Re: Horrors! Florida poised to teach evolution as science

Gary wrote:
On Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:36:20 -0500, Harry Hope <rivrvu@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

From The Miami Herald, 2/17/08:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/carl_hiaasen/story/421075.html

Our reputation for flakiness is at stake

By CARL HIAASEN

In a move that could endanger Florida's flaky backwater reputation,
the state Board of Education is poised to endorse the teaching of
evolution as a science.

This is a dangerous idea -- not the presentation of Darwinism in
schools, but the presentation of Florida as a place of progressive
scientific thought.

Over the years the Legislature has worked tirelessly to keep our kids
academically stuck in the mid-1950s.

This has been achieved by overcrowding their classrooms, underpaying
their teachers and letting their school buildings fall apart.

Florida's plucky refusal to embrace 21st century education is one
reason that prestigious tech industries have avoided the state,
allowing so many of our high-school graduates (and those who come
close) to launch prosperous careers in the fast-food, bartending and
service sectors of the economy.

By accepting evolution as a proven science, our top educators would be
sending a loud message to the rest of the nation:

Stop making fun of us.

Is that what we really want?

On Tuesday, , the Board of Education is scheduled to vote on a
proposed set of new standards that describe evolution as the
''fundamental concept underlying all of biology'' and ``supported by
multiple forms of scientific evidence.''

Certainly that's the position of every reputable academic group on the
planet, including the National Academy of Sciences, the American
Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Science
Teachers Association.

But forget the fossil record, OK?

Forget DNA tracing.

Forget the exhaustively documented diversification of species.

This battle is about pride and independence;

about boldly going against the flow, in defiance of reason and all
known facts.

In recent weeks, the Board of Education has been swamped by e-mails
and letters from religious conservatives who advocate teaching
creationism or intelligent design, and who believe evolution should be
discussed strictly as a ``theory.''

For those who wish to see Florida standing still, if not sinking, this
is a fantastic strategy. In fact, it could be expanded to revise other
educational doctrines.

Let's start teaching gravity as a ''theory,'' too. And don't forget
the solar system -- what proof do we really have, besides a bunch of
fuzzy, fake-looking photos, that Mars really exists?

At a recent public hearing in Orlando, opponents of evolutionary
teaching rose one by one to assail the proposed curriculum standards.

Some had traveled all the way from the Panhandle, and were, like
presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, exclusive believers in the
Bible's version of creation.

According to The St. Petersburg Times, one speaker compared Charles
Darwin, the father of evolutionary science, to Adolf Hitler and Josef
Stalin, well-known tyrants and mass murderers.

Such loony gibberish is actually good for the anti-evolution crusade,
providing the best evidence that the human species has not advanced
one iota in the last 100,000 years.

With this in mind, several school boards in North Florida have passed
resolutions opposing the teaching of evolution as fact.

True, students in those same districts have produced some of the worst
science scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, but who
needs Newton or Copernicus when you've got the Corinthians?

The notion that humans descended from apes has never been popular
among fundamentalists, but what of the apes themselves?

Given the gory history of Homo sapiens on Earth, no self-respecting
chimp or gorilla would claim a genetic connection to us.

The outcry against evolutionary instruction has been so heated that 40
members of the committee responsible for the new science standards
felt compelled to sign a letter stating, ``There is no longer any
valid scientific criticism of the theory of evolution.''

Caving in to groups that question the soundness of science, the letter
warned, ``would not only seriously impede the education of our
children but also create the image of a backward state, raising the
risk of Florida's being snubbed by biotechnology companies and other
science-based businesses.''

Nice try, pinheads, but there's no sin in being a slightly backward
state with extremely modest expectations for its young people.

That's been the guiding philosophy of our tightwad lawmakers for
years, and the degree to which they've succeeded is illuminated
annually in the FCAT charade.

If snubbing is to be done, Florida should be the snubber, not the
snubee.

Keep your elite biotech payrolls up North and out West -- we've got
hundreds of thousands of low-paying, go-nowhere jobs that require
little training and minimal education.

Should state officials vote this week to put evolution on the teaching
agenda, it will be a small yet radical step out of Florida's
backwarding-thinking past.

Resistance is not futile.

We've worked hard to keep ourselves so far behind in education, and we
must stay the course.

_____________________________________________________

"The argument that the literal story of Genesis can qualify as science
collapses on three major grounds: the creationists' need to invoke
miracles in order to compress the events of the earth's history into
the biblical span of a few thousand years; their unwillingness to
abandon claims clearly disproved, including the assertion that all
fossils are products of Noah's flood; and their reliance upon
distortion, misquote, half-quote, and citation out of context to
characterize the ideas of their opponents."

Stephen Jay Gould

Harry

Let me see if I understand this. It is OK to teach the Theory of
Evolution in school but not the Theory of Creation ? I wonder why ?

Evolution is a theory based on scientific principals, creationism is religious Bull$h!t.
.

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