{"id":68,"date":"2006-10-12T20:30:22","date_gmt":"2006-10-13T00:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=68"},"modified":"2008-08-05T10:43:08","modified_gmt":"2008-08-05T14:43:08","slug":"our-response-to-the-letters-to-the-editor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=68","title":{"rendered":"Our response to the letters to the editor"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been waiting to post here on our blog our answers to the previous letters to the editor talked about here<\/a>. However, we learned that the newspaper chose not to publish our letter. On the positive side, they did publish Dr. Scott’s letter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I realize our letter is long, but I was hoping it would have been published as a guest column like Mr. Fisher’s opinion was. There was so much to respond to that there was no way to keep it short.<\/p>\n

Thanks to all who contributed your ideas. Feel free to provide constructive criticism of this letter so that we can be prepared the next time this rolls around.<\/p>\n

—————<\/p>\n

We appreciate McNally, Siwinski and Fisher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s responses to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Intelligent Design Creationism a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCon.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u009d One of Florida Citizens for Science\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s missions is to educate the public about science and dispel misconceptions and distortions that can get in the way. The three letter writers brought up some interesting, if woefully misguided, points that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re happy to respond to.<\/p>\n

Siwinski\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s letter indicates that he believes there is a conspiracy afoot to promote what he calls Darwinism and muzzle intelligent design. Intelligent design (ID) proponents are free and even encouraged to do the work to show their ideas are viable. Contrary to Siwinski\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s assertion that ID evidence is voluminous, there is very little such evidence published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Books filled with disproved attacks on evolution and marketed directly to the general public certainly aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t convincing any scientists actively working in the biology field today. We challenge ID proponents to quit putting on publicity events and start submitting their evidence to the scientific community where it belongs.<\/p>\n

Also in response to Siwinski\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s letter, ID promoters were given ample opportunity to support their cause in Dover, Pa., during a prominent court case pitting ID against evolution. Not only did ID lose in a big way, it was proven with evidence presented in the courtroom that ID is, in fact, just another form of creationism. ID defenders could have presented evidence otherwise, but couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. Their public relations machine couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be brought to bear in a court of law where evidence is paramount.<\/p>\n

McNally\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s letter illustrates a very common misconception concerning evolution. The word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153theory\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as used in science is actually an incredibly strong label. Rather than the common use of theory, meaning a guess or hunch, a scientific theory is an explanation of a related set of observed facts and how those facts fit together. The scientific theory of evolution has been around for more than a century and is strengthening almost on a daily basis as new research and facts are published in the scientific journals.<\/p>\n

McNally also refers to missing links. The term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153missing link\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is sorely outdated. The robust fossil record gathered so far (more is being discovered each year) is like a puzzle with pieces and sections missing here and there, but the overall picture is complete enough to show that, without a doubt, life has changed over the past four billion years.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unfortunate that writer Fisher tries to mix religion and science in his opening sentence, claiming that we castigate \u00e2\u20ac\u0153those who believe in the creator.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Nothing could be further from the truth as members of Florida Citizens for Science come from all backgrounds, including those who devoutly believe in God. Please take note of the Clergy Letter Project, which demonstrates that a wide swath of those with deeply held religious beliefs also make room for sound science. Science, by its very nature, takes no position on individuals\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 faiths. Fisher is just trying to take a cheap shot and stir up emotions.<\/p>\n

Fisher then launches into a string of quotes that are meant to overwhelm the reader with supposed contradictions concerning the viability of evolution. His first example\u00e2\u20ac\u201dseemingly dually quotes between Gould and Mayr\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis actually an example of good science, rather than the strife he makes it out to be. There have always been long-running debates about many of the specific mechanics of evolution. This is a healthy debate that over time can resolve itself as each side presents evidence through research for their views. However, both Gould and Mayr stood behind evolution as a whole, never doubting its validity. For example, there is still a very healthy debate about the specific mechanics of gravity, but I would think Fisher wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doubt that gravity exists. At least I hope not.<\/p>\n

The final point we will cover is Fisher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s carelessness in using a quote from Dr. Eugenie Scott\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Evolution vs. Creationism. He gets the title of the book and the date of publication wrong, and he chops off the last half of Dr. Scott\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sentence. On page 14 is the following complete quote: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What about the theory of evolution? Is it scientific? Some have claimed that since no one was there to see evolution occur, studying it cannot be scientific. Indeed, no paleontologist has ever observed one species evolving into another, but as we have seen, a theory can be scientific even if its phenomena are not directly observable.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Please don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just accept our word that any of the above is true. Visit a science museum, thumb through science textbooks and read about the exciting science news that flows out nearly every day. We are part of an amazing universe full of puzzles to be solved! You are welcome to visit our website at www.flascience.org<\/a> to learn more about science in Florida.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been waiting to post here on our blog our answers to the previous letters to the editor talked about here. However, we learned that the newspaper chose not to publish our letter. On the positive side, they did publish … 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":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-16","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":939,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=939","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":0},"title":"One mangled letter prompts flood of response","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in Febraury in the Palm Beach Post a professor of sociology wrote a letter to the editor: \"Darwin's theory, though valid, takes faith, too.\" It was a mangled mess of a letter that demonstrated just how ignorant the writer was concerning biology and evolution. Several other folks thought the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":639,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=639","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":1},"title":"Please correct the record","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A persistent letter writer to the TCPalm looks to be having his way with his creationist fantasies in the newspaper. Have a look (bold highlight mine): Roger Hule recently wrote in answering mine and several other letters objecting to his support of evolution. The letter was long on rhetoric and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antiscience nonsense"","block_context":{"text":"Antiscience nonsense","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=21"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3013,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3013","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":2},"title":"Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s have a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153factual, objective conversation\u00e2\u20ac\u009d","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I encourage you to comb through the letters to the editor in your local newspaper from the past week. The creationist and climate change denying group Florida Citizens' Alliance has been encouraging their members to respond to the Associated Press article that they don't like:\u00c2\u00a0New Florida law expected to increase\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3013#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":728,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=728","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":3},"title":"Textbooks changed under pressure","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science was under a time crunch to get a letter out to the Brevard County school board about science textbook selections. The letter could have benefitted from another round or two of rewrites, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do to get the letter out in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Textbooks"","block_context":{"text":"Textbooks","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=26"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1957,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1957","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":4},"title":"O Science, O Science! Wherefore art thou science?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science vice president Jonathan Smith has a letter to the editor in the Lakeland Ledger. The statewide meetings on Common Core Standards that Gov. Rick Scott attended recently has proven to be the fancy icing on the rotten cake that has become the Florida state education system.\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1957#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2312,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2312","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":5},"title":"Spread the word. No one else will.","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science president Jonathan Smith's letter to the editor in the Lakeland Ledger discusses students' poor performance on statewide science assessments. \"These results haven't improved since the state science standards were vastly upgraded in 2008; however, they will be mostly ignored by the media and brushed aside by\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68"}],"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=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}