THE FLORIDA ACADEMIC FREEDOM ACT

By Sheldon F. Gottlieb

If passed, the Academic Freedom Act (Senate Bill 2692/House Bill
1483) would provide fundamentalist religionists the opportunity to
incorporate Bible-based religion into public school science curricula
to be taught on equal footing with a scientific understanding of the
biological, chemical and physical nature of the universe and their
interrelationships. It is an attempt to introduce an ancient, pre-
scientific era religious book – the bible – and, at least one
scientifically discredited text – Of Pandas and People, into science
classrooms for equal consideration along with modern scientific
texts, despite the fact that the basic science in the bible is
mathematically false and the science in Pandas is inaccurate and
misrepresents evolutionary theory. The mathematical symbol Pi does
not equal three as calculated in First Kings, 7: 23-24 and Second
Chronicles 4: 2-3. If such a travesty were to become law, the
consequences will be dire since it could impair students' critical
thinking skills and their ability to differentiate scientific from
non-scientific information, thus negatively impacting their chances
for success in the 21st century workplace.

Florida's Legislature is aware that national and state political and
economic survival depends on the ability of our scientists and
engineers to compete in a scientifically and technologically oriented
world by continuously developing new knowledge which can be
translated into technological growth. That is why Florida and Palm
Beach County spent time and money recruiting Scripps Institute as a
base around which to build a biotechnology industry.

The intellectual and creative minds required for such activities
depend on the early inculcation and cultivation of accurately
represented scientific knowledge in our public school classrooms. The
integrated knowledge gained from the biological, geological, and
cosmological sciences provides the best explanation(s) for the
history of the planet and the diversity of life found thereon.
Although scientists continue to engage in research on all aspects of
evolution and their myriad ramifications, there is near universal
agreement that evolution is a fact. Evolution is every bit a fact as
is gravity. Dozhansky stated, over 50 years ago: "Nothing in biology
makes sense except in the light of evolution." Unlike the Biblically
based science of Creationism or Intelligent design, the core elements
of evolution, as presented in textbooks today, have been repeatedly
tested and verified by scientists throughout the world.

Florida legislators should be proud that they passed new science
standards. These standards, if implemented properly, make Florida a
paradigm of what enlightened legislators should be doing and what an
enlightened public school science curriculum should consist of.
Floridians – citizens and legislators – should not permit the
dilution of these standards by pandering to ignorance. Science is
not about beliefs: in our democratic society people are free to
believe whatever they want to believe. However, belief is not
scientific knowledge: science is about knowing and how to know.

Students should be tested on their knowledge of well-understood
concepts as embodied in the recently passed state science standards.
Legislators should insist that teachers adhere to the new standards
and ensure that students spend their valuable classroom time
learning, through classwork and homework, the best knowledge that
centuries of scientific investigation have placed before them.
Citizens and legislators should not permit precious tax dollars to be
wasted in frivolous lawsuits that are bound to occur should the
Academic Freedom Act pass. That money could be better spent on
computers, science laboratories, science equipment, and library
resources.

Eric Hoffer wrote: "We have rudiments of reverence for the human body
but we consider as nothing the rape of the human mind." There is a
forty-plus-year history of Supreme Court and lower court decisions in
which it was pointed out time and again that Creationism is religion,
not science. In the latest case, Kitzmiller v Dover..., Intelligent
Design was shown to be biblically based and false. Intelligent Design
has no place in public school science curricula.

The time has come for the Florida legislators to protect Florida's
present and future: they must stop all attempts at deceiving the
minds of Florida's youth and to prevent unnecessary drainage of hard
earned tax dollars for lawyers. The Academic Freedom Act must not
pass.

Sheldon F. Gottlieb, Ph.D. is the author of " THE NAKED MIND" He can
be reached at SheldonGottlieb@gmail.com