Darwinist petition supports proposed FL science standards

The Darwinists have posted an online petition supporting the proposed Florida science education standards:

A PETITION TO THE FLORIDA BOARD OF EDUCATION FOR ADOPTION OF REVISED PUBLIC SCHOOL SCIENCE EDUCATION STANDARDS.
FEBRUARY 2008

The petition, which is full of the usual "whereas's," says,
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WHEREAS: The current Sunshine State Science Education Standards have received an ‘F’ from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation while the proposed revised standards have been graded excellent by one of the scientists who previously authored the report that gave Florida its failing grade.

The Fordham Foundation's (or Institute's) report on state science standards has no credibility. Even though evolution education counts for only 3 points out of a maximum possible 69 points in the Fordham science standards rating system, Fordham threatened to drop Ohio's overall grade from a B to an F just because of the Ohio evolution lesson plan. The Fordham report has vague criteria for rating the science standards (e.g., expectations, purpose, audience; quality; seriousness), and the report's ratings are subjective and arbitrary and have no correlation with student performance. Paul R. Gross, chief author of the report, is a Darwinist bigot who co-authored Creationism's Trojan Horse, a book claiming that critics of Darwinism are conspiring to turn the USA into a fundy-type theocracy. There is no connection to Fordham U., which should sue the Fordham Foundation (or Institute) for trademark infringement.

WHEREAS: The revised standards address the scientific theory of evolution without equivocation or the introduction of nonscientific notions.

Many Darwinists admit that Darwinism has weaknesses and say that scientists are working on resolving those weaknesses. The new Florida science standards imply that the weaknesses don't exist at all.

Evolution is the central organizing concept that allows us to understand all biological sciences from medicine to forestry to entomology

There we go again with that "grand central supreme overarching underlying unifying principle of biology" stuff.

and its principles are the theoretical basis that underlies major advances in all biological fields

Baloney.

Students must understand the current state of the science to be part of an informed citizenry.

I agree -- but they should understand the weaknesses as well as the strengths of Darwinism.

WHEREAS: The economy of Florida requires the foundation of well educated citizens in order to compete and prosper within global competition.

A knowledge of Darwinism is required for relatively few high-tech jobs and a belief in Darwinism is required for none. Anyway, I am not aware of anyone who is seriously proposing that Darwinism not be taught at all.
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