{"id":409,"date":"2008-01-25T19:03:35","date_gmt":"2008-01-26T00:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=409"},"modified":"2008-08-05T20:47:36","modified_gmt":"2008-08-06T00:47:36","slug":"show-and-tell-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=409","title":{"rendered":"Show and tell time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here are a couple of things that have happened to me lately that I thought y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all might get a kick out of.<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get personal mail at work. No letters, no junk mail, no packages, nothing. But yesterday a small package arrived for me. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s weird, I thought. The first thing I did was look for the return address. There wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t one. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really<\/em> weird, I thought. I have to admit to being a bit nervous as I slowly and carefully opened the box. To my relief, the only contents were a book and a typed note. The book was The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel. The note was polite and well intentioned, but unsigned. My mysterious benefactor shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have wasted the money and effort on sending me the book. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve already read it along with several other books of the creationist\/intelligent design stripe. I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t impressed with Strobel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book to say the least.<\/p>\n

Creationist\/ID apologetics books are just part of the game, and I can understand and live with their existence. But I have a problem with all of Strobel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s books that goes a step beyond just the apologetics. His promotional material plays up the whole \u00e2\u20ac\u0153journalist investigates\u00e2\u20ac\u009d angle, which I find nauseating. His books are nothing more than butt kissing sessions with his carefully selected lineup of creationist\/ID cast of characters. His \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a skeptic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d crap is nothing short of a blatant lie.<\/p>\n

You want some real reporting in a book? Give Monkey Girl by Edward Humes<\/a> a try. Humes does an outstanding job of examining all the angles of the Dover, Pa. ID trial. And a good way to wash away the awful sliminess I felt when I had read Strobel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book was to read Carl Zimmer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Evolution, The Triumph of an Idea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not my only story. I work for a Sheriff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Office, and earlier this month one of our helicopters did an amazing emergency landing. Thankfully, no one was injured despite the chopper blowing a turbine in midair and losing power. The local newspaper reports on the incident, of course. Well, the paper\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s website has one heck of a lively online community of folks who leave comments on each story. These comments conversations (which for some reason they refer to as blogs) can get explosive, silly and just plain nuts. The helicopter story was no different. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one comment that I thought y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all would enjoy:<\/p>\n

Have any of you that blogged last night on the Evolution VS God story that spoke about Brandon Haught from the Sheriff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office, ever considered that maybe just maybe this happened because GOD WAS ANGRY? He also wanted to show his power by allowing these guys to walk away from this crash with minimal injury! DO YOU THINK IT WAS A LESSON?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, do ya, punk? Do ya think it was a lesson?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are a couple of things that have happened to me lately that I thought y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all might get a kick out of. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get personal mail at work. No letters, no junk mail, no packages, nothing. But yesterday a … 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":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-6B","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2196,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2196","url_meta":{"origin":409,"position":0},"title":"Folks got a bit stirred up!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"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 people calling in to ask questions and state opinions. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 9 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 9 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2196#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/SMBC-Second-Law-of-Thermodynamics-219x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3020,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3020","url_meta":{"origin":409,"position":1},"title":"Meanwhile, in Nassau County: “I thought evolution was a bunch of baloney”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A Nassau County resident protested to the school board in November about evolution being taught in schools. He asked that the board approve the placement of disclaimer stickers in all textbooks that mention evolution. The school board made the right decision Thursday, voting unanimously against that idea. Even though the\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":922,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=922","url_meta":{"origin":409,"position":2},"title":"Florida’s Greatest Menace V: Brainwashing Students","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"(This is the fifth part in the Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Greatest Menace series. For an introduction to the series, go here.) A new leader Waging a battle against the teaching of evolution has but one requirement: a leader with a fire in the belly and time to devote to the cause. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=922#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1581,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1581","url_meta":{"origin":409,"position":3},"title":"Rotten apples","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worry if that juicy apple has a rotten spot, folks. Just quickly swallow the mush and move on. There is still plenty of crisp, cool fruit to enjoy once you get past it. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the thrust of an argument posted recently at the redefinED blog: Why science advocates should\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1581#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2346,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2346","url_meta":{"origin":409,"position":4},"title":"Science is science, hopefully","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Tampa Bay's Creative Loafing blog Political Animal has a post up entitled School of thought: Florida schools are ripe for potential church-state violations. Of interest to us is this observation: Science is science. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d think there wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be any argument over whether something that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not based on empirical evidence should\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 20 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 20 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2346#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2702,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2702","url_meta":{"origin":409,"position":5},"title":"Marching for Science across Florida","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The March for Science events across Florida were awesome! I attended the Space Coast March and I was genuinely excited to see how many folks attended. From the front of the march I could look back and see the mass of chanting and sign-waving people stretching out for blocks behind\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/march2-269x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409"}],"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=409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}