{"id":2457,"date":"2016-05-14T09:20:43","date_gmt":"2016-05-14T13:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2457"},"modified":"2016-05-14T09:28:47","modified_gmt":"2016-05-14T13:28:47","slug":"a-calm-response-to-an-anti-evolution-rant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2457","title":{"rendered":"A calm response to an anti-evolution rant"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a>. 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 supposed victories were so decisive that other scientists refused to participate and were instead “hiding under their desks.” I have yet to find solid evidence of any such debates or their fallout, but a guest columnist in Friday’s Gainesville Sun nicely rebuts the anti-evolutionist writer. Essentially, results of public debates have no bearing whatsoever on the actual science:\u00c2\u00a0Paul A. Gulig: Catholics face no conflict between faith and science<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His first point is to tell the story of an obviously inept debate on the subject that occurred on campus in the 1980s. The fact that an evolution supporter grossly failed in his mission does not negate the whole subject. If that were the case, nothing would be settled by debate because there are inept people taking every side of every issue, and all one would have to do is find the worst example of support for a side to show that the point of view is wrong.<\/p>\n

He then tells of a second alleged debate that was apparently one-sided for evolution. Again, the fact that a poorly planned event took place does not address the core issue.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I encourage you to read the whole piece. It’s a very nice take down, demonstrating just how vacuous the previous writer’s article was.<\/p>\n

Gulig is a professor in the\u00c2\u00a0Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology at the University of Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … 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-DD","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1218,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1218","url_meta":{"origin":2457,"position":0},"title":"Gainesville Sun opinion series","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Gainesville Sun has been running a series of guest opinion pieces concerning the evolution\/creationism controversy. This one by Amanda McIntosh is a garbled mess of reasoning. On the other hand, the one by Gregory Mead had me cheering. In contrast, supporters of creationism want special treatment. Creationists and IDers\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1218#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2443,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2443","url_meta":{"origin":2457,"position":1},"title":"He’s itching for a fight","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"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 debate at the University of Florida since the 1980s. Back\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2443#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=47","url_meta":{"origin":2457,"position":2},"title":"Florida Citizens for Science statement released","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The following statement was released to area media today: Florida Citizens for Science Statement Denouncing \"Darwin or Design\" Publicity Event A creationism event to be hosted at the Sun Dome Sept. 29, called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Darwin or Design? Resolving the Conflict,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a great example of a slick public relations campaign attacking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alert"","block_context":{"text":"Alert","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2004,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2004","url_meta":{"origin":2457,"position":3},"title":"“I’m not trying to get religion in schools”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Orlando Sentinel columnist Beth Kassab takes a firm stance for science education and against creationism in today's piece: Why are we still debating evolution in education? Florida Citizens for Science gets a mention at the end! I called [new Florida Board of Education member Andy] Tuck to find out where\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2004#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2698,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2698","url_meta":{"origin":2457,"position":4},"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":[]},{"id":384,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=384","url_meta":{"origin":2457,"position":5},"title":"It’s about our future, people!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This vendetta the anti-evolution crowd has against the new draft of the state science standards is not just a fight in the here and now. Their assault on science they quite frankly don't understand could affect our future. Mike Thomas, an Orlando Sentinel columnist, tells it like it is: Science\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Science Standards"","block_context":{"text":"Our Science Standards","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457"}],"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=2457"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2461,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457\/revisions\/2461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}