Dear Friends of the Kolbe Center,
Glory to Jesus Christ!
I am writing a message to you that I began in Kampala, Uganda, after an amazingly fruitful whirlwind visit. I will give you a full report in the near future. In this newsletter I would like to comment on one of the ways that Our Lady of Fatima's warning that - if her requests were not heeded - the "errors of Russia" would "spread throughout the world" is being fulfilled in our time.
A number of news outlets recently reported that a biology teacher in the state of New York had "come under fire" for daring to voice skepticism about molecules-to-man evolution:
A New York teacher has come under fire for a lesson in which he expressed skepticism over the theory of evolution, the Observer-Dispatch reports.
In a letter sent to the Holland Patent Central School District last month, Wisconsin-based nonprofit Freedom from Religion Foundation accused teacher Phil Lucason of questioning the theory during a Jan. 14 lesson. Lucason teaches environmental studies at Holland Patent Central School, where "students are taught biological topics that both satisfy the requirements for the Regents exam and also to prepare them for college coursework," according to the school's website. The Regents are a set of standardized tests in core high school subjects.
In its letter, Freedom from Religion claimed that Lucason told his students that "evolution only goes so far" and that students who wanted to pass the Regents would have to "play the evolution game where evolution is the answer to everything." The nonprofit said those comments were in violation of federal law, which prohibits the teaching of creationism or the idea that a god created the universe.
"This issue has been pretty well settled by the courts," Chris Line, a staff attorney for Freedom from Religion, told the newspaper. "We probably - a few times a year - get something along these lines. Usually it's school-handled pretty well."
In 1968, the Supreme Court ruled, in Epperson v. Arkansas, that an Arkansas law forbidding the teaching of human evolution violated the free speech rights of teachers and the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. In 1987, the high court similarly ruled, in Edwards v. Aguillard, that a Louisiana law requiring the teaching of creationism alongside the theory of evolution also violated the Constitution.
According to the Observer-Dispatch, a parent had alerted Freedom from Religion about Lucason's comments over concerns that he had been spreading misinformation.
"A biology teacher telling students that evolution can cause only minor changes within a species and cannot cause one species to gradually become a different species over the course of thousands of years is the equivalent of a math teacher telling students that it's possible to add two plus three, but it's impossible to multiply 987 by 6,789," the parent, who the paper chose not to identify, explained in an email. "If a math teacher taught his students that multiplication were an impossibility, there would be no question. People wouldn't say that he was entitled to his opinion."
"He would be told by administration that if he weren't willing to teach what he is supposed to teach, he would not be allowed to continue as a teacher of the subject," the parent continued. "And that's exactly what should happen in this case."
The Emperor of Evolution's Beautiful New Clothes
Here we see that to a large portion of the general public, it is as reasonable to extrapolate from small changes in finch beak sizes over a short period of time to molecules-to-man evolution over long periods of time as it is to extrapolate from addition of whole numbers to multiplication of whole numbers. Moreover, the sequel to this absurd outcry demonstrates that even those in American public education who know better cannot withstand the pressure to agree that the naked emperor of evolution is wearing a beautiful suit of clothes:
In response to the backlash, the science teacher acknowledged that he had made a mistake.
"I recently taught a 42-minute lesson on the science of evolution," he said in a statement. "Having taught about evolution for 20 years, I know that our students hear various theories on the origins of species. I enumerated some of them by way of example. My mention of those other theories led to the concerns that have been articulated. In the future, I will not refer to other, non-scientific explanations and will clearly teach the science and theory of evolution as the explanation for the development of life on earth as provided by the New York State standards."
The Crime of "Disagreement with Science"
What does this have to do with the "errors of Russia"?
We have demonstrated elsewhere that it was faith in molecules-to-man evolution that made confident atheist-materialists of the leaders of the communist revolution which took place in Russia, weeks after the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima. One of the first "reforms" introduced by the communist regime was the mandatory teaching of molecules-to-man evolution in all schools, first in Russia, and then throughout the entire Soviet Union. Under the communist regime, it became a "crime" to express any "disagreement with science" (i.e., with evolution) so that many bold witnesses for Christ in the Soviet Union paid the ultimate price for daring to disagree with the "science" of evolution.
Fr. Paul Andreyev, an Orthodox priest who served parishes in Moscow and the Volokolamsk region:
was arrested and imprisoned three times and endured three years of exile in Kazakhstan. After his final arrest, while he was still in prison awaiting his sentence, a former cell-mate of his, then a free man, testified against him before the Soviet authorities. In listing instances of St. Paul's "anti-Soviet" views, the witness related that he had heard in the prison cell: "The priest Andreyev . . . said that the Soviet authorities preach the teaching of Darwin, that man proceeded from the apes, but that this was a blasphemy and a lie." St. Paul was sentenced to death and shot along with two other priests from the Volokolmsk area.[1]
Another martyr for Christ, Abbot Varlaam, (1872-1937) was asked:
During an interrogation that led to his imprisonment and execution: "Did you try to conduct religious propaganda among schoolchildren? In particular, did you say that in the schools they do not correctly explain the origin of man?" To this the holy martyr replied: "Last year I was walking past a school, and a student of the school addressed me with the question of where man came from, saying that the teacher had said in the lesson that man originated from apes. He asked me what I thought, and I answered that man came from God.
Another witness for Christ in Soviet Russia, Archimandrite Gabriel was accused during his interrogation by the communist authorities of "ignoring science." He responded:
"That is not true. I love science. I have studied all my life and advise others to study, for knowledge is light and ignorance is darkness . . . [but] about the creation of life on earth and man I have said that it is as it is written in the Holy Scriptures, and I cannot say otherwise." Arrested three times, St. Gabriel endured a total of eighteen years in Soviet prison camps for his faith, surviving beatings and minus-forty-degree weather in the far north.
Almost Total Censorship of Even the Mildest Criticism of Molecules-to-Man Evolution
A little reflection suffices to show that teachers in American public schools have hardly any more freedom to tell their students that the "emperor of evolution is not wearing any clothes" than did their counterparts in Soviet Russia under Josef Stalin. The threat of losing one's job may have replaced the threat of torture and imprisonment, but the effect has been virtually the same - an almost total censorship of even the mildest criticism of molecules-to-man evolution mythology masquerading as science.
The good news is that by the grace of God we now have the tools to help deliver our Catholic brothers and sisters from their bondage to evolutionary fables and, so, to help restore the foundations of the Faith. All over the world priests, religious and laity are using the DVD series "Foundations Restored" to educate the faithful, in seminaries, universities, parishes, schools, and living rooms. Please spread the word about the DVD series and pray that through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary God will continue to grant success to the work of our hands!
Yours in Christ through the Immaculata in union with St. Joseph,
Hugh Owen
P.S. The Coronavirus has made it impossible for public seminars to be held in most parts of the world. To overcome this difficulty, we are planning to host a series of seminars using Zoom. You should be able to download Zoom from just about anywhere in the world. Once you have downloaded the program, you will be able to join Zoom meetings that we schedule from time to time. If you would be interested in being notified of Zoom-based seminars, please send me an email at howen@shentel.net and I will be sure to keep you informed.
P.P.S. If you go to www.foundationsrestored.com and read the unsolicited comments, you will see the great impact that the DVD series is having on souls all over the world. With the Coronavirus restrictions on public meetings and liturgical services, now is a perfect time to encourage friends, family, and other Catholics to watch the DVD series as part of their Lenten exercises. If finances are a problem for any of your contacts, please encourage them to contact me and we will be glad to make the series available to them for whatever part of the suggested donation they can afford.
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[1] Footnotes available on request.
