There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no debate in legitimate scientific circles that evolution is the bedrock biological principle and should be taught to public school students.<\/p>\n
Indeed, two studies just published in the journal Nature offer even more evidence that species can and have evolved from common ancestors.<\/p>\n
Crusaders who fear scientific knowledge may discredit religious belief, however, want to seed doubt about evolution in the minds of students by introducing unsubstantiated claims about the origins of life into biology class.<\/p>\n
A federal judge in Dover, Pa., recently ruled that an attempt to mix faith-based intelligent design theory with hard science in the Dover school district was unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
But Florida Education Commissioner John Winn ignored that message when he put a version of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Biology, the Dynamics of Life\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that includes a section on divine origins on the list of state-approved science textbook choices.<\/p>\n
The Brevard County school district is now reviewing those choices, with textbook committee recommendations to be presented to the School Board on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n
We trust district officials to make curriculum decisions that best help students gain needed scientific literacy. That means tossing aside books that undermine the teaching of evolution by discussing intelligent design.
\nBeliefs about supernatural beginnings of life can be discussed in other courses, such as world cultures, but they have no place in biology class.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Intelligent choices Brevard School Board should toss aside textbooks that undermine scientific learning Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good editorial that gives me hope that there are, in fact, voices of reason out there. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no debate in legitimate scientific circles that evolution … 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":[26],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-bL","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3301,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3301","url_meta":{"origin":729,"position":0},"title":"Martin County textbook complaints: “scientific sounding language” fails to impress","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A hearing was held on May 9 after several Martin County residents complained about the \"one-sided\" nature of science textbooks the school board was in the process of adopting. I gave a very detailed account of what happened at the hearing:\u00c2\u00a0Martin County textbook hearing: Evolution \u00e2\u20ac\u0153is not proven science\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. For\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3301#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":153,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=153","url_meta":{"origin":729,"position":1},"title":"Essay: Battle for Evolution","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In honor of Darwin Day, I'm posting here an essay I recently did for a college class.\u00c2\u00a0I'm happy because just last week I got the grade back on it, and it was real good! Enjoy.\u00c2\u00a0 The Battle for Evolution in Public Schools Scientists today and throughout history are no strangers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "beekay's college"","block_context":{"text":"beekay's college","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":167,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=167","url_meta":{"origin":729,"position":2},"title":"Interview with Wesley Elsberry","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I had written a college paper on the subject of introducing intelligent design into the public school classroom. For that paper I had to do some primary research, which involved either an interview with a subject expert or a survey. I opted for an interview and I chose Wesley Elsberry\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":317,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=317","url_meta":{"origin":729,"position":3},"title":"Last night’s science standards meeting","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Orlando Sentinel reports that several people attended last night's meeting in Orlando about the new draft science standards with the objective of promoting intelligent design and complaining about evolution. But several people who spoke Thursday urged state Department of Education officials to allow schools to teach intelligent design and\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":361,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=361","url_meta":{"origin":729,"position":4},"title":"Yet another editorial in favor of evolution","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The St. Petersburg Times uses the Dover, Pa. intelligent design trial as a springboard to scolding the Pinellas County school board in an editorial. As the judge found, \"every scientific association that has spoken on the matter\" has rejected the challenge to evolution mounted by proponents of intelligent design. Darwin's\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":730,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=730","url_meta":{"origin":729,"position":5},"title":"Pinellas textbooks won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mention intelligent design","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 9, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Pinellas textbooks won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mention intelligent design Pinellas County biology students will find no mention of intelligent design in their new science textbooks next fall. With four biology books to choose from - one of which included a description of the idea that life was produced by an unidentified intelligent agent\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729"}],"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=729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}