{"id":1273,"date":"2011-03-18T06:35:36","date_gmt":"2011-03-18T10:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=1273"},"modified":"2011-03-18T06:38:12","modified_gmt":"2011-03-18T10:38:12","slug":"newspapers-antievolution-bill-is-bad-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1273","title":{"rendered":"Newspapers: Antievolution bill is bad idea"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orlando Sentinel has published an editorial opposing<\/a> Sen. Wise’s “non-evolution” “theory of whatever”:<\/p>\n

Among scientists, the idea of teaching “nonevolution” in public schools would be dismissed as nonsense. But in Tallahassee, just such a bill sponsored by Rep. Stephen Wise has its supporters. This is, after all, a state that only three years ago started officially referring to “evolution” instead of “biological change over time.”<\/p>\n

It’s enough to make anyone who values science plenty nervous. Wise (gulp) also happens to be chairman of the Senate Education Committee.<\/p>\n

Wise reportedly asked, “Why do we still have apes if we came from them” \u00e2\u20ac\u201d even though anthropologists and other scientists long ago proved man and apes share common ancestry. Wise would have our schools teach evolution and “nonevolution” \u00e2\u20ac\u201d creationist-based theory \u00e2\u20ac\u201d “at the same time.”<\/p>\n

Florida has enough challenges getting its kids educated. It doesn’t need another one \u00e2\u20ac\u201d this one \u00e2\u20ac\u201d from Wise.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And a Florida Times-Union opinion blog also says the bill is a bad idea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s a little more than disturbing that the legislator playing a key role in shaping Florida’s public education policy, Sen. Stephen Wise, is challenging how evolution is taught.<\/p>\n

Besides being the Senate sponsor for the whack-the-teachers bill the Legislature just passed, Wise is behind legislation that would require that what he calls “non-evolution” also be taught in the classroom.<\/p>\n

So how does Wise explain his disagreement with the theory of evolution?<\/p>\n

In a 2009 radio interview, he put it this way: “Why do we still have apes if we came from them?”<\/p>\n

Enough said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Orlando Sentinel has published an editorial opposing Sen. Wise’s “non-evolution” “theory of whatever”: Among scientists, the idea of teaching “nonevolution” in public schools would be dismissed as nonsense. But in Tallahassee, just such a bill sponsored by Rep. Stephen … 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-kx","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1266,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1266","url_meta":{"origin":1273,"position":0},"title":"Senator Wise and the “non-evolution” “theory of whatever”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Tampa Tribune reporter Elaine Silvestrini finally got someone to speak on behalf of the new antievolution bill filed in the state senate (SB 1854): Senator Stephen Wise himself (Story: Legislator's challenge to evolution has some alarmed). Senator Wise doesn't say much of substance other than to sing the same old\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":1534,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1534","url_meta":{"origin":1273,"position":1},"title":"Miami Herald’s Fred Grimm takes on “monkey bills”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Fred Grimm over at the Miami Herald has a column published entitled \"Fighting evolution one monkey law at a time.\" Model bills bounce around from one whacked-out legislature to another. If evolution went down in Tennessee in 2012, you can pretty well figure that the Florida Legislature will be rethinking\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1261,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1261","url_meta":{"origin":1273,"position":2},"title":"The return of the Florida antievolution bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It's baaaaack! State Senator Stephen Wise is taking another stab at challenging the teaching of evolution in Florida schools with Senate Bill 1854 \"Required Instruction in the Public Schools\". There are other non-science-related items in the bill, but the part that targets evolution reads: 1003.42 Required instruction.\u00e2\u20ac\u201d (2) Members 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":[]},{"id":915,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=915","url_meta":{"origin":1273,"position":3},"title":"Interview on the radio tonight","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I just hung up the phone with a reporter from WMNF Radio, Tampa. They will be airing a piece about Senator Wise's possible intelligent design creationism bill during the 6 p.m. evening news broadcast. You can listen to it streaming live over the Internet, and the broadcast will then be\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":1267,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1267","url_meta":{"origin":1273,"position":4},"title":"Press Release: 2011 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Critical Analysis\u00e2\u20ac\u009d bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science Press Release: \"Critical Analysis\" bill harmful to Florida science education. Florida Citizens for Science opposes Senator Stephen Wise's recently filed bill -- SB 1854, Required Instruction in the Public Schools -- as it is clearly unnecessary, harmful to science education, and sends a negative message to\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":926,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=926","url_meta":{"origin":1273,"position":5},"title":"Press Release: “Critical Analysis” bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science Press Release: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Critical Analysis\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bill Undermines Florida Science Education Florida Citizens for Science is disappointed that Senator Stephen Wise has chosen to waste the valuable time of his fellow legislators and possibly deepen a school district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s financial difficulties by filing a bill challenging the teaching of\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273"}],"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=1273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}