And now Answers in Genesis itself is getting into the misinformation game. While they do helpfully provide what apparently is the abridged poodle article (pdf), it’s the only thing they mention. Nowhere to be found in their article is any reference to the obviously-creationist PowerPoint presentations on which Helphinstine spent four of his eight days as a “science” teacher. Missing still from any account from any source is an explanation for why Helphinstine chose an article on poodles from a creationist author rather than, say, one written by a scientist.
Addendum: Had to dash that off quickly because I was late for work. But it’s important to actually look at the abridged poodle article to see what Helphinstine actually was doing. In addition to referring to dog genes as “cursed”, the abridged article also refers to “the supposed evidence for [the General Theory of Evolution]”. What’s more, the abridged article ends thusly:
[It is important to gain a correct understanding of science and history so that students will be able to see past any form of indoctrination that may be fed to them.]
Yes, the word “indoctrination” indeed is provided to the students in bold, in order to equate the teaching of the theory of evolution with indoctrination.
The secret here isn’t much of a secret. Creationists have gotten much more clever about how to teach creationist criticism of evolution. Spend some time on Google and you’ll discover that creationist organizations have written entire “how to” guides on introducing such creationist criticism of evolution into the public schools in “back door” ways that perhaps might not attract the attention of school officials.
Answers in Genesis knows this. Helphinstine himself knows this. It likely explains why they all go so far out of their way to avoid discussing the obviously-creationist PowerPoint presentations.
