{"id":493,"date":"2008-03-06T06:38:58","date_gmt":"2008-03-06T11:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=493"},"modified":"2008-08-06T12:08:30","modified_gmt":"2008-08-06T16:08:30","slug":"another-columnist-sees-through-the-bs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=493","title":{"rendered":"Florida columnist and NY Times see through the BS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bill Maxwell, columnist for the St. Petersburg Times<\/a>, draws a clear line between personal faith and public education, and admonishes state Sen. Storms for crossing it.<\/p>\n

With state Sen. Ronda Storms officially joining the debate over the teaching of evolution in Florida’s public schools, reasonable residents should be wary and should contact their legislators today.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Why, I keep asking myself, do we have elected officials, including House Speaker Marco Rubio, and so many average citizens who are amenable to keeping our children ignorant of scientific principles?<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

The adults in our lives had common sense. The Bible had its place. That place was not in science instruction.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Again reasonable people should ask lawmakers in Tallahassee to keep Florida moving toward enlightenment by tossing out Storms’ backward-looking bill.<\/p>\n

If passed, it will permit the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in our science classes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And the New York Times<\/a> has a few things to say, too:<\/p>\n

Although some supporters of teaching evolution grouse that the standards were watered down, they actually look more airtight with the revisions. The standards make it clear that a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153scientific theory\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is well supported by evidence, not a mere claim, and that evolution is no different in this respect than many other widely accepted \u00e2\u20ac\u0153theories.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Some anti-evolutionists are now pushing Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Legislature to step in and allow the teaching of alternative explanations of biological origins. The alternatives that they have in mind would almost certainly not be deemed \u00e2\u20ac\u0153scientific\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and would have no legitimate place in science classes.<\/p>\n

If the standards are strictly followed, Florida may finally be on the way toward improving the quality of its science curriculum and the subpar performance of its students in national assessments.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bill Maxwell, columnist for the St. Petersburg Times, draws a clear line between personal faith and public education, and admonishes state Sen. Storms for crossing it. With state Sen. Ronda Storms officially joining the debate over the teaching of evolution … 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":[3,7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-7X","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":489,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=489","url_meta":{"origin":493,"position":0},"title":"Shooting yourself in the foot … over and over and over","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Please pardon the heavy sarcasm. Noooooooo ... the \"academic freedom act\" bills filed recently in the state House and Senate are not about religion at all! They're about education! Never mind the fact that these bills address evolution and only evolution. This is about education! If we repeat that enough\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":1856,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1856","url_meta":{"origin":493,"position":1},"title":"Yes, he could spice things up","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Creationist is just one label for Terry Kemple. He was one of the voices in the loud choir protesting evolution's place in our state science standards. His heavily conservative views in other matters, and his penchant for making sure everyone else knows what he thinks, have served to solidify his\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1856#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":560,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=560","url_meta":{"origin":493,"position":2},"title":"Late night tidbits","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It feels good to know we're not the only ones who can see through the so-called \"academic freedom\" and \"critical analysis\" of evolution certain lawmakers are trying to push. Newspapers in Florida have consistently been on the side of reality and good science. The St. Petersburg Times has an editorial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08"","block_context":{"text":"\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":941,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=941","url_meta":{"origin":493,"position":3},"title":"Letter in the Ledger","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science vice president Jonathan Smith had a letter published in the Lakeland Ledger today: Sen. Wise's \"Critical Analysis\" Bill Is Nothing More Than a Shell Game. Are our politicians so naive to think that this bill, should it pass, will not be vigorously challenged and fail, just\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=941#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":517,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=517","url_meta":{"origin":493,"position":4},"title":"Don’t Panic","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I have a little bit of an eyewitness account of what happened in the Senate Pre-K - 12 committee today concerning the creationism bill (\"academic freedom\") SB2692. But before I get to that I want to tell you: Don't Panic. Today's committee meeting was just one hurdle. The bill was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08"","block_context":{"text":"\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":558,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=558","url_meta":{"origin":493,"position":5},"title":"News roundup","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Before I get to the news accounts, here is notice that the House bill should get its second reading on Friday. Keep in mind that second reading means that the bill can be amended and debated, but there is no vote. That has to wait until the third reading. Time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08"","block_context":{"text":"\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493"}],"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=493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}