{"id":563,"date":"2008-04-25T21:41:31","date_gmt":"2008-04-26T01:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=563"},"modified":"2008-08-31T16:07:14","modified_gmt":"2008-08-31T20:07:14","slug":"reaction-sent-to-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=563","title":{"rendered":"Reaction sent to media"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following reaction was sent to the media earlier today following the anti-evolution bill debate in the Florida House. The St. Petersburg Times education blog, the Gradebook<\/a>, has already linked to it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Florida Citizens for Science response to today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s House debate on HB 1483 and SB 2692 concerning the teaching of evolution.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Florida Citizens for Science commends Rep. Martin Kiar for his attempt to control Rep. D. Alan Hays\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 misguided, uninformed bill that attempts to regulate how the subject of evolution is taught in the public school classroom. Rep. Hays\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 own comments condemn him to being a complete fool when it comes to matters of science. He claims that his bill has nothing to do with religion, and yet the off-kilter things he says about science are obviously straight out of creationist literature.<\/p>\n

His claim that there are no transitional fossils<\/a> clearly illustrates his lack of knowledge about the current state of the fossil evidence. Natural history museums across this country and around the world are packed full of transitional fossils. Florida Citizens for Science will gladly pay for Rep. Hays\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 admission price to a museum, such as perhaps the Florida Museum of Natural History<\/a>, and provide a working biologist as his tour guide. That museum’s Hall of Florida Fossils: Evolution of Life and Land<\/a> is outstanding! Rep. Hays is in desperate need of such a fact-finding trip. He holds a cartoon version of evolution in his head that is completely at odds with the reality. He actually demands that science produce some chimera creature, such as in his own words a half fly\/half monkey. No biologist would ever propose that such a creature exists. This gross distortion of science is a common creationist tactic, which Rep. Hays is wielding with gusto.<\/p>\n

Many lawmakers today wanted to know what scientists have to fear from critical analysis. Nothing. If the bill does not pass, that does not mean that critical analysis will be stifled in any way. It happens right now in the science classroom, and will continue to happen. These lawmakers are setting up a red herring<\/a> of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153what are you afraid of\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? If Hays\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 carnival funhouse mirror version of evolution is what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s basing his critical analysis on, then I can see why he is confused. It is offensive that a person who has such a dismal understanding of science would dare to write a law regulating that science. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no different than him saying the sun rises in the North and then trying to write a law based on that childish notion.<\/p>\n

His response to there being no controversy in the scientific community over the fact of evolution was to direct lawmakers to the Expelled movie. Hays has swallowed whole the story fed to him by the Discovery Institute of Seattle, Wash. The controversy, such as it is, is all public relations and completely manufactured. The website expelledexposed.com<\/a> provides proof of this.<\/p>\n

Rep. Shelley Vana was correct in cautioning against having this debate concerning evolution. It shows that Florida is woefully stuck in the dark ages, and most certainly will drive away the high-tech scientific research industries the state has been courting for years.<\/p>\n

# # #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following reaction was sent to the media earlier today following the anti-evolution bill debate in the Florida House. The St. Petersburg Times education blog, the Gradebook, has already linked to it. Florida Citizens for Science response to today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s House … 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":[23,24],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-95","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":566,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=566","url_meta":{"origin":563,"position":0},"title":"Release: Response to today’s vote","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The following was sent out to the media today: Response to today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s House vote passing the deceptively named \u00e2\u20ac\u0153academic freedom\u00e2\u20ac\u009d bill. April 28, 2008 Contact: Brandon Haught, Florida Citizens for Science bhaught@flascience.org \/ www.flascience.org \/ (Media Page available) Rep. D. Alan Hays wants to know what people are afraid of\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":562,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=562","url_meta":{"origin":563,"position":1},"title":"What happened in the House today","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Debate on the anti-evolution bill went on for an hour and a half. There were times when I was cheering and times when I could barely keep myself from punching my computer monitor. I just need to say this and get it out of the way: Rep. Hays is 100%\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":542,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=542","url_meta":{"origin":563,"position":2},"title":"An important question goes unasked","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In the Florida House of Representatives recently 11 lawmakers were bogged down in a lengthy discussion concerning biological evolution. A bill specifically singling out the subject of evolution as taught in the public school classroom dominated well over an hour in the Friday Schools and Learning committee meeting. Despite the\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":2421,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2421","url_meta":{"origin":563,"position":3},"title":"They’re not dead yet & Getting the word out there","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In my previous post I said that the \"instructional materials\" bills in the state legislature don't look like they're going anywhere. But I also said that they can't be considered dead yet. I was right:\u00c2\u00a0'No bill is dead' in Florida Senate Education, chairman says. Chairman John Legg told the Gradebook\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Instructional Materials bills '16"","block_context":{"text":"Instructional Materials bills '16","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=31"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2013,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2013","url_meta":{"origin":563,"position":4},"title":"Cooked Ham","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The debate event between Bill Nye and Ken Ham attracted the notice of the Tampa Bay Times: Nye, Ham unearth age-old debate: Evolution vs. Creationism. Our very own Florida Citizens for Science vice president Jonathan Smith was asked for his reaction before and after the debate. Before: \"All this achieves\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 8 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 8 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2013#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":564,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=564","url_meta":{"origin":563,"position":5},"title":"Final week","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to the final week of the state legislative session. Today will most likely see the final vote in the House on the anti-evolution bill, so keep an eye on the bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s page to find out the end result. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t anticipate any surprises there. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happened so far: The\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\/563"}],"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=563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}