The rhetoric used by Zack Smith in Monday’s column is overused and deceptive. Sadly, however, it tends to work. He starts by
paraphrasing a Senate bill in a favoring light, noting that it supports critical thinking. It’s a platitude: How can anyone not support critical thinking? Oh, but wait, those evil Democrats and the American Civil Liberties Union don’t support the bill. They must not support critical thinking! It’s an irony lost on most Tea Partiers, I’m sure. He continues with appeals to authority, mentioning many scientists for an argument that mostly amounts to nothing.
Senate Bill 1854 was put forward by Stephen Wise, a senator who just over a year ago put forth a bill to introduce intelligent design in schools. It was struck down. He comes now with a bill that is less strongly worded and is filled with other curricula requirements to disguise its actual purpose.
The very first provision in the bill requires critical analysis of evolution. Why evolution? Why not gravity as well? Why not something that has less scientific consensus? No other scientific theory is mentioned. If the intent of this bill wasn’t obvious, it should be now.
The rest of the bill requires teaching things that are already taught in the curriculum. Essentially, the only thing that will change is that teachers are required to be critical of evolution.
Not only should this bill not be passed due to its blatant anti-evolution bias, but it should be struck down to show that we don’t want this vacuous crap in the Florida Senate.
Editor's note: This letter refers to this column.
