{"id":579,"date":"2008-05-08T07:11:24","date_gmt":"2008-05-08T11:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=579"},"modified":"2008-08-06T22:11:48","modified_gmt":"2008-08-07T02:11:48","slug":"scientist-expelled-for-giving-speech-about-evolution-on-darwin-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=579","title":{"rendered":"Scientist “expelled” for giving speech about evolution … on Darwin Day?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not sure why it took this long to see news on the subject. Maybe I just happened to miss it when it happened, or the folks responsible were good at keeping it under wraps. But, apparently, back in February a scientist was set to give a speech about evolution, a subject she is an expert in. The event was Darwin Day. Rather fitting to have a speech about evolution on that day, don’t you think? Pinellas County officials didn’t think so<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And since [University of South Florida professor Lorena] Madrigal’s [link<\/a>] doctorate is in anthropology, in which she has developed an academic expertise in genetics and human evolution, what better speaker could the Friends of the Brooker Creek Preserve [link<\/a>] hope for to deliver remarks on Darwin Day?<\/p>\n

However, a week before she was to speak, Madrigal was given the bum’s rush by Pinellas County officials, who canceled her appearance.<\/p>\n

“They told me very clearly they felt their budget was in danger if the lecture took place,” Madrigal said.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Her topic was about evolution,” [William Davis, the Pinellas County director of environmental services] said. … “I flinched on that.”<\/p>\n

“I canceled her out after discussing it with my supervisors,” he said. “We are not the platform for debate on creationism versus evolution.”<\/p>\n

Even on Darwin Day?!?!?! Apparently not.<\/p>\n

“We don’t believe it’s our role to engage in that debate,” Davis said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s a Preserve. It’s a place devoted to nature and science and education. There is no debate, Mr. Davis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not sure why it took this long to see news on the subject. Maybe I just happened to miss it when it happened, or the folks responsible were good at keeping it under wraps. But, apparently, back in February … 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":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-9l","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2563,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2563","url_meta":{"origin":579,"position":0},"title":"Happy Darwin Day!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I'll be in Winter Park today at the Central Florida Freethought Community's Darwin Day event. When it's my turn to take the mic at about 2:30, I'll talk about whether evolution is being taught in schools, a brief history of anti-evolution efforts in Florida and then wrap up with a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"cffc-dd","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/cffc-dd-1024x390.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/cffc-dd-1024x390.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/cffc-dd-1024x390.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/cffc-dd-1024x390.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":833,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=833","url_meta":{"origin":579,"position":1},"title":"New Scientists’ top 10 evolution stories","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"New Scientist published a list of the magazine's top 10 stories about evolution. How trees changed the world Reclaiming the peppered moth for science Uncovering the evolution of the bacterial flagellum Evolution: What missing link? Evolution: 24 myths and misconceptions Rewriting Darwin: The new non-genetic inheritance The Ordivician: Life's second\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1828,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1828","url_meta":{"origin":579,"position":2},"title":"Evolution lesson","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science vice-president Jonathan Smith once again pens a newspaper column, this time honoring Darwin Day with a lesson about evidences for evolution all around us: See Evolution Evidence in Daily Life. As a society, we remain ambivalent toward the subject, not realizing that trying to equate Darwin\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 13 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 13 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1828#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1494,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1494","url_meta":{"origin":579,"position":3},"title":"Darwin Day","author":"Jonathan Smith","date":"February 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I had written a Op Ed for one of the Florida Newspapers entitled \"Do We Need Darwin\" which they agreed to publish. However on Thursday last I recievd a e-mail from them stating that they wanted\u00c2\u00a0sole rights to the article and I was not allowed to republish all, or any\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2264,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2264","url_meta":{"origin":579,"position":4},"title":"Darwin Day events 2015","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are three Darwin Day events coming up in the next few weeks: 1. Humanists of Sarasota Bay will host a Darwin Day event: Nancy Howell, professor emerita of sociology at the University of Toronto, will be speaking on \"Human Evolution: A Kalahari Perspective\" at 11:30 a.m. on February 7,\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2264#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":900,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=900","url_meta":{"origin":579,"position":5},"title":"Happy Birthday, Mr. Darwin","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"-- The Miami Herald says happy birthday to Charles Darwin: Biologists know that Darwin is still relevant. His theories regarding natural selection have been proved right in experiments and by scientists all over the world. 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