{"id":2196,"date":"2014-08-01T15:37:46","date_gmt":"2014-08-01T19:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2196"},"modified":"2014-08-01T17:43:58","modified_gmt":"2014-08-01T21:43:58","slug":"folks-got-a-bit-stirred-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2196","title":{"rendered":"Folks got a bit stirred up!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SMBC-Second-Law-of-Thermodynamics\"<\/a>Today I participated in a fun interview on radio station WUFT, which is in Gainesville. The program was Conner Calling<\/a> and it was a full hour, by far the longest interview I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done so far. It also featured about 10 people calling in to ask questions and state opinions. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also another record for me. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve only faced two or three in previous interviews.<\/p>\n

The show started with a nice overview of Going Ape<\/a> and a discussion of some historical highlights from it, especially William Jennings Bryan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s influence in 1920s Florida. Unfortunately, there was a technical glitch a few minutes in. I could hear the host just fine but they couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hear me. The producer tried calling me back a few times and every time I answered there was no connection. We eventually hooked back up and made it through the rest of the program without any issues. After a few more minutes of general conversation the listeners\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 calls started pouring in.<\/p>\n

I appreciated the thoughtful comments from folks about some religions having no problem with accepting evolution in general and about the acceptability of comparative religion classes in schools and about the presence of overtly creationist voucher-accepting private schools in Florida. I kept quiet after some comments because I sensed the host was trying to get as many callers on air as time allowed and I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to get in the way of that. But I did try to briefly express my agreement with many of these points later.<\/p>\n

After a comment I made about creationism not being science and creationists not doing science, a gentlemen offered up the suggestion that creationists are doing science but are blocked from journal publication due to bias against them. I disagreed. If a scientist has viable results and that scientist keeps working at it, the science will eventually break through. After decades of creationist flim-flam, nothing scientific has emerged.<\/p>\n

Another caller tried to nail me with the old fashioned creationist zinger of the 2nd law of thermodynamics making evolution impossible. I stumbled a bit in my reply. I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t knowledgeable in that subject well enough to be able to boil it down to a few seconds on the radio. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m familiar with the argument only in a general sense and I tried to express what I did know as best as I could. For anyone who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interested, a much more thorough, if somewhat complicated, explanation is here<\/a>. A Google search will also turn up plenty of material.<\/p>\n

At one point I explained that I have some actual credentials: a relevant degree and state teacher certification. Later, I tried to head off some of the creationist challenges that were coming in by saying that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not an academic or a scientist but rather I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve written a book about the history of the controversy. I hope the two statements didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come off as contradictory. The point I was aiming for was that I know what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m talking about as it relates to Going Ape. My purpose is to educate the public about this important and fascinating history and how it flows seamlessly into the present. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to derail that by debating with creationists.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll let you know when the show is archived online. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m eager to hear your feedback on how it went. One thing I wish I had said at the of the interview was that all of the passionate callers today illustrate just how much interest there is in the subject, which is a great reason to buy Going Ape! I also neglected to plug Florida Citizens for Science. I wanted to but just couldn’t find the right opportunity. Oh well. Maybe next time.<\/p>\n

(Cartoon credit to Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I participated in a fun interview on radio station WUFT, which is in Gainesville. The program was Conner Calling and it was a full hour, by far the longest interview I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done so far. It also featured about 10 … 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-zq","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1241,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1241","url_meta":{"origin":2196,"position":0},"title":"Coming back to life","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been away for a while. Sorry about that. The good news is that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m finally done with the monstrous tower of college assignments that has kept me pinned down and squirming for a couple of months. It was a cold, dark, lonely time and it felt like it would\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 5 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 5 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1241#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2612,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2612","url_meta":{"origin":2196,"position":1},"title":"Spring break in Tallahassee","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m in Tallahassee today. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spring break for me but rather than head to a beach I decided to visit our state capitol to speak to the judiciary senate committee about Senate Bill 436. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the Religious Expression in Public Schools bill that we believe can harm science education. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2126,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2126","url_meta":{"origin":2196,"position":2},"title":"On the radio","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Just a friendly reminder: I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be on WMFE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s show Intersection at 9:30 tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m in the second half. The show will also be available for listening online and on a podcast. Let me know how you think I did. [Edited to add: Unfortunately, my radio interview about my\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2126#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1109,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1109","url_meta":{"origin":2196,"position":3},"title":"I’m not letting you off the hook that easy!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"OK, folks, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done a great job in our annual fundraiser (original press release)! I gave you a goal of $600 and you blew right through that in no time, accumulating more than $1,000 in donations to science education in Florida schools. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great news, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s made even better\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1109#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":220,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=220","url_meta":{"origin":2196,"position":4},"title":"Another poll about evolution","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Yet another poll featuring opinions on evolution is trotted out to sell newspapers. As I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve mentioned before, these polls are useless and annoying. They do spotlight a stunning ignorance of basic, accepted science, but they have nothing of value to add to the overall discussion. As a matter of fact,\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":1108,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1108","url_meta":{"origin":2196,"position":5},"title":"On becoming a science teacher …","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The past couple of weeks have been insanely busy for me. For those of you who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, in addition to my full time job as a sheriff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office spokesperson, full time job as husband and father, and part time volunteer for Florida Citizens for Science, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also attending college\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 16 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 16 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1108#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196"}],"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=2196"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2202,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196\/revisions\/2202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}