Florida Creationism: Letter Supports Stephen Wise

We present to you, dear reader, a letter-to-the-editor titled Evolution debate turns on unanswered questions, which appears in the St. Augustine Record of St. Augustine, Florida — “the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United States.”

The letter is about the creationism bill currently pending in the Florida legislature which was sponsored by state Senator Stephen Wise. You can read about Wise and his bill here: Hidden Depths of Stupid.

We’ll copy most of today’s letter, but we’ll omit the writer’s name and city. We’ll also add some bold font for emphasis, plus our usual Curmudgeonly commentary between paragraphs. Here we go:

I’d like to briefly respond to a comment made by another letter writer in Thursday’s edition of The Record concerning evolution. In a letter written by Andre D’Elena, he states “There is no alternative to the Theory of Evolution”.

Here’s a link to the earlier letter which aroused today’s author: Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is accepted as scientific fact. It’s sane and informed — the sort of thing we rarely blog about unless, as today, it triggers an amusing response. So let’s return to today’s letter:

He [the writer of the earlier letter] states this while also recognizing that there are “questions unanswered, gaps in the fossil record, and plenty of discussion and debate about the details of the theory.” I do appreciate his honesty, if not his religious like zeal towards a theory.

That was bravely spoken — “his religious like zeal towards a theory.” You know what kind of a letter-writer we’re dealing with today, don’t you? Yes — it’s the kind we always write about. That’s why you’re here. Let’s read on:

However, it sounds to me that he is more interested in our public schools teaching dogma, if he is willing to hold on to a theory no matter what the evidence may or may not say about it.

Pot … kettle … black. No, that’s not it. This situation is more like Al Capone calling Elliot Ness a gangster. How about this: It’s like Madame Boing Boing, the palm-reader, calling Stephen Hawking a charlatan. Anyway, you get the idea. We continue:

I’d like to propose to him that the real reason we are still debating the theory is not because people like Sen. Stephen Wise don’t “like or understand the answer.” It is because we understand all too well there are still plenty of unanswered questions.

Ah, the letter-writer and his intellectual hero in the Florida Senate “understand all too well” that evolution has unanswered questions — and of course, teaching the kiddies about Noah’s Ark will lead them to the answers.

And now we come to the letter’s end:

While D’Elena [the writer of the earlier letter] smugly claims we may not like the answer as the reason for the continued debating, perhaps another reason is that people like him don’t like the questions?

[Writer’s name and city can be seen in the original.]

Ohhhhhhh! That was good! The letter ends with a subtle suggestion that the Darwinists are afraid to have their dogma questioned. Isn’t this exciting? We can’t wait for the next letter in this series.

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