{"id":382,"date":"2008-01-11T18:13:50","date_gmt":"2008-01-11T23:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=382"},"modified":"2008-08-05T21:08:20","modified_gmt":"2008-08-06T01:08:20","slug":"governor-hit-by-the-theory-bug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=382","title":{"rendered":"Governor: Hit by the theory bug"},"content":{"rendered":"

Probably the single greatest public misconception out there when it comes to political and public battles over evolution is that ornery word: theory. Even our governor seems a bit befuddled about the concept, as seen in a short news story today<\/a> at WJHG:<\/p>\n

Governor Charlie Crist is taking a wait and see attitude.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think the way it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been handled historically in Florida is probably appropriate. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been introduced and discussed in terms of being a theory. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a need for a change in that. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll leave the decision to the board.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps a big push to clarify the meaning of a scientific theory is in order. How do we educate the decision makers and the general public about this? If you have any particularly good links to resources that clearly explain what a theory is in science, please leave them in the comments. Here are a few to get us started.
\nTalkOrigins<\/a>. PBS online course<\/a>. National Academy Press<\/a>. Wikipedia<\/a>. Video on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Probably the single greatest public misconception out there when it comes to political and public battles over evolution is that ornery word: theory. Even our governor seems a bit befuddled about the concept, as seen in a short news story … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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-6a","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":363,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=363","url_meta":{"origin":382,"position":0},"title":"Has it hit you where you live yet?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The battle over evolution continues at a fierce pace, as we discover in the Palm Beach Post today. Three new counties are now added to our watchlist: St Lucie, Palm Beach, and Martin. However, we need to keep our eyes on the ball. The real fight that we must concentrate\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":2793,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2793","url_meta":{"origin":382,"position":1},"title":"The fight will now be won or lost where you live.","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Unfortunately, the devious Instructional Materials bill, which creationists and climate change deniers absolutely love, is now signed into law by Governor Rick Scott. This means our fight is only just now beginning. Each and every one of us has to be on alert. You must keep an eye on your\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":2106,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2106","url_meta":{"origin":382,"position":2},"title":"Going Ape in the news","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A story about me and my new book was published in the Daytona Beach News Journal today. The piece also features quotes from Florida Citizens for Science president Jonathan Smith and Florida Family Policy Council president John Stemberger. John Stemberger, president of the Orlando-based Florida Family Policy Council, said he\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2106#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2159,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2159","url_meta":{"origin":382,"position":3},"title":"Deniers will deny","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Awesome! Going Ape was used in this Tallahassee Democrat column to help show how evolution deniers and climate change deniers are a lot alike:\u00c2\u00a0Evolution, climate change share a lot In \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Going Ape,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d it is clear that nothing would convince some people that evolution is a scientific theory worth teaching. And\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3169,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3169","url_meta":{"origin":382,"position":4},"title":"Columns about science in Florida papers this week","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Columns were published in two papers this week about science. The first is by Pensacola News Journal writer Troy Moon:\u00c2\u00a0Flat Earthers \u00e2\u20ac\u201d science deniers, trolls or just kind of, well, not that bright? Some of you wise folks might have thought the Flat Earth Theory went away once humans learned\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3180,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3180","url_meta":{"origin":382,"position":5},"title":"Yes, “just a theory” is getting under my skin","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been hearing the \"evolution is just a theory\" crap much too often lately. And I imagine I'll be hearing much more of it in the coming months. It prompted me to use it as the theme of my latest opinion column, this time published in the Daytona Beach News\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3180#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/theorywere.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382"}],"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=382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}