{"id":1262,"date":"2011-03-08T20:30:40","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T00:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=1262"},"modified":"2011-03-08T20:30:59","modified_gmt":"2011-03-09T00:30:59","slug":"newspapers-not-kind-to-antievolution-bill-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1262","title":{"rendered":"Newspapers not kind to antievolution bill so far"},"content":{"rendered":"

The early news reports and blog posts about Senator Stephen Wise’s antievolution bill (SB 1854<\/a>) (and see my previous post<\/a>) are not too kind to his repeated attempts to undermine science education.<\/p>\n

Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Thomas has a blog post “Groan … evolution back on trial in the Legislature<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

This bill would turn us into a laughingstock. It makes Republicans look foolish and backwards. Here we are upgrading our academic curriculum in high school, particularly in science, while at the same time going back to the 19th Century.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Broward Palm Beach New Times editorial blog post “Anti-evolution bill hits state senate<\/a>” is listed under the blog category FloriDUH.<\/p>\n

It is clear that Sen. Stephen Wise and his allies do not understand science or even its terminology. “Evolution” is not a theory. It is a fact, demonstrable in laboratories and in nature. (Even “speciation” — the divergence of one species from another — has been empirically observed among certain populations of sea gulls, salamanders, and warblers.) The only theory is “evolution by natural selection” — which is to say, it is theorized that the fact of evolution is made possible by the action of natural selection. There is a tremendous, incontrovertible amount of evidence to suggest that this is the case.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Orlando Sentinel’s Political Pulse blog post title says it all: “Tallahassee: The place where evolution stopped.<\/a>”<\/p>\n

The Florida Citizens for Science, an advocacy group that argues in favor of teaching evolution and better science instruction overall, says such bills are just an attempt to undermine lessons on evolution.<\/p>\n

It notes that Wise filed a similar, and unsuccessful, bill in 2009, and has spoken in favor of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Intelligent Design,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d an argument that an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153intelligent cause\u00e2\u20ac\u009d better explains living things than evolution by natural selection.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And the St. Petersburg Times is on the ball with a story: “Florida bill may rekindle debate over evolution.<\/a>”<\/p>\n

Evolution supporters say the language is another attempt by Florida lawmakers to undermine the teaching of evolution, introduce the faith-based concepts of creationism and intelligent design, and water down state science standards that were narrowly passed by the state Board of Education in 2008.<\/p>\n

“We at Florida Citizens for Science oppose this theocratic attempt to introduce creationism into the Florida schools,” group member Jonathan Smith said today. “We will be mounting a campaign to fight this in every way possible.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ll keep you updated as more stories come in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The early news reports and blog posts about Senator Stephen Wise’s antievolution bill (SB 1854) (and see my previous post) are not too kind to his repeated attempts to undermine science education. Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Thomas has a blog … 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":[29],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-km","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1272,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1272","url_meta":{"origin":1262,"position":0},"title":"Antievolution bill referred to senate committees","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Senator Stephen Wise's \"non-evolution\" \"theory of whatever\" bill (SB 1854, critical analysis of evolution in public schools) was referred to two senate committees today: Education Pre-K -12, and Budget. The chair of the education committee is none other than Sen. Wise himself. He also is a member of the Budget\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11"","block_context":{"text":"\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=29"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":975,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=975","url_meta":{"origin":1262,"position":1},"title":"A bit of confusion, but all is good","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"There was a flurry of activity yesterday started by the initial confusion of a Tampa Tribune reporter, but the end result is actually good news. First, I sent out a news release early yesterday morning announcing that the Florida Academy of Sciences issued a statement condemning Florida senate bill 2396.\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":943,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=943","url_meta":{"origin":1262,"position":2},"title":"Senate antievolution bill referred to committees","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Senator Wise's\u00c2\u00a0antievolution \u00e2\u20ac\u0153critical analysis\u00e2\u20ac\u009d bill 2396 has now been shipped to two committees for consideration. The committees, committee members, and vote history on last year's\u00c2\u00a0antievolution bills\u00c2\u00a0are: Education Pre-K - 12: Chair: Senator Nancy C. Detert (R) -- Was not in the Senate or House last year, so we don't have\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":850,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=850","url_meta":{"origin":1262,"position":3},"title":"Florida’s Greatest Menace IV: Free love and monkey teaching","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"(This is the\u00c2\u00a0fourth part in the Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Greatest Menace series. For an introduction to the series,\u00c2\u00a0go here.) The Florida Purity League Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 28, passed by the Florida legislature in 1927, directed the formation of a textbook review committee that would investigate claims of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153vulgar\u00e2\u20ac\u009d material found in\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=850#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/catts_broadside_2_sm1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1264,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1264","url_meta":{"origin":1262,"position":4},"title":"Our Joe Wolf vs. Luskin","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"No, there wasn't an actual debate, but a news article in AOL news, \"Florida Education Bill Revives Evolution Debate\", does have dueling quotes from Florida Citizen for Science president Joe Wolf and the Discovery Institute's Casey Luskin. It's interesting that in all of the stories I've seen so far no\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1264#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1281,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1281","url_meta":{"origin":1262,"position":5},"title":"National news keeping eye on Florida","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of national news outlets are taking note of Senator Wise's antievolution bill. They're both just rewrites of Florida stories, but they are still worth logging in here on the blog. The Huffington Post has a story: \"Florida State Lawmaker Takes Heat For Bill That Would Require Teaching Of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11"","block_context":{"text":"\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=29"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262"}],"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=1262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}