{"id":2443,"date":"2016-04-25T18:33:03","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T22:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2443"},"modified":"2016-04-25T19:11:02","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T23:11:02","slug":"hes-itching-for-a-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2443","title":{"rendered":"He’s itching for a fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"debate\"<\/a>Andrew Scholberg, a freelance writer and member of St. Augustine Catholic Church in Gainesville, wrote a guest column for the Gainesville Sun entitled Gainesville\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s evolution vs. creation saga<\/a>. In it he laments the absence of any good evolution vs. creationism debate at the University of Florida since the 1980s. Back in the 80s, he writes, there was a debate between creationist\u00c2\u00a0Dr. David Kaufmann and UF philosophy professor\u00c2\u00a0Dr. Robert Primack. His unverified account, based on an interview with Kaufmann, claims:<\/p>\n

When the debate ended, Primack immediately slipped out through a stage door with his tail between his legs while Kaufmann stayed in the auditorium to answer questions from the students who surrounded him, eager to hear more of his thoughts.<\/p>\n

After the great evolution debate, the students were asking for more debates. But none of the UF evolutionists dared to debate Kaufmann, who told me, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They were hiding under their desks!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m not sure that a philosophy professor was the best opponent for a die-hard creationist. But a possible alternative reason for no one else debating Kaufmann, other than fear, could be that it’s simply best not to legitimize the non-science of creationism or intelligent design by giving them the spotlight alongside real science. Or maybe the “Darwinists” have been quaking in their boots. Who knows.<\/p>\n

I’m not familiar with this debate. I don’t believe I came across it during my research for Going Ape<\/a><\/em>. Or maybe I did and decided not to include it. I only wrote about debates that had some connection to other events in my book, so perhaps I neglected it for that reason. But just now I spent some time poking around my usual research haunts and I have yet to find any news blurbs or Internet hits about this particular debate. If you know of anything I’m missing, please clue me in!<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Scholberg’s column is good for a laugh. For instance:<\/p>\n

Those who still believe in evolution might as well believe that the same person could keep on winning the Powerball lottery year after year after year. Similarly, the odds against life-by-chance are so overwhelming as to be impossible. Therefore, evolution has no legitimate place in any science textbook, science class or science lecture. Darwinism is a false worldview: philosophical materialism (atheism) dressed up to look like science.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And I’m heartened to see that the reader comments are, so far, taking the side of real science.<\/p>\n

But, according to Scholberg, Kaufmann is still available:<\/p>\n

Kaufmann told me he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still available to represent the creationist viewpoint in a public debate. Does any Darwinist at UF have the courage to debate him, or are they still hiding under their desks?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Good grief.<\/p>\n

[edited to add …]<\/p>\n

Further research (thanks, Glenn!) turned up a mid-80s article featuring Primack’s views on creationism “the Bible is not a good textbook<\/a>.” And the article says he was\u00c2\u00a0UF foundations of education professor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Scholberg, a freelance writer and member of St. Augustine Catholic Church in Gainesville, wrote a guest column for the Gainesville Sun entitled Gainesville\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s evolution vs. creation saga. In it he laments the absence of any good evolution vs. creationism … 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":true,"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-Dp","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2457,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2457","url_meta":{"origin":2443,"position":0},"title":"A calm response to an anti-evolution rant","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Back on April 25 I posted about a guest columnist in the Gainesville Sun railing against evolution,\u00c2\u00a0He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s itching for a fight. The writer's main point was that past debates at the University of Florida between creationists and scientists over evolution allegedly came down heavily in favor of the creationists. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2457#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2013,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2013","url_meta":{"origin":2443,"position":1},"title":"Cooked Ham","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The debate event between Bill Nye and Ken Ham attracted the notice of the Tampa Bay Times: Nye, Ham unearth age-old debate: Evolution vs. Creationism. Our very own Florida Citizens for Science vice president Jonathan Smith was asked for his reaction before and after the debate. Before: \"All this achieves\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 8 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 8 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2013#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":698,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=698","url_meta":{"origin":2443,"position":2},"title":"Gainesville event: Evidence for Evolution","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Caf\u00c3\u00a9 Scientifique Gainesville presents ... Evidence for Evolution: A Tour of Fossil Hall and Panel Discussion Saturday, September 13 1:30 pm to 4:30pm Florida Natural History Museum and Harn Art Museum Caf\u00c3\u00a9 Dr. Bruce MacFadden, Florida Museum Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, and graduate students will lead a tour of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Science Cafes"","block_context":{"text":"Science Cafes","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=19"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":233,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=233","url_meta":{"origin":2443,"position":3},"title":"Learning something new: meat-flavored water","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a while since I've done a \"learning something new every day\" post. But I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share some meat-flavored water with you. Well, not with you, but rather with your dog. The day has now come for your dog to have a sports drink!\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":712,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=712","url_meta":{"origin":2443,"position":4},"title":"Caf\u00c3\u00a9 Scientifique Gainesville report","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science secretary Mary Bahr provided the following report on the recent Caf\u00c3\u00a9 Scientifique, Gainesville. ------------------------------ We had about 85 people show up for our tours of the Museum fossil hall and the following discussion that Kevin Folta, Joe Meert, and Johnathan Bloch started with their fascinating presentations.\u00c2\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Science Cafes"","block_context":{"text":"Science Cafes","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=19"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2698,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2698","url_meta":{"origin":2443,"position":5},"title":"It’s time to make a difference","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Creationists, climate change deniers and anti-vaccine nuts are gloating. The instructional materials bill that will allow them to gum up the local textbook selection process and bully school boards into compromise passed its final House vote. Representatives approved it 94-25. Meanwhile, the final Senate committee to hear it said yes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Instructional Materials bills '17"","block_context":{"text":"Instructional Materials bills '17","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443"}],"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=2443"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2450,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443\/revisions\/2450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}