You won’t find the book on Bob Jones University Press’ Website anymore, because shortly after attention was drawn to it by the above page scan, they removed the second edition from their Website, replacing it with a redirect to the third edition, which has very different text. BJUP makes the third edition’s chapter on electricity available as a free preview on their site. Before the second edition was removed from the BJUP site, the preview chapter was the first one, on the history of the moon, which I present here:

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

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The book does not discuss the scientific method at all. The only treatment of methodology is found on p.2, in the “History of the Moon” chapter above:

Science can be defined as “information gained by using our senses.” Faith means “holding beliefs without seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, or touching the proof of them.”

When the moon came into being, were there any people there to get facts through their senses? Then do all our ideas about where the moon came from rest on science or faith? What anyone believes about the beginning of things rests on faith, not science.

That’s it. No mention, even in a grade-school way, of deduction or induction. A flat rejection of reason. In the opening paragraphs of a science textbook.

The book has no hierarchy. It is arranged haphazardly. The table of contents looks like this:

1. History of the Moon
2. Insects, Arachnids, and Myriapods
3. Electricity
4. Plants
5. Length, Area, and Volume
6. Digestion
7. The Moon’s Structure and Motions
8. Animal Defenses
9. Light
10. Machines
11. Trees
12. How Earth’s Crust Wears Down

This appears to me to be deliberately disorganized so as to prevent students from making connections between the topics discussed. But I suppose it could also be a result of a profound misunderstanding of the empirical scientific method. It’s scattershot.

That such a book was ever used by anyone to attempt to teach science to children is simply appalling.

I do not often get sick. In fact, in the past 3 years, I have been sick exactly 3 times. Fortunately, they have all come at the least inopportune times — during various breaks. I got sick two Christmases ago, and then again last Christmas, and now I’m sick again during summer break.

All three times have been really insanely awful sinus infections. I’m not the sort of person who gets sinus infections with every cold. No, I only get sinus infections when I get something–we’re talking about foreign bodies here–stuck up my nose.

I don’t go around putting things up there deliberately. Christmas ’07, I sneezed with cheese in my mouth and got a bit of cheese stuck up in the back of my nose. Raging infection. Christmas ’08, it was same show, only with cauliflower. Really awful.

This time, I got it from a book.

I’ve been reading Agatha Christie’s Poirot novels, and checked a few out from the university library. The offending book was The A.B.C. Murders. It had been water-damaged and was quite moldy and dusty. Nonetheless, I stupidly insisted on reading it, as it was the school’s only local copy. Well, I got a fragment of brittle paper, complete with mysterious, unknown, and probably highly dangerous black book mold, stuck up the back of my nose. I must have breathed it in. I felt it immediately and tried to get it out, but no go. Twelve hours later, I’m a pus-filled, mucus-spewing, 101.3-fever-running mess.

I’m returning the book in a bright orange ziplock bag with a biohazard logo on.

And besides, it’s about all I have time for right now.