{"id":909,"date":"2009-02-18T15:43:21","date_gmt":"2009-02-18T20:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=909"},"modified":"2009-03-28T18:14:59","modified_gmt":"2009-03-28T22:14:59","slug":"dueling-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=909","title":{"rendered":"Dueling letters"},"content":{"rendered":"

A letter in the Sun-Sentinel rehashes that tired old claim that evolution is “just a theory.<\/a>”<\/p>\n

In re: to a Feb. 10 forum article: To examine all the facts to prove the origin of the species is going to be impossible because they are infinite in numbers. It is wrong to assume that something is a fact when not all the possibilities for error have been eliminated. The improbability of considering all the facts can only render two possibilities: it could happen or it could not.<\/p>\n

Because we can only understand in a finite way this particular issue; to go beyond the known range to the infinite will un-warrant the assumption. Darwin’s theory is just a theory and not a fact.<\/p>\n

Woodworth R. Draughon,
\nSunrise<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the opposite side of the sanity fence is a letter in the Florida Times-Union making it clear that intelligent design is just gussied up religion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Waste of time<\/p>\n

Why is state Sen. Steve Wise, R-Jacksonville, wasting his time introducing a bill to require teachers who teach evolution to discuss the idea of intelligent design when public schools are facing a serious funding crisis due to the economy?<\/p>\n

Shouldn’t his focus be on the budget shortfalls that will decimate our public schools and hinder the future of our children? Or the abysmal high school graduation rate?<\/p>\n

Instead, his focus is on teaching creationism in schools, which has been proven in court case after court case to be a violation of the separation of church and state.<\/p>\n

Both of my children attend public school and I am worried. According to Education Weekly, Florida ranks 41st in school funding and is at the bottom in high school graduation rates.<\/p>\n

Recent gains in student performance will be reversed if schools are not a priority and provided adequate funding.<\/p>\n

Duval County public schools faces a cut of $170 million. The performance of Florida schools is already low. How can schools survive continued funding cuts?<\/p>\n

Throwing money at a problem doesn’t solve it, but according to Education Weekly, the states that spend the most on education rank the highest in student performance.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for our children, Wise has chosen to focus his energies on forcing his religious beliefs on students in public schools.<\/p>\n

DEBORAH COURTNEY,
\nwriter,
\nJacksonville Beach<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A letter in the Sun-Sentinel rehashes that tired old claim that evolution is “just a theory.” In re: to a Feb. 10 forum article: To examine all the facts to prove the origin of the species is going to be … 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":[27],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-eF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":68,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=68","url_meta":{"origin":909,"position":0},"title":"Our response to the letters to the editor","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 12, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"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 Dr. Scott's letter. I realize our letter is long, but\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":728,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=728","url_meta":{"origin":909,"position":1},"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":363,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=363","url_meta":{"origin":909,"position":2},"title":"Has it hit you where you live yet?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The battle over evolution continues at a fierce pace, as we discover in the Palm Beach Post today. Three new counties are now added to our watchlist: St Lucie, Palm Beach, and Martin. However, we need to keep our eyes on the ball. The real fight that we must concentrate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alert"","block_context":{"text":"Alert","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":306,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=306","url_meta":{"origin":909,"position":3},"title":"Dueling letters on evolution","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Two letters to the Orlando Sentinel cover opposing viewpoints concerning evolution education. The first letter\u00c2\u00a0takes some previous letter writers to task for their misconceptions and convoluted reasoning: Please remember that gravity is \"just a theory,\" too, but I have not heard of any Christians protesting its place in science classes,\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":3153,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3153","url_meta":{"origin":909,"position":4},"title":"Meanwhile in Clay County: the teaching of evolution is “intellectually deceptive”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Evolution fires suddenly seem to be popping up everywhere. The latest controversy over the teaching of evolution in public schools just happened in Clay County, which is nestled between Jacksonville to the northeast and Gainesville to the southwest. The Clay County school board at their Jan. 4 regular meeting took\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Controversial Theories bill 2017\/18"","block_context":{"text":"Controversial Theories bill 2017\/18","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=34"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1269,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1269","url_meta":{"origin":909,"position":5},"title":"Fox channel news story & poll","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The central Florida Fox affiliate, Channel 35 WOFL, ran a story tonight at 10 and 11 about Sen. Wise's antievolution bill. The story itself was OK. The person interviewed in favor of the bill, Jim Stemberger, claimed religion has no part in any of this, and said that all they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11"","block_context":{"text":"\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=29"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909"}],"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=909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}