The evolution bills that derailed in the Florida legislature recently are still drawing some attention. This column does a good job of addressing many of the anti-evolution arguments we heard during the legislative session.
I don’t think there’s any point to passing laws that give teachers permission to do the impossible.
Several recent letters to the Daily News assert that Florida’s “Evolution Academic Freedom Act†is good because it allows teachers to “objectively present scientific information†against evolution. This makes as much sense as saying teachers should be allowed to present geographic proof the world is flat or scientific proof the Earth doesn’t move around the sun — they can’t present something that doesn’t exist.
The Florida Baptist Witness takes a look at the good and bad of the legislative session from their perspective. Of special note is:
It must be conceded the academic freedom issue got a late start due to the timing of the State Board of Education action on the new science standards in February, shortly before the beginning of the legislative session. Starting a major piece of legislation only two weeks before the session began made passage difficult.
What does that tell you about the next session? It tells you that next year the bills’ supporters will be more organized well in advance. Our best weapon against this? Education. With the legislative session over, now is the time to make appointments with all the lawmakers who represent you. Waiting until the first day of the next session is not a good idea. The time for education is now. No rest for the weary!
It’s not too early to start gathering ammunition for the next legislative session. Here’s some high-powered stuff appearing in New Orleans, in the Times-Picayune . It’s a letter written by Dr. Alan I. Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science: Anti-science law threatens tech jobs of future.
Observe that he doesn’t waste time talking about transitional fossils. It’s short and to the point, hitting on jobs and the quality of schools — issues that politicians pay attention to. I think that’s the right approach.
One thing to consider doing, I think, would be to organize an invitation-only showing of A Flock of Dodos at the Challenger Center in Tallahassee during the first week of the next legislative session and invite the legislators. The documentary is full of Americana, makes reference to Dover, etc. Moreover, it could be billed publicly as an opportunity for legislators to get better educated on the issues that have been involved in similar situations that have already taken place.
Another thing that I think needs to be done is to really start standing up in direct and visible ways to the First Baptist Church. It seems to be the nexus for all of this Neocreationist nitwittery and the main source of outright lies and propaganda (witness this latest bit of denigration) that help perpetuate this stuff. These people are accusing scientists and science itself of everything from conspiracy to complicity in murder. By any measure, this is libel (or slander? I always get them confused). Somehow, the community of reason needs to start taking the Citrus Taliban to the woodshed when they pull stunts like this. They need to be exposed to their own constituency for what they’re doing and it needs to be done in terms of their own moral precepts.
How about a leafletting campaign right on their own doorsteps?
It wont be taken up next session. Their leaders are termed out.