{"id":546,"date":"2008-04-16T06:33:19","date_gmt":"2008-04-16T10:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=546"},"modified":"2008-08-31T16:25:32","modified_gmt":"2008-08-31T20:25:32","slug":"21st-century-or-17th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=546","title":{"rendered":"21st century or 17th?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Columnist in the Sun-Sentinel<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Scientists need to keep an open mind, for there’s no telling what the future will bring in the way of knowledge. As Florida moves into that future, however, its public schools need to deal with real science, and not pseudo-science based on the begats or equally questionable foundations.<\/p>\n

Republicans in government should remember Terri Schiavo. They pandered to the religious right by trying to keep her hooked up to a feeding tube, but their actions appalled millions of other Floridians, and they felt the backlash.<\/p>\n

The same could hold true for evolution. Legislators may win some votes through an egalitarian approach toward biological science, but they risk alienating plenty of other Floridians who want to live in the 21st century rather than the 17th.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Column in the Independent Florida Alligator<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Despite voluminous legal precedents condemning the teaching in public schools of creationism or intelligent design \u00e2\u20ac\u201d whichever term you prefer; they are one in the same \u00e2\u20ac\u201d as an unconstitutional state endorsement of religion, and despite the overwhelming backing that the theory of evolution enjoys from the scientific community, the religious right just won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quit.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Republican-controlled Florida legislature \u00e2\u20ac\u201d which now boasts a prodigious 32 percent approval rating, the lowest ever \u00e2\u20ac\u201d moved one step closer to pushing through an incredibly ignorant and shamelessly duplicitous piece of legislation that aims to inject religion into the Sunshine State\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s public schools. The deceptively named \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Academic Freedom Act\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is now one House council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s approval away from a floor vote. The Senate is already set to vote on the measure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Columnist in the Sun-Sentinel: Scientists need to keep an open mind, for there’s no telling what the future will bring in the way of knowledge. As Florida moves into that future, however, its public schools need to deal with real … 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":[23],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-8O","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":603,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=603","url_meta":{"origin":546,"position":0},"title":"Caf\u00c3\u00a9 Scientifique Gainesville","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Caf\u00c3\u00a9 Scientifique Gainesville Hosts a Presentation Titled: Florida's Vanishing Water Cynthia Barnett, Journalist and Author Abstract: In the 19th Century, Floridians were determined to rid the land of water, never imagining how sorely we would someday miss 9 million acres of wetlands drained statewide. In the 20th Century, we viewed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Science Cafes"","block_context":{"text":"Science Cafes","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=19"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2723,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2723","url_meta":{"origin":546,"position":1},"title":"“Antiscience bill passed in Florida”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We'll issue an official, detailed statement later. But for now, here's the bad news from today's Florida legislature (courtesy of National Center for Science Education): Antiscience bill passed in Florida A Florida bill aimed at empowering taxpayers to object to the use of specific instructional materials in the public schools,\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":384,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=384","url_meta":{"origin":546,"position":2},"title":"It’s about our future, people!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This vendetta the anti-evolution crowd has against the new draft of the state science standards is not just a fight in the here and now. Their assault on science they quite frankly don't understand could affect our future. Mike Thomas, an Orlando Sentinel columnist, tells it like it is: Science\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":531,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=531","url_meta":{"origin":546,"position":3},"title":"Free Florida’s students from lagging behind","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a good guest opinion column in the Orlando Sentinel: Free Florida's students from lagging behind Some 422,000 Floridians remained out of work in February, the housing market continued its downward spiral, and less than two-fifths -- just 37 percent -- of all 11th-graders across Florida had mastered science-learning goals\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":36,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=36","url_meta":{"origin":546,"position":4},"title":"Studying earthquakes … in Florida","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 12, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Nope, hurricanes are just not enough for Floridians to handle. Now we have to worry about the ground shaking too. Sheesh! Last year's strong hurricane season may have contributed to a magnitude 6.0 earthquake in the Gulf of Mexico Sunday, a University of Florida professor says. ... Hurricane Katrina moved\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Science in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Science in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=5"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":519,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=519","url_meta":{"origin":546,"position":5},"title":"Friday morning news","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Tampa Bay Online: Academic Anarchy What Stein really meant to say is that the bill insulates teachers from being held accountable for their speech. One wonders whether Florida's citizens really desire that public-school teachers have that type of protection, one to which few private-sector workers are entitled (and for good\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\/546"}],"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=546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}