Science teacher explains the burn of Jesus.

Science and religion go together as well as a branding iron and a child's arm. At least, this nutty middle school science teacher in Ohio thought so. Maybe he was just teaching the class about heat conduction on flesh? You know, through a crucifix.

From the Chicago Tribune:

It's the kind of story that turns heads and stomachs alike, especially in a small town. A well-known and popular middle school science teacher known for strong religious beliefs is charged with branding the shape of a cross onto the forearm of an 8th-grade student.

The teacher is in big and possibly career-ending trouble, a quiet college town is bitterly divided and, rightly or wrongly, the Bible is at the center of it.

The case of John Freshwater, a 21-year veteran of Mt. Vernon City School District, has split this pleasant central Ohio community into squabbling camps—those who see Freshwater as a heroic father figure, persecuted for his Christian beliefs and his insistence on having his personal Bible on his desk, and those who condemn him as a religious predator promoting creationism and intelligent design and undermining the teaching of evolution, in violation of school policy.

The scariest part of the whole story? The fact that the community is rallying behind A 52-YEAR-OLD MAN WHO BRANDED A CHILD'S ARM WITH A CRUCIFIX. This shouldn't be a debate about science vs. religion or religious beliefs vs. school policy. It should be about A 52-YEAR-OLD MAN WHO BRANDED A CHILD'S ARM WITH A CRUCIFIX. Okay, allegedly. But how messed up is it that the community is up in arms (no pun intended) against THE 8TH GRADER??

The actions of the community itself proves why religion makes people idiotic and shouldn't belong in schools, or really anywhere for that matter. Except for Goldblumism.