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US District Judge James Otero threw out a religious discrimination suit last Friday, that alleged the University of California school system denied inclusion of courses for credit based on their Christian viewpoint, violating the First Amendment.

Apparently, some student from Calvary Chapel Christian School trying to transfer a Christianity’s Influence on America course from the high school to the UC for college credit was denied college credit based on the fact that the textbook issued for the course,

“‘instructs that the Bible is the unerring source for analysis of historical events,’ ‘attributes historical events to divine providence rather than analyzing human action,’ and ‘contains inadequate treatment of several major ethnic groups, women and non-Christian religious groups.’”

Calvary is being represented by Advocates for Faith and Freedom law firm.

Thanks for sticking up for rationality Judge Otero.  Let’s keep the public school system free of fundamentally based religious teachings; to not do so would be a violation of separation of church and state precedences.

(via Pharyngula)

Update: Hemant, the Friendly Atheist, did some research and got the introduction to the text-book for the class the UC is disputing the validity of.  This is how the intro reads,

Biology for Christian Schools is a textbook for Bible-believing high-school students. Those who do not believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God will find many points in this book puzzling. This book was not written for them.

…

The people who prepared this book have tried consistently to put the Word of God first and science second…If…at any point God’s Word is not put first, the authors apologize.

…

The same encyclopedia article may state that the grasshopper evolved 300 million years ago. You may find a description of some insect that the grasshopper supposedly evolved from and a description of the insects that scientists say evolved from the grasshopper. You may even find a “scientific” explanation of the biblical locust (grasshopper) plague in Egypt. These statements are conclusions based on “supposed science.” If the conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong, no matter how many scientific facts may appear to back them.

ZOMG!!! They are wrong, “no matter how many scientific facts may appear to back them“?! Go check out Hemant’s post on the matter for more details.