{"id":1254,"date":"2011-02-14T16:18:22","date_gmt":"2011-02-14T20:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=1254"},"modified":"2011-02-14T16:18:22","modified_gmt":"2011-02-14T20:18:22","slug":"evolution-targeted-in-newspaper-commentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1254","title":{"rendered":"Evolution targeted in newspaper commentary"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t know who Paul James is, but he wrote a newspaper commentary for the Palm Beach Post about evolution. Judging from the title “Evolution doesn’t answer all of science’s questions<\/a>“, it is already evident that the writer isn’t the most knowledgeable person in matters of science. Of course, James probably didn’t pick that headline himself; nonetheless, it does encapsulate his written thoughts. Here is his first paragraph:<\/p>\n

The United States is losing its world prominence in academics, and science may be suffering the most. But two researchers at the University of Pennsylvania claim to have found the cause: high school biology teachers who do not advocate the theory of evolution.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve read the book Michael B. Berkman and Eric Plutzer wrote on this subject, and I don’t believe either had stated that poor evolution education is the cause of the U.S.’s downfall in academics. It’s a sign or symptom, but I don’t think the authors had called it a cause. Maybe they said something different in their journal paper.<\/p>\n

Another paragraph from the commentary:<\/p>\n

Although the courts have ruled that creationism is not science, not all scientists would agree. In The Case for Creation, author Lee Strobel shares interviews with top scientists in their fields who have found evidence of intelligent design in cosmology, physics, astronomy, biochemistry and biology. Yet it is exactly the presentation of such scientific evidence the Penn State researchers find so problematic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Any biologist worth his or her salt most certainly would and do agree. Creationism is a religious claim, pure and simple. Creationism cannot be tested, has no credible evidence and makes no useful scientific predictions. I’ve read The Case for Creation and found it to be nothing more than a overly long church bulletin. I was disgusted by the book’s advertising blurbs that claim Strobel used his hard-hitting investigative journalism skills to ask the tough questions on this subject. What a load of manure! He lobbed softball questions at his interviewees and either misrepresented or completely ignored the scientific counter-arguments.<\/p>\n

James’ main problem with evolution seems to be that he claims it is devoid of any real meaning. Teenagers will take away from an evolution lesson that we are nothing more than worthless clumps of cells, he says. I think James misses the point of science. It helps us understand how the universe works. It’s not really meant to impart morals or meaning. However, I do think that evolution and biology in general does impart a sense of awe and wonder. It shows how we are connected to the life all around us, past, present, and future. To me, that is magnificent and meaningful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t know who Paul James is, but he wrote a newspaper commentary for the Palm Beach Post about evolution. Judging from the title “Evolution doesn’t answer all of science’s questions“, it is already evident that the writer isn’t the … 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-ke","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1258,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1258","url_meta":{"origin":1254,"position":0},"title":"Palm Beach Post’s evolution\/creationism back-n-forth","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Sigh. I wish I had time to spare. My teacher internship is dominating my life and not allowing me to partake in some of my personal pleasures, such as diving deep into any evolution\/creationism debate that pops up in the Sunshine State. There is a little war of words on\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":362,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=362","url_meta":{"origin":1254,"position":1},"title":"Editorial: Focus on science","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Tampa Tribune is the latest newspaper to offer strong support for evolution in the state's science standards on the editorial page. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is central to science curriculum because it explains more observations than any alternative. It has been debated for nearly two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":405,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=405","url_meta":{"origin":1254,"position":2},"title":"11th editorial, other tidbits","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The 11th newspaper editorial supporting evolution in the schools appeared in the TCPalm today. Editorial: Science classes need to evolve And, since Charles Darwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153On the Origin of Species\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was published in 1859, in which his theory of evolution was first introduced, scientific research and discoveries have added immensely to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":374,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=374","url_meta":{"origin":1254,"position":3},"title":"9-0","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"That's nine newspaper editorials in favor of including evolution in the state science standards and zero in favor of \"other theories.\" The South Florida Sun Sentinel jumps on board. Evolution isn't debatable in many parts of the world, and among a majority of scientists, but somehow Florida hasn't fully gotten\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":298,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=298","url_meta":{"origin":1254,"position":4},"title":"2nd editorial supports evolution","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Another newspaper, this time the Tallahassee Democrat, offers support for the inclusion of evolution in the state science standards. Thank you! Believe it or not, the word \"evolution\" doesn't currently have a home in the official science standards for Florida's public schools. But under proposed new standards, science teachers wouldn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":314,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=314","url_meta":{"origin":1254,"position":5},"title":"So, how did the “town meeting” about science standards go?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"There was a meeting Wednesday evening to solicit comments in person about the new draft science standards. It was just a boring, ho-hum meeting, right? A real snooze-fest, right? No. Mark Hohmeister of the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper attended and reports back that things were lively. I wonder why? Wakulla County\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254"}],"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=1254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}