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The evolution argument has officially reached the Florida Legislature, courtesy of Sen. Ronda Storms.
Storms, R-Valrico, filed a bill on Friday that would permit public schools teachers to present evidence in class that contradicts the theory of biological and chemical evolution. The “Academic Freedom Act” comes from activists who failed last month to convince the state Board of Education to write their proposal into the state’s new science teaching standard, which explictly requires the teaching of evolution.
Terry Kemple of Valrico, president of the Community Issues Council, was among the advocates who brought the “academic freedom” proposal before the board on Feb. 19 and said he “worked closely with the Senate sponsor to get the bill filed.” In a statement, Kemple said this weekend that “the evolution ‘sacred cow’ must be submitted to scrutiny in American education ...
“Finally teachers and students will have the opportunity to cover all the information regarding the theory of evolution,” he continued. “Until now a teacher who differentiated between micro evolution (observed changes over time within a species like a bacterium becoming resistant to antibiotics) and macro evolution (Darwin’s unproven theory that all varieties of animal life came from a one celled common ancestor) did so at the risk of his or her employment.”
Storms’ bill states that any information presented to students about the origins of life must be “scientific,” and not used to promote religious doctrine. Opponents, however, derided the proposal last month as religious indoctrination in the guise of scientific inquiry.
Asked after the ed board’s vote last month about the prospect of wading into the issue of evolution during the session, several GOP lawmakers expressed reluctance at best, if not outright opposition. As Rep. Kevin Ambler, R-Tampa, quipped at the time, “I thought we had evolved beyond that.”
But House Speaker Marco Rubio told the Florida Baptist Witness last month that the House “may have sufficient votes” for “academic freedom”-styled legislation.
“And for me, personally,” Rubio told the FBW, according to its Feb. 21 article, “I don’t want a school system that teaches kids that what they’re learning at home is wrong.”
Like clockwork, creationists trot out the same tired (and more importantly, *discredited*) chestnuts - eyeball, Darwin’s original concerns about his theory, and so forth. Then they whine about how mistreated and ignored they are, and finally some seven-day opportunist like Ronda decides to milk the manufactured controversy for all its worth.
Creationists really don’t *want* to compete on a level paying field and have their ideas *earn* legitimacy because they know they can’t. They’ll get their heads handed to them just like they do every time they try and explain the same data evolution does. So they wind up here - a whine-fest followed by a pity-party, with a rerun of “Who Wants To Be A Martyr?” to watch on the way home.
I think it’s important for us all to realize that evolution is not a working theory. We need to teach our children that we are all here due to the creation of man by the great and all powerful ZEEBO!!! Ronda storm knows him on a first name basis. And I’m sure he speaks to her and her constituents inside their heads. ZEEBO’s main commandment is control. We need to control the minds of our children through religious doctine. Free thinking and common since are not all they’re cracked up to be. Evolution is just confusing to anyone with the proper belief in ZEEBO. After all we all know we came from Adam, Eve and Caine which lead to a lot of incest and out of wedlock sex. No wait a minute that’s Christianity.
The “Academic Freedom Act” (SB 2692) reminds me of George Orwell’s “Newspeak”; religious indoctrination is obviously not academic nor is it free. “Protecting teachers to present alternate points of view” against the scientific community is much like allowing Harry Potter’s imaginative theories to be part of a real curriculum. She is unwittingly trying to destroy the scientific mindset and encourage children to equate science with religion and the concomitant “blinders” they’ll have to wear. Religious intolerance is a heavy price for any society to burden itself with; vis-à-vis the Islamic world.
Evolution has serious blank areas, including:
*origin of: self-reproducing life from non-life; photosynthesis; metamorphosis; wide variety of animal/plant reproduction; symbiotic relationships; language, consciousness, altruism, the arts
*sub-systems and processes with complexity/interaction not explained by gradual development
*a fossil record with appearance of most major phyla in the Cambrian with no apparent ancestors & remarkable stasis; unlike what Darwinian gradualism predicted
*natural selection is able to produce variation based only on pre-existing genetic material; it’s a selective phenomenon, not a creative force
We should not be over-confident when presenting a theory which in many respects is not observable or repeatable.
Ms. Storms and her right wing constituents are scared to death. You can see the fear in their faces. The courts have already decreed ID is creationism under a another name because it is based on BELIEFS and not scientific FACTS. Ceationism and ID have no place public schools. It’s no wonder why Florida is the laughing stock of the nation politcal system.
Bobo Suarez, never fear: there is a place called “hell” where you will spend eternity the rest of Satan’s children -if you do not repent while you are yet breathing! God is not mocked!
Every person who values truth will forever appreciate the actions of those who have fought for the inclusion of the word “theory” into the nefarious edict demanding that the teaching of anything
relating to “evolution”(read:evil-you-shun)be taught for what it is -an unproven notion insisting that everything creates itself.
By their own admission, proponents of “evolution” would rather teach lies to Florida’s students than the truth, claiming that the kids get a better education, one that gives them equal footing with rest of the nations students! No doubt! And no wonder education levels have sunk in Florida, with these people making the
rules!
”
Ronda… the female Elvis with tits. If I want my kid to be taught that Santa, the Easter Bunny and Jesus are real, I can spend the extra money for a religious school. Churches ought to be taxed and kept separate from the government.
Evolution does not deny God. There are many Christians who acknowledge the scientific validity of evolution—-the Roman Catholic Church, for one. Even the Discovery Institute’s star biologist/critic, Michael Behe, acknowledges common descent.
The REAL issue is Bible inerrancy. They must fight anything which speaks to less than a literal interpretation of Genesis. Ms Storms’ religion teaches a Young Earth Creation(YEC) ie, that the universe is only about 6,000 years old!
They will avoid discussion of YEC because the “science” involved is so blatantly disingenuous.
Monica Bice your the one who is ignorant. Your just a little scary.
What country did you people grow up in anyways?? This country USA was founded on religious principals. Religon was always taught in school.
Look at are children today and you people are proud of the society we are raising. Open your eyes people. A little religon wouldnt hurt anyone what scares you so much about it anyways.
Both sides should be taught in school.
Look what has happened to our schools since it has been taken out.Do I think it should be dwelt on all the time no,but it still wouldnt hurt.
Ronda Ronda Ronda! Whe will you just go away and leave those of us who have evolved alone? Enough trying to save the world form itself. We ( the residents of Florida) look like such inept bufoons to the National and World media. We can’t vote without dangling a chad, we can’t keep kids safe from sicko perverts and we can’t stop electing charlatains like RONDA! Dog save us all!
With all of the recent upraor about evolution in our schools, how much longer will it be before there is another Scopes Monkee trial in a town near you? This is a silly discussion for grown people to be having in 2008. If a person wants to teach their children the biblical version to supplement the curriculum taught in our public schools, that is fine. But do it at home and not on my tax dollars.
Without going one way or another on this argument, how come whenever Ronda Storms gets attention, it’s for something trivial like this? First she’s trying to tax strip clubs to pay for elderly health care, now she’s arguing about what is taught in ONE class in school which, let’s be honest, is on a subject that has zero applicability in the real world. All of you inbreds in Valrico should quit re-electing this zealot and find someone who can solve your traffic problem.
So does this mean that private religous schools that receive public money through waivers must teach evolution as well so that the children there are “exposed” to both views?
This is outrageous.
We must protect our schools from these religious fanatics (like Storms) and their pseudo-science machinations.
Any intelligent person can see through this ridiculous “evidence’.
This “Alternative view” is nothing but a recruiting ploy for power hungry mega-churches. These churches are threatened by science and fear that real science will undermine their control over their congregations.
go to Zeitgeistthemovie.com and watch this video…and than tell me that we shouldnt allow different views to be taught in society…
Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, religious or scientific. It makes more sense to those with higher intellegence and common sense that this old earth was around millions of years before mankind. We can’t dispute what archeologists have uncovered, many species have evolved over the milleneums. When mankind crawled out of the cave and began society, laws were needed and the Bible and Ten Commandments were written. Religion was the first organized political party, and still is. As far as Ms Storm’s agenda, I agree that both sides should be taught in school so that our future leaders will represent all citizens of our country and will effectively seperate church from state as our forefathers envisioned.
find it initially frustrating, and subsequently sad, that people spend so much time and energy fighting over evolution and creation. Science, through experiment and observation, continues to support the theory of biological evolution. However, the theory of intelligent design/creationism is not subject to the scientific method and should therefore be left out of the curriculum. Please note, I do not wish to debunk religious faith; I understand and respect its long history and value to a vast majority of peoples.
Everybody just calm down. Storms’ bill is pretty innocuous, though it certainly could be the first step in forcing Creationism as a specific counter-curriculum to Evolution.
Her bill does specifically prohibit a school district from firing a teacher because he/she teaches something counter to, say, Evolution, so long as they are “objectively presenting scientific information relevant to the full range of scientific views regarding biological or chemical evolution…”
Of course, like a good legislator, she doesn’t define any of this, leaving it wide open to interpretation down the road. That is probably the more precise problem, or should I say goal, of this bill.
Lorra Wilson, if you want your child to be ignorant, then PLEASE home school her! I don’t want my children being influenced by the fairy tails your daughter may tell them.
If ANY theories, other than the scientific FACTS of evolution are presented to my children in school, my children will NOT be present for those lessons.
School is about science, NOT religion. Wake up, and get with the times. We have a seperation of church and state for a reason.
If you want your child to learn fables about how everything was created in 7 days, put them in a private school that promotes such silliness! Do not use my tax dollars to do so!
bob—you think storms is questionable in THIS matter?? What about all the others… lorra, please, keep your child at home, the public school system is not the place for religious oppression of ideas, creationism doesn’t exist in the college lecture hall… except at florida southern, and dorthy, “secular religious” is a complete oxymoron!!!! how are those trying to keep anything other than pure science militant, the most militant groups ive seen in my 23 years of existence are religious ones… no body knocks at my door at 6am asking if ive thought about the joys of atheism…
just sayin
Bravo Mrs. Storms! Macro evolution is clearly a ridiculous explaination of the origin of the species and in my opinion, a religion unto itself that allows an individual to leave God out of their equation so they can live however they desire. I am delighted that there are still brave leaders who will stand up and defend this viewpoint. Science and creation are NOT mutually exclusive! The Bible tells us that God will allow knowledge to increase in the last days( Daniel 12:4) Finally, consider Darwin’s own quandry over the eyeball and how it couldn’t have possibly evolved. Now, through medical science, we have discovered how extremely complex even each indidvidual human cell is. Chew on that!
She wants ID taught in science class, under the pretense that ID has supporting scientific evidence. The Dover court found that ID was not science - it was just creationism by another name. If passed, this bill will be struck down. There is a striking lack of peer reviewed ID evidence, which attests to it not being science - how could you possibly empirically falsify a theory premised on divine intervention?
“Rubio told the FBW, according to its Feb. 21 article, “I don’t want a school system that teaches kids that what they’re learning at home is wrong”....my question is…how do you know what poeple are teaching there kids or family at home…not everybody is religious and teaches religion at home…theres poeple that dont believe in god and jesus christ…and those poeple have that right to do so…theres tons of beliefs of what happened in our past and those beliefs should be allowed to be apart of society just as religion as been…people need to start being open minded about things in this world…
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Posted by tom chastain, tampa florida on 01/06 at 05:33 PM
since jeb bush is not going to run for the us senate its a sure bet that ronda storms will run for the us senate and she will most likely win. she is the best debaiter that the gop has and she has an exellent background from the port of tampa and she fought hard agaist those have harmed children. she will also get the christian vote and she is charismatic.