Support Florida Science Standards to Protect Health

1. 1 2 Health Warning – Just one reason why you must support the New Florida Science Standards 1 2 3 4 5 6 It has been all to easy to forget just how awful untreated bacterial infections used to be (in the case of the little girl shown - blood poisoning). The pictures were taken in 1942 when amputation and death due to bacterial infection were everyday events. Image 1 and 2 show a young girl who is very sick indeed, yet just a few days later when photos 3 and 4 were taken, she is a lot better. In the final two photos, she is completely cured. This amazing recovery was possible only because she was treated with the penicillin (the first antibiotic) which, without any major side-effects, safely destroyed the harmful bacteria that were making her sick. The Problem Bacteria are evolving and due to the natural selection mechanism sometimes called “survival of the fittest”, our present armoury of antibiotics is becoming less and less effective and already serious problems are arising in our hospitals. It is vital that we teach the next generation of young people the “fact” that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is the key governing principle in Biology and applies to all living organisms from human beings to bacteria. Otherwise cases such as the one depicted will again become an everyday occurrence because we shall not have the cohort of scientists needed to create medications or devise effective public health strategies that depend on expert understanding of Darwin’s truly brilliant theory of the way organisms evolve (i.e. Evolution). Those who oppose the teaching of Darwin’s theory in our schools as the bedrock of Biology are acting against the best interests of You - the Citizens of Florida and in particular your Children For the sake of your children please contact your Senator now and tell him/her to vote for the new Science Standards that recognize, what the rest of the World does, that Evolution is the Bedrock of Biology and Medical Science - You Know Evolution Makes Sense! This Advertisement has been paid for personally by Professor Sir Harold and Margaret Kroto. Professor Kroto is a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1996, Fellow of the Royal Society (London) and Foreign Associate of the (US) National Academy of Sciences. Professor Kroto is currently a Frances Eppes Professor of Chemistry at the Florida State University. We thank the Australian National University for permission to use these photographs (cf www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/florey/)

2. 1 2 Health Warning 1 2 3 4 5 6 It has been all to easy to forget just how awful untreated bacterial infections used to be (in the case of the little girl shown - blood poisoning). The pictures were taken in 1942 when amputation and death due to bacterial infection were everyday events. Image 1 and 2 show a young girl who is very sick indeed, yet just a few days later when photos 3 and 4 were taken, she is a lot better. In the final two photos, she is completely cured. This amazing recovery was possible only because she was treated with the penicillin (the first antibiotic) which, without any major side-effects, safely destroyed the harmful bacteria that were making her sick. The Problem Bacteria are evolving and due to the natural selection mechanism sometimes called “survival of the fittest” our present armoury of antibiotics is becoming less and less effective and already serious problems are arising in our hospitals. It is vital that we teach the next generation of young people the fact that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is actually the key governing principle in Biology and applies to all living organisms from human beings to bacteria. Otherwise cases such as the one depicted will again become an everyday occurrence because we shall not have the cohort of scientists needed to create medications or devise effective public health strategies that depend on expert understanding of Darwin’s truly brilliant theory of the way organisms evolve (i.e. Evolution). Those who oppose the teaching of Darwin’s theory in our schools as the bedrock of Biology are acting against the best interests of you - the citizens of Florida and in particular our children For the sake of your children please contact your Senator now and tell him/her to vote only for Evolution to be taught in Florida Science Lessons You Know Evolution Makes Sense This Advertisement has been paid for personally by Professor Sir Harold and Lady Kroto. Professor Kroto is a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1996, Fellow of the Royal Society (London) and Foreign Associate of the (US) National Academy of Sciences. Professor Kroto is currently a Frances Eppes Professor of Chemistry at the Florida State University. We thank the Australian National University for permission to use these photographs (cf www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/florey/)

4. 1 2 Health Warning It has been all to easy to forget just how awful untreated bacterial infections used to be (in the case of the little girl shown - blood poisoning). The pictures were taken in 1942 when amputation and death due to bacterial infection were everyday events. Image numbers 1 and 2 show a young girl who is very sick indeed, yet just a few days later when photos 3 and 4 were taken, she is a lot better. In the final two photos, she is completely cured. This amazing recovery was possible because she was treated with the antibiotic penicillin which, without any major side-effects, safely destroyed the harmful bacteria that were making her sick. 3 4 The Problem Bacteria are evolving and due to the natural selection mechanism sometimes called “survival of the fittest” our present armoury of antibiotics is becoming less and less effective and already serious problems are arising in our hospitals. It is vital that we teach the next generation of young people the fact that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is actually the key governing principle in biology and applies to all living organisms from human beings to bacteria. Otherwise cases such as the one depicted will again become an everyday occurrence because we shall not have the cohort of scientists needed to create medications or devise effective public health strategies that depend on expert understanding of Darwin’s truly brilliant theory of the way organisms evolve (i.e. Evolution). Those who oppose the teaching of Darwin’s theory in our schools as the bedrock of Biology are acting against the best interests of you - the citizens of Florida. Contact your Senator now and tell him/her to Vote only for Evolution to be taught in Florida Science Lessons You Know it makes Sense This Advertisement has been paid for personally by Professor Sir Harold and Lady Kroto. Sir Harold Kroto is a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1996, Fellow of the Royal Society (London) and Foreign Associate of the (US) National Academy of Sciences. Professor Kroto is currently a Frances Eppes Professor of Chemistry at the Florida State University. We thank the Australian National University for permission to use these photographs

6. 1 2 Health Warning 1 2 It has been all to easy to forget just how awful untreated bacterial infections used to be (in the case of the little girl shown - blood poisoning). The pictures were taken in 1942 when amputation and death due to bacterial infection were everyday events. Image numbers 1 and 2 show a young girl who is very sick indeed, yet just a few days later when photos 3 and 4 were taken, she is completely cured. This amazing recovery was possible because she was treated with the antibiotic penicillin which, without any major side-effects, safely destroyed the harmful bacteria that were making her sick. 3 4 The Problem Bacteria are evolving and due to the natural selection mechanism sometimes called “survival of the fittest” our present armoury of antibiotics is becoming less and less effective and already serious problems are arising in our hospitals. It is vital that we teach the next generation of young people the fact that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is actually the key governing principle in biology and applies to all living organisms from human beings to bacteria. Otherwise cases such as the one depicted will again become an everyday occurrence because we shall not have the cohort of scientists needed to create medications or devise effective public health strategies that depend on expert understanding of Darwin’s truly brilliant theory of the way organisms evolve (i.e. Evolution). Those who oppose the teaching of Darwin’s theory in our schools as the bedrock of Biology are acting against the best interests of you - the citizens of Florida. Contact your Senator now and tell him/her to Vote only for Evolution to be taught in Florida Science Lessons You Know it makes Sense This Advertisement has been paid for personally by Professor Sir Harold and Lady Kroto. Sir Harold Kroto is a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1996, Fellow of the Royal Society (London) and Foreign Associate of the (US) National Academy of Sciences. Professor Kroto is currently a Frances Eppes Professor of Chemistry at the Florida State University. We thank the Australian National University for permission to use these photographs

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10. warning statement these medications have been created and related health strategies designed on the basis of technologies that depend fundamentally on Darwinian theory of the way organisms evolved (i.e. Evolution) which actually was the key governing process in biology. We encourage those who do not believe in the veracity of Evolution to put their money where their mouth is and put their "faith"-based claims to the test by using only the technique supported by the Creationists (i.e. Praying) rather than these clearly abhorrent products.

11. The incredible dearth of miracle healings The shrine at Lourdes, France is perhaps the most famous site the Catholic Church has officially recognized as having had miraculous healings. Since 1860 a total of around 200 million have visited.There are three interesting facts about Lourdes (or any other miracle healing phenomenon for that matter) which taken together make claims of miracles unreliable and, as we shall we see, ultimately illogical and untenable.1. The number of sick people who've gone to Lourdes is much larger than the number who claim to have been healed. Since 1858 an estimated 2 million have made the pilgrimage. The number of claimed miracles on the other hand hovers at around 6,000 [Hines, p.348]. The ratio of claimed healings to the number of sick is therefore 6,000 / 2,000,000 = 0.003 or a third of a percent. This translates to 3 positive testimonials for every 1,000. This is a very small number. Assuming for a moment that those who claim to have been healed were in fact cured, the rate of failure of Lourdes is a staggering 99.7%. As a way of assimilating this, ask yourself if you would enthusiastically spend some USD3,000.00 (an off-the-top-of-my-head estimate of the cost of a Lourdes pilgrimage) to undergo a medical treatment that advertised a success rate of 0.3%.2. If a third of percent doesn't dissuade you, the truth is the figure is much worse. You see, testimonials are not accepted at face value by the Church, for very good reasons. All claims are first scrutinized and investigated by the Lourdes Medical Bureau "to rule out trickery, acting, illusion, a possible hysterical or delirious pathology." When a claim passes the preliminary screening the case is handed over to the International Medical Committee of Lourdes (CMIL) which is composed of Catholic doctors from various European countries. It is CMIL that determines whether a case of healing is in fact medically inexplicable. However, the final say as to whether the said case is a miracle or not rests upon the Church. [Hines, p.348] So how many claims has the Church certified as miracles? A mere 67. Thus, out of the 6,000 claims only 67 have been able to pass through the eye of the needle. If we now take this as the definitive number of miracles, the success rate of Lourdes is in fact 67 / 2,000,000 = 0.00335%. In other words Lourdes has a failure rate of 99.996665%. (I didn't even dare round it off to 2 decimal places!)Imagine the following: 30,000 people with a certain disease have been invited to try a drug. You are one of them. You're told that only one of the 30,000 will benefit from the drug, and that to become part of the program you need to pay a fee of USD3,000.00. And no, you don't get a refund if you're amongst the 29,999 who go home still sick. Those are the odds at Lourdes: 1 in 30,000.3. If you think it can't get any worse than that, you better pop an antacid. Among those who've been miraculously healed in Lourdes is a young woman who had Budd-Chiari syndrome, a condition wherein the veins of the liver become blocked. In 1963 she was certified as having had a miraculous healing. There's a slight problem though. She eventually died of Budd-Chiari seven years later. What happened to the miracle? CMIL admitted that "when they reached their decision [that the woman had had a miracle cure] they were insufficiently aware of the natural history of Budd-Chiari syndrome and the possibility of natural remission." [Hines, p. 349-350] Bottom line: the determination of miracles is hardly foolproof and error-free.

13. Warning Statement these medications have been created and related health strategies designed on the basis of technologies that depend fundamentally on Darwinian theory of the way organisms evolved (i.e. Evolution) which actually was the key governing process in biology. We encourage those who do not believe in the veracity of Evolution to put their money where their mouth is and put their "faith"-based claims to the test by using only the technique supported by the Creationists (i.e. Praying) rather than these clearly abhorrent products.

14. The incredible dearth of miracle healings The shrine at Lourdes, France is perhaps the most famous site the Catholic Church has officially recognized as having had miraculous healings. Since 1860 a total of around 200 million have visited.There are three interesting facts about Lourdes (or any other miracle healing phenomenon for that matter) which taken together make claims of miracles unreliable and, as we shall we see, ultimately illogical and untenable.1. The number of sick people who've gone to Lourdes is much larger than the number who claim to have been healed. Since 1858 an estimated 2 million have made the pilgrimage. The number of claimed miracles on the other hand hovers at around 6,000 [Hines, p.348]. The ratio of claimed healings to the number of sick is therefore 6,000 / 2,000,000 = 0.003 or a third of a percent. This translates to 3 positive testimonials for every 1,000. This is a very small number. Assuming for a moment that those who claim to have been healed were in fact cured, the rate of failure of Lourdes is a staggering 99.7%. As a way of assimilating this, ask yourself if you would enthusiastically spend some USD3,000.00 (an off-the-top-of-my-head estimate of the cost of a Lourdes pilgrimage) to undergo a medical treatment that advertised a success rate of 0.3%.2. If a third of percent doesn't dissuade you, the truth is the figure is much worse. You see, testimonials are not accepted at face value by the Church, for very good reasons. All claims are first scrutinized and investigated by the Lourdes Medical Bureau "to rule out trickery, acting, illusion, a possible hysterical or delirious pathology." When a claim passes the preliminary screening the case is handed over to the International Medical Committee of Lourdes (CMIL) which is composed of Catholic doctors from various European countries. It is CMIL that determines whether a case of healing is in fact medically inexplicable. However, the final say as to whether the said case is a miracle or not rests upon the Church. [Hines, p.348] So how many claims has the Church certified as miracles? A mere 67. Thus, out of the 6,000 claims only 67 have been able to pass through the eye of the needle. If we now take this as the definitive number of miracles, the success rate of Lourdes is in fact 67 / 2,000,000 = 0.00335%. In other words Lourdes has a failure rate of 99.996665%. (I didn't even dare round it off to 2 decimal places!)Imagine the following: 30,000 people with a certain disease have been invited to try a drug. You are one of them. You're told that only one of the 30,000 will benefit from the drug, and that to become part of the program you need to pay a fee of USD3,000.00. And no, you don't get a refund if you're amongst the 29,999 who go home still sick. Those are the odds at Lourdes: 1 in 30,000.3. If you think it can't get any worse than that, you better pop an antacid. Among those who've been miraculously healed in Lourdes is a young woman who had Budd-Chiari syndrome, a condition wherein the veins of the liver become blocked. In 1963 she was certified as having had a miraculous healing. There's a slight problem though. She eventually died of Budd-Chiari seven years later. What happened to the miracle? CMIL admitted that "when they reached their decision [that the woman had had a miracle cure] they were insufficiently aware of the natural history of Budd-Chiari syndrome and the possibility of natural remission." [Hines, p. 349-350] Bottom line: the determination of miracles is hardly foolproof and error-free.

15. The illustration at the left shows just how awful untreated bacterial infections are (in this case, blood poisoning). The pictures were taken in 1942 when the threat of dying from a bacterial infection was still very real. Image numbers 1 and 2 show a young girl who appears very sick indeed, yet just a few days later when photos 3 and 4 were taken, she seems a lot better. In the final two photos, she is completely cured. This amazing recovery was possible because she was treated with the medicine developed by Florey and Chain which, without any major side-effects, safely destroyed the harmful bacteria that were making her sick.