Believe it or not! Florida has finally discovered evolution!

   With just a little imagination you can imagine the echos that bounced from wall to wall in the Florida Board of Education a few days ago--aah, ack, aha, aw, baa, boo, eek, hmmm, oof, oomph, peugh, pshaw, tut-tut, ugh, wow, yikes, yoikes, yck, zap--as the honorable members voted 4 to 3 to adopt new science standards what would require public schools to teach evolution.

    That's right. In the State where there was a lot of funny business concerning the legality of President George Bush's election, the word "evolution" was not on the books, not on the lips of school teachers and in a country that prides itself on science and technology school authorities have been using such vague terms as "biological changes over time" to avoid that Darwinian expression.

     The board members say new standards are intended to "make science learning more in depth" and "improve the understanding of science by Florida students, who do poorly in the subject area when tested."

     Perhaps they have reason to be concerned:  a 2005 national review failed Florida's science standards precisely due to their superficiality in the treamtnet of evolutionary biology. Still a bit reluctant to accept evolution, and under strong pressure from religious conservatives, the board managed to partially side-step the question by asserting that the subject would be taught as "the scientific theory of evolution."

     The objections put forth by many evangelical and conservative groups was that evolution has not been proved and that teaching it would therefore contradict the beliefs of those who oppose the theory developed by Charles Darwin and subsequently enriched by scientific research. Others demanded the subject be dealt with in the context of notions such as "creationism" or "intelligent design" which basically attribute everything that has happened on earth to the conscious design of a deity (God).

     There are of course still those who believe the Bible literally, that one day God decided to create Adam and Eve. Taking a wider view of the notion of creation, one finds numerous versions, legends and myths--with quite varying explanations for how mankind appeared on the surface of the earth. Just as an example, we might mention the belief by the indigenous Mayas in Central America, who believed that men were created of corn and that God made many mistakes before he was able to rest back relatively satisfied with his job of creation...