Atheist Group Slams 12-Year-Old In ‘God Is A Myth’ Case, Calls Her ‘Thin Skinned, Confused’

An atheist group attacked a 12-year-old student who made headlines in the so-called “God is a myth” case, a school assignment which she said “denigrated her faith.”

On October 27, Jordan Wooley told the Katy ISD school board in Texas that a recent assignment asked her to label her God a myth. The girl argued this challenged her faith, and the school board later said the assignment required students to choose between three categories: fact, common assertion, and opinion, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

Freedom from Religion Foundation, an atheist group, slammed the 12-year-old and the parents who supported her, calling them “willfully ignorant” of the facts. Wooley explained that one of her seventh-grade classes asked her to label the statement “there is a God” as fact, assertion, or opinion.

The middle schooler immediately thought of choosing fact as her option, however, according to the 12-year-old student, she was told if she did so she would fail the assignment.

“Our teacher started off by saying the assignment had been giving problems all day, and we were asked to take a poll if God was a fact, opinion or a myth. She told anyone who said, ‘a fact’ or ‘opinion,’ that was wrong that God is only a myth.”

After Jordan Wooley offered the Bible and near-death experiences as an example of God being real, she was reprimanded by the teacher, who said that “both were just things people were doing to get attention.” Jordan was not the only student in her class that defended her belief in God, according to the student.

One girl started crying when the teacher allegedly crossed out God is fact several times saying the answer was wrong, while another one slammed her book on the floor, angering the teacher.

“I felt like this was really wrong and I didn’t feel like it was fair for my faith and my religion to have anything to do with what I’m learning in school. I had known before that it – I know that our schools are not supposed to teach us much about religion or question anything about religion, and when I tried to talk to my teacher about, she said, ‘It doesn’t have anything to do with religion because the problem says there is no God.'”

In a scathing letter to Katy ISD Superintendent Alton Frailey, the Wisconsin-based atheist group Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) accused the 12-year-old of exaggerating the facts when she spoke before the school board.

“It is a pity that confused thinking and thin skins by some believing students and their parents can rule the day at your junior high school.

“The exaggerated fallout from this exercise clearly demonstrates the great need for more, not less, instruction on critical thinking skills. It should not be verboten or controversial to ask students to assess whether a claim is factual. It is this kind of ‘head in the sand’ attitude that accounts for the deplorable state of science understanding in our nation—including the fact that about half of all adults reject evolution, which is a fact. The United States cannot compete on a global market when its population is willfully ignorant.”

The atheist group added that it seems Jordan Wooley expected her teacher to say “God is a fact.” The condescending statement also lectured Christians on what “faith” means by taking a quote from Bible passage in the book of Hebrews which says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Even though the school or teacher’s name were not revealed during the board meeting, it was later reported the school in question was West Memorial Junior High. The school district backed the still-unidentified teacher, saying she was misunderstood and never asked students to denounce God existed, according to Christian Today.

“However, we know and fully agree that an item included in the activity worksheet was inappropriate and wrong. For that, we sincerely apologize.”

The atheist group also scolded Frailey for stating he is a “life-long Christian” and argued that to have a standing in a community, a person has to be a professed Christian. Freedom of religion is guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States, and public officials are not prohibited for identifying themselves as members of any religion.

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