{"id":1120,"date":"2009-09-16T06:36:56","date_gmt":"2009-09-16T10:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=1120"},"modified":"2009-09-16T06:36:56","modified_gmt":"2009-09-16T10:36:56","slug":"creationism-back-in-florida-headlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1120","title":{"rendered":"Creationism back in Florida headlines"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve heard from St. Petersburg politician Bill Foster before. When the new Florida science standards were being written and reviewed, Foster wrote a letter to his local school board<\/a> warning about the evils of evolution.<\/p>\n

Now Foster is running for mayor and his creationist beliefs are under the microscope<\/a>. Will those beliefs hurt him or help him? I guess we’ll find out on election day. From the St. Pete Time article:<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Bill Foster believes, contrary to the overwhelming majority of scientists, that dinosaurs and humans co-existed. He believes the world was created in six literal days, and he once complained to school officials when his son was taught about Darwin’s theory of evolution in fifth grade.<\/p>\n

Is that relevant to the campaign for mayor of Florida’s fourth-largest city?<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

In an interview at his law office, Foster talked about some of his beliefs and refused to talk about others.<\/p>\n

“Dinosaurs are mentioned in Job, so I don’t have any problem believing that dinosaurs roamed the earth,” he said, referring to the book of Job, which mentions the “behemoth.” He said he believes dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time, though most scientists say there is a gap of at least 60 million years between dinosaurs and mankind.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

But in this election Foster has been dogged by questions about his religious beliefs after he sent a controversial letter to the Pinellas School Board, urging members to allow discussion about alternatives to the theory of evolution, such as the Genesis account. His letter suggested that Darwin contributed to the rise of Hitler and the Columbine massacre.<\/p>\n

Foster insists he was merely promoting free speech for students.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve heard from St. Petersburg politician Bill Foster before. When the new Florida science standards were being written and reviewed, Foster wrote a letter to his local school board warning about the evils of evolution. Now Foster is running for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-i4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":383,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=383","url_meta":{"origin":1120,"position":0},"title":"Disgusting","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A former St. Petersburg city council member brings Godwin's Law into the real world as reported in this St. Petersburg Times story. Darwin's theory of evolution helped fuel the rise of Hitler and contributed to the school-shooting massacre at Columbine, a former St. Petersburg City Council member wrote in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":563,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=563","url_meta":{"origin":1120,"position":1},"title":"Reaction sent to media","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The following reaction was sent to the media earlier today following the anti-evolution bill debate in the Florida House. The St. Petersburg Times education blog, the Gradebook, has already linked to it. Florida Citizens for Science response to today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s House debate on HB 1483 and SB 2692 concerning the teaching\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08"","block_context":{"text":"\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":558,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=558","url_meta":{"origin":1120,"position":2},"title":"News roundup","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Before I get to the news accounts, here is notice that the House bill should get its second reading on Friday. Keep in mind that second reading means that the bill can be amended and debated, but there is no vote. That has to wait until the third reading. Time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08"","block_context":{"text":"\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":896,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=896","url_meta":{"origin":1120,"position":3},"title":"Lawmakers react to possible ID bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, intelligent design creationism made the news when state senator Stephen Wise announced that he will be introducing a bill mandating its teaching alongside evolution instruction. Today we get a taste of what other lawmakers think of the idea, courtesy of The Gradebook: \"It's time the other side joined us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"ID Creationism\" bills '09"","block_context":{"text":"\"ID Creationism\" bills '09","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=27"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":829,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=829","url_meta":{"origin":1120,"position":4},"title":"Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Greatest Menace I: Improper and Subversive","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"(This is the first part in the Florida's Greatest Menace series. For an introduction to the series, go here.) Our Florida story begins quite appropriately in the hands of one of the most prominent figures in the national evolution\/creationism battle: William Jennings Bryan. The Scopes \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Monkey Trial\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in Tennessee featured\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=829#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":922,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=922","url_meta":{"origin":1120,"position":5},"title":"Florida’s Greatest Menace V: Brainwashing Students","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"(This is the fifth part in the Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Greatest Menace series. For an introduction to the series, go here.) A new leader Waging a battle against the teaching of evolution has but one requirement: a leader with a fire in the belly and time to devote to the cause. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=922#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}