Pro-Creationism Textbook Reportedly Axes Controversial Claims About the Loch Ness Monster's Existence

It was June 2012 when TheBlaze first reported about the Loch Ness Monster's inclusion in a Christian textbook. Now, following furor over claims that the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE), the producer of the textbooks, was using the creature in an effort to disprove the theory of evolution, the company has purportedly removed the reference from its books.

"New editions of Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) biology textbooks do not contain the controversial idea that Scotland's most famous mythological beast may have been a real living creature," The Herald recently reported. "The updated book is only available to creationist-taught pupils in Europe, but campaigners say America is likely to follow suit."

An alleged photo of the Loch Ness Monster (Photo Credit: AP)

The original edition of the book read, "Are dinosaurs alive today? Scientists are becoming more convinced of their existence. Have you heard of the 'Loch Ness Monster' in Scotland?"

From there, past versions of the book claimed that "Nessie" was found on sonar from a submarine and that the creature has been photographed by observers. These ideas reportedly didn't make it into new versions of the books. In addition to these ideas, the claim that a whaling boat from Japan once caught a dinosaur has also been removed.

Jonny Scaramanga, an atheist ex-fundamentalist, tackled the issue on his blog earlier this month. The non-believer still has an issue with the new text (he also compares pages from the original and the revamped books):

They’ve taken out the old [bull] about Nessie and Zuiyo Maro, and replaced it with fresh [bull] about cave paintings and folk tales about [f***ing] dragons (I think I’ve seen that somewhere before).
Such pathetic arguments barely need a response, but some individuals more patient than me have bothered to debunk the cave art claims here and here. And even by Fox News.

Obviously, the original claims were enough to send atheists and anyone who rejects creationism into a tizzy. While the situation made waves in Europe, it also created furor in states like Louisiana, where education reform laws mean that students are sent with public voucher money to private schools that use the ACE curriculum.

The debate over creationism and evolution is nothing new. While some may dislike the notion that Nessie is being heralded as a key to proving evolution is a farce, the real issue at the center of the debate seems to be whether taxpayer dollars should go to these schools. In the end, though, this is just another notch in the ongoing debate over the origins of man and how this issue should be communicated to impressionable minds.

(H/T: Christian Post)

Other Must-Read Stories: