The debate is rolling onward

FloridaToday.com fired a round on behalf of good science in an editorial today supporting evolution in the draft science standards.

Florida schools may soon enter the 21st century by embracing evolution as a core scientific principle.

…

The draft standards require in-depth instruction on the subject and clearly state “evolution is the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence.”

That’s not breaking news to the scientific community.

Thank you, FloridaToday!

Meanwhile, letters to the editor are popping up in the Orlando Sentinel in response to the weekend article about the draft standards and evolution. In the first one, the writer takes intelligent design/creationism proponents to task for putting up roadblocks to learning and discovery.

It is time we understand that the theory of intelligent design does not belong in a science classroom. When we reach what seems to be the limit of our knowledge, we must not say that an intelligent designer has all the answers for us. That breeds intellectual apathy.

The second letter is, well, ignorant.

So, teaching the theory of evolution of man as fact is going to help students become more proficient in science and raise our standards? Excuse me, but by teaching our children we are nothing more than glorified gorillas that came from primordial slime, I have to wonder what kind of people they will turn out to be. Our world is becoming more uncivilized every day, as it is with so many lost, soulless, angry people.

I’m not aware of any biology lesson plan that requires the teaching of man being glorified gorillas that came from primordial slime. Discovering where humans come from and how we’re directly related to the world around us is awe-inspiring, not horrible. Why is it so offensive to some people that we humans are related to the rest of life, past and present, on this little planet of ours? Understanding evolution does not then dictate any kind of moral path in life.

I’m sure that this is just the warm up as the draft standards go through the approval process. Stand by for more.