handles the site's technical work and editing.

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  • themanofearth

    I didn't even need to read this article to know that this guy's a dingbat.
    Even the nutters at the Discovery Institute think so and that's saying something.

    • http://www.goddiscussion.com admin

      And they wonder why our court system is so overwhelmed. I hope the court throws this case out.

      Deborah

      • Darth Robo

        Don't worry, they will throw it out in two seconds flat. There's nothing in his "great plan" that they haven't lost with before.

        In fact it may take even less time than that, as it's quite possible that Judge Jones who presided over the Dover ID case in 2005 could even wind up with the case.

        The ID/Cers lost that one too. Just like always.

  • honeybabe

    those on the right try to force their views on us by stopping all other views. someone needs to tell them that we each do our own choosing which is why we need to look at all available information.

  • Anon

    the fact this guy taught kids at some point is the scary part. No wonder we are falling behind in science with people like Ritter in the classroom.

    • http://www.goddiscussion.com admin

      Totally agreed! Sometimes I think the religious fundies want to move us into a 3rd world country, with prayer for medicine, uncontrolled reproduction, teaching the bible instead of science, and the rest of it. Ritter claims to be a "reluctant Christian," but certainly cites a lot of bible in his website.

      Deborah

  • John Wesser

    I have no doubt that this guy has no idea what he's talking about. I often hear people talk about atheism being a "religion". The only way they can assume this is if they failed their English classes. An "a"-theist is a non- theist, or one with no religion. Effectively, this guy is saying atheism is a no religion religion which is just absurd sophistry.

  • Jason

    It never ceases to amaze me when fundamentalists claim that evolution is an atheist thing. How can they not be aware that in this country, there are more theists who believe in evolution than there are atheists all together?!?

  • Darth Robo

    So Ritter's great plan – get rid of public schools, and replace them all with private religious schools that don't teach science. Middle East theocracy here we come!

    And how will he accomplish this? By using every single tactic that failed for them last time in court for the past five decades. Brilliant! Presumably his court file for presenting his devastating case may even have the big guns, just sitting there, waiting for the right moment to be unleashed! Like thermodynamics. Dog giving birth to a cat. And why are there still monkeys.

    He's a teacher, and he knows his stuff!