{"id":495,"date":"2008-03-06T17:31:51","date_gmt":"2008-03-06T22:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=495"},"modified":"2008-08-06T12:07:13","modified_gmt":"2008-08-06T16:07:13","slug":"explore-the-strengths-and-weaknesses-of-floridas-academic-freedom-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=495","title":{"rendered":"Explore the strengths and weaknesses of Florida’s “Academic Freedom” bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is a guest post\/cross post from Panda’s Thumb<\/a> by Pete Dunkelberg. Pete is a Florida Citizens for Science board member.
\n————————<\/p>\n

By now regular readers of The Panda’s Thumb know that “academic Freedom” bills have been filed<\/a> in the Florida legislature, and you know that the bills are Disco designed. You have also noticed<\/a> Disco’s complaint<\/a> that people get it. The complaint reads like disingenuous gibberish, but why that specific gibberish?<\/p>\n

Son of Of Pandas and People<\/em> is the answer. Recall that the ID gang at the Discovery Institute (Disco) got the Dover school board in trouble with their creationist textbook Of Pandas and People<\/em>, in which the words “intelligent design” and “design proponents” had been substituted for the words “creationism” and “creationists”, with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cdesign proponentsists\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/a> as an intermediate form.<\/p>\n

The Disco fellows then wrote a new book called Explore Evolution<\/em> to do the job of Of Pandas and People<\/em>. The job is to present so called strengths of evolution in such a pale way that no one would think life evolved, and then pour on the usual false and misleading “weaknesses”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This new book is precisely the book to use to teach Disco’s version of strengths and weaknesses. PT previously reported<\/a> on a World Magazine<\/strong> article<\/a> making the point.
\n<\/p>\n

This fall, the 34-year teaching veteran will restructure his evenhanded presentation around a new textbook from the Seattle-based Discovery Institute. Explore Evolution: The Arguments for and Against
\nNeo-Darwinism (Hill House Publishers, 2007) does not address alternative theories of origins but succinctly lays out the scientific strengths and weaknesses of the most critical elements of Darwinism. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s made my work a lot easier,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cowan said.<\/p>\n

Explore Evolution encapsulates a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153teach the controversy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d paradigm that the Discovery Institute has advocated for the better part of the past decade.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

PT also reported<\/a> on an Old Earth Homeschool blog<\/a> which in turn reports on an event at Biola to make the same point:<\/p>\n

Wow, long day. I was down at Biola all day attending a symposium which unveiled a new curriculum designed to be used in public school classrooms (both at the high school and college level) to expose
\nstudents to the strengths and weaknesses of neo-Darwinian evolution.<\/p>\n

Explore Evolution: The Arguments for and Against Neo-Darwinism (Hill House Publishers, 2007)<\/p>\n

This is intended to be a supplement to a standard biology textbook. It presents the strengths and weaknesses of the evolutionary position and allow students to decide for themselves whether neo-Darwinism is, in fact, supported by the scientific record. The book does not promote Intelligent Design in any way, shape or form. However, it is written by leaders in the Intelligent Design movement and they don’t seem to be making any secret about this.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This explains why Crowther is frantically trying to convince everyone that the “academic freedom” bill means “strengths and weaknesses” and nothing but that, the actual words in the bill and what they mean to folks without his special agenda notwithstanding.<\/p>\n

There is extensive exploration of Explore Evolution<\/em> here at AtBC<\/a>. The book is not noted for good science, but it is very good creationism. The Disco plan seems to be to do Dover over using Son of Pandas<\/em> and the academic freedom bill. Will it work?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is a guest post\/cross post from Panda’s Thumb by Pete Dunkelberg. Pete is a Florida Citizens for Science board member. ———————— By now regular readers of The Panda’s Thumb know that “academic Freedom” bills have been filed in the … 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":[7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-7Z","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":503,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=503","url_meta":{"origin":495,"position":0},"title":"A quick analysis","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's my quick take on the whole Expelled mess and the relation to the creationism bills. I've been closely watching the media reports concerning science education in Florida for a few years now. I've seen tidal waves of news coverage when anti-evolution\/anti-science rises from the depths. The Seattle-based Discovery Institute\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Creationism Bills"","block_context":{"text":"Creationism Bills","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":529,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=529","url_meta":{"origin":495,"position":1},"title":"News Release: “Academic Freedom” bills needless and treacherous","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The following press release has been sent out. Our media page is available for any interested reporters. SO-CALLED \"ACADEMIC FREEDOM\" BILLS ARE NEEDLESS AND TREACHEROUS Senate bill 2692, \"evolution academic freedom act\" will be going before the Judiciary committee Tuesday. The Senate bill and its companion House bill are raising\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":895,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=895","url_meta":{"origin":495,"position":2},"title":"You’ve got to be kidding me …","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"State Sen. Stephen Wise of Jacksonville announced through an article in the Florida Times Union that he plans to file a bill this legislative session to require evolution to be balanced with a discussion of intelligent design. Yes, require. Not just allow, but to require. Of course, we have to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"ID Creationism\" bills '09"","block_context":{"text":"\"ID Creationism\" bills '09","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=27"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=19","url_meta":{"origin":495,"position":3},"title":"PIGDIG","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"FlCfS board member Pete Dunkelberg submitted this for posting here. Creationism Now A new book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design (PIGDID) provides a very good catalog of current creationist arguments. The author, Jonathan Wells, is a Discovery Institute (DI) Fellow who has dedicated his life to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":535,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=535","url_meta":{"origin":495,"position":4},"title":"Media Alert","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The following two media alerts are being sent out to news outlets statewide: First one is notice of a press conference and the second is a notice of a Public Roundtable Discussion. Reporters are encouraged to visit the Florida Citizens for Science Media Page. ** NEWS CONFERENCE \u00e2\u20ac\u201c MONDAY 4\/14\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":517,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=517","url_meta":{"origin":495,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495"}],"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=495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}