Some Christians in the US are afraid the nation is turning its back on God. To confront this, one creationist in Louisiana is striving to take the Bible from the church and into the classroom.
Dave Prentice is not your average scientist. While he may be an established teacher of biology, physics and chemistry – there is one scientific theory he does not accept and that is evolution.
“I certainly believe that there is an intelligent designer behind the universe that is responsible for the existence of human beings,” claims Dave Prentice, creationist.
Prentice lives in Louisiana, deep in the so-called Bible Belt, where according to a recent study about half of the people there believe that every single word of the bible is true.
Prentice says “I would say that the probability is very high for creation and low for evolution, but I cannot prove creation and I also could not prove evolution.”
Prentice teaches his class at a church in Kenner at night, but he wants to move creationism beyond the church and into American public schools where he teaches during the day. He says it is a looming problem that no one wants to talk about.
Studies show that the more educated a person is, the less likely they are to believe in creationism and that is why Prentice wants it to be taught in the classroom.
Dave Prentice believes that “For academic integrity and honesty we are pretending that there is only one possible explanation for everything. We are ruling out anything outside of nature, which I do not think is intellectually honest.”
Even though it is legal to do so, most do not teach it. The scientist is convinced the elite are non-believers and do not want anything to do with religion.
“The elite are firmly committed atheists, so they are not willing to present anything that might oppose evolution,” maintains Prentice.
Such a stance is not good enough for some churchgoers.
“Everyone is getting really touchy about anything that has to do with Christianity. They are afraid it is going to offend people,” says Wendy Normand, churchgoer.
“There are so many unbelievers today – people veering away from God,” grieves fellow churchgoer Dereck Mansion.
They are worried the United States is heading in the wrong direction.
“America has shifted – it is no longer a Christian nation. It is now a post-Christian nation,” concludes Dave Prentice, adding, “God is responsible for this country existing, and if we push him out I think he is going to remove his hand of protection on us.”