{"id":431,"date":"2008-02-05T21:15:39","date_gmt":"2008-02-06T02:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=431"},"modified":"2008-08-06T10:32:31","modified_gmt":"2008-08-06T14:32:31","slug":"another-story-on-those-goofy-lawmakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=431","title":{"rendered":"Another story on those goofy lawmakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Miami Herald just published a story online<\/a> about some state legislators getting worked up over evolution in the state science standards. Of course, that’s bad news. But the overwhelmingly good news from my perspective is how the reporter prominently featured the correct definition of a scientific theory! It’s about time.<\/p>\n

”It’s technically a theory. Let’s present it for what it is” Coley told The Miami Herald on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Coley’s proposal concerns backers of mainstream science because they fear the word ”theory” could be easily manipulated to cast doubt on evolution, a pillar of biology.<\/p>\n

In common usage, a theory is just a guess. In scientific terms, a theory — like gravity or quantum mechanics — is a testable explanation of a phenomenon based on facts.<\/p>\n

”If you use the word theory to imply that scientists think evolution is just a hypothesis and is not real, that gives an incorrect impression,” said Prof. Joseph Travis, the dean of Florida State University’s Arts and Sciences College, who reviewed the state’s science standards.<\/p>\n

”If you use the word theory to say it’s the best idea to explain how it works, then that’s good,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thank you, Prof. Travis! You are my hero of the day.<\/p>\n

‘We are prepared,” said Coley, who raised the issue the day before during a conference call concerning class size. Coley hasn’t filed legislation but has discussed that option with next year’s House Speaker designate, Ray Sansom of Destin, and his likely successor, Dean Cannon of Winter Park, and Will Weatherford, Republican of Wesley Chapel.<\/p>\n

Cannon said intelligent design should ideally be taught, but would leave that issue up to the ”curricular experts.” And Wise, who said he is considering ”legislative remedies,” went a step further by saying that creationism should be taught in schools.<\/p>\n

”Put them side by side,” he said of evolution and biblical teaching.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And Wise, you are definitely my villain of the day.<\/p>\n

Travis, the FSU professor, said teaching evolution is key because it underpins the biological study of everything from dinosaurs to diseases. He also wondered why the critics aren’t pushing to have the word ”theory” precede mentions of gravity in the standards.<\/p>\n

Asked if it should be called the ”Theory of Gravity” in the standards, Coley said: “Sure.”<\/p>\n

But, she said, people aren’t calling her about gravity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Miami Herald just published a story online about some state legislators getting worked up over evolution in the state science standards. Of course, that’s bad news. But the overwhelmingly good news from my perspective is how the reporter prominently … 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":[6,3,7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-6X","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":446,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=446","url_meta":{"origin":431,"position":0},"title":"Sunday news roundup","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm pressed for time, so please excuse me for just doing a quick news dump here. I'm taking care of both Florida Citizens for Science and personal stuff before jumping into the car Monday for the trip to Tallahassee. Orlando Sentinel: 4 extra words in Florida science proposal rankle educators\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":338,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=338","url_meta":{"origin":431,"position":1},"title":"Miami Herald article","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Miami Herald jumps into the fray over evolution in the Florida public schools science standards. The reporter writes a comprehensive piece on what is going on, the history of attacks on evolution education, and interviews quite a few people to try to display everyone's views on the subject. In\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":363,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=363","url_meta":{"origin":431,"position":2},"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":873,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=873","url_meta":{"origin":431,"position":3},"title":"What’s happening in Texas","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of Florida newspapers ran stories this morning about the fight over evolution instruction in Texas. Sarasota Herald: In Texas, a Line in the Curriculum Revives Evolution Debate Many biologists and teachers said they feared that the board would force textbook publishers to include what skeptics see as weaknesses\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":425,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=425","url_meta":{"origin":431,"position":4},"title":"Another lawmaker, the same old lawyer, and a theory","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"An Associated Press article popped up on the Orlando Sentinel website this evening. The state Board of Education was having a conference call with state legislators concerning class size stuff when a panhandle lawmaker couldn't resist the urge to say a few words about evolution in the state science standards.\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":2451,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2451","url_meta":{"origin":431,"position":5},"title":"We lost a friend","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"There is some very sad news from over the weekend. Sir Harry Kroto, Nobel Prize winning chemist teaching at Florida State University, passed away Saturday. He was a great friend to us here at Florida Citizens for Science. During the big fight over evolution in the state standards back in\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2451#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431"}],"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=431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}