{"id":400,"date":"2008-01-19T10:11:08","date_gmt":"2008-01-19T15:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=400"},"modified":"2008-08-05T20:53:47","modified_gmt":"2008-08-06T00:53:47","slug":"a-letter-to-the-editor-worth-noting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=400","title":{"rendered":"A letter to the editor worth noting"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been staying away from posting letters to the editor on this blog, because there are so many of them. But this one I thought was worth taking note of due in part to what it says and in part to who wrote it. This was in the Palm Beach Post today<\/a> and is from State Rep. Dan Gelber.<\/p>\n

Intelligent design teachings not smart for public schools<\/p>\n

Florida is in the midst of determining whether intelligent design and creationism should be taught alongside evolution in our public schools. It would be a great mistake to give intelligent design, or any other faux science, a home in Florida’s science classes.<\/p>\n

The state Board of Education will soon vote to accept or reject new science standards for teachers that must be updated to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, and the culture wars are heating up. When the Department of Education released its proposed standards in October, for the first time the word evolution was included as a standard to the agreement of many in the educational and scientific community.<\/p>\n

The Board of Education is likely to vote on the new science standards in February. No matter what the outcome, legislators will have an opportunity to have their say when the legislative session convenes the following month. I fear the worst.<\/p>\n

One of the problems with teaching intelligent design as the “other side” of Charles Darwin’s scientific theory is that it is not an opposing scientific theory. It is religion posing as science. While the theory of evolution argues that man and other species evolve through the process of natural selection, intelligent design is an assertion that living things are simply so complex that they are best explained as the act of some intelligent designer.<\/p>\n

Intelligent design cannot be tested scientifically because it is ultimately premised on something that cannot be proven scientifically: faith. This is why it is so dangerous, to both religion and science, to teach them side by side. Imagine debates in science classes about what part a higher deity had in designing life. While knowledge of scientific theories can be tested, how would a teacher grade a student’s support of creationism based solely on faith?<\/p>\n

If you have to teach creationism because it has been dressed up in a pretend scientific theory, what about those creation theories that forgo involvement of a deity and credit man’s creation to intelligent designers from another galaxy? Imagine how parents would react when they hear their child learned from the science teacher that aliens created the Earth and everything on it, without any scientific evidence.<\/p>\n

Florida should resist efforts to include “intelligent design” in public school science classes. Mixing faith and science can only harm both.<\/p>\n

REP. DAN GELBER
\nD-Miami Beach<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My thanks to Rep. Gelber for being courageous enough to submit this. Take note of the part where he says: “No matter what the outcome, legislators will have an opportunity to have their say when the legislative session convenes the following month. I fear the worst.” Please write to Gelber<\/a> thanking him for his support of science and asking him what we the citizens can do to help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been staying away from posting letters to the editor on this blog, because there are so many of them. But this one I thought was worth taking note of due in part to what it says and in part … 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":[6,7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-6s","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=10","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":0},"title":"Volusia joins the fray","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I have to admit to being shocked over how much intelligent design is cropping up in Florida school board races. I would think candidates would want to avoid that albatross what with all the times intelligent design has gone down in flames lately. Citrus, Escambia ... and now Volusia county\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":317,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=317","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":1},"title":"Last night’s science standards meeting","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Orlando Sentinel reports that several people attended last night's meeting in Orlando about the new draft science standards with the objective of promoting intelligent design and complaining about evolution. But several people who spoke Thursday urged state Department of Education officials to allow schools to teach intelligent design and\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":[]},{"id":331,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=331","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":2},"title":"We know what one vote will be now …","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Before I begin, let me give a brief recap of what's going on for anyone just joining us. Florida's state science standards for public schools is currently going through a revision process. The current standards are a miserable mess, having been given a grade of F by the Fordham Institute.\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":315,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=315","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":3},"title":"Polk County: School official wants intelligent design","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This just in from the Lakeland Ledger. A Polk County School Board member said Monday she wants the district to consider opposing proposed new science standards for Florida schools that would include specific mention of evolution for the first time. ... However, Polk board member Kay Fields objects to the\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":336,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=336","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":4},"title":"It’s hitting the fan now","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The issue of evolution in the state science standards, and the fate of those standards because of evolution, made the headlines today. Florida Citizens for Science members and the National Center for Science Education were very busy yesterday with interviews for these stories. The main strategy being used here by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":319,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=319","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":5},"title":"Polk County on alert","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I had posted before about a Polk County school board member, Kay Fields, who expressed an interest in intelligent design. Well, the situation just got a whole lot worse. The local newspaper there, the Lakeland Ledger, asked the other board members for their opinions and revealed that a majority seem\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400"}],"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=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}