#2856: Bill Foster

David William “Bill” Foster is an attorney and former mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, from 2010 to 2014. Foster is also a creationist. Indeed, Foster has explicitly endorsed the young-earth creationist tenet that the world was literally created in six days and that dinosaurs and humans co-existed (“dinosaurs are mentioned in Job so I don’t have any problem believing that dinosaurs roamed the earth,” says Foster, referring to a passing reference to the “behemoth” in the Bible), and he was prior to being sworn in as mayor of St. Petersburg on record heckling and complaining to school officials when his own children were exposed to facts and science incompatible with his delusions in school.

 

Indeed, Foster once wrote a letter to the Pinellas County School Board regarding their teaching of evolution, claiming, without basis in history and completely irrelevant to its scientific status, that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution helped Adolf Hitler rise to power in Nazi Germany, and also blamed the teaching of evolution for the Columbine massacre – a standard claim in Discovery Institute rants after having been promoted by Tom DeLay) – citing (of course) his spectacular failure to grasp the is–ought distinction: “[e]volution gives our kids an excuse to believe in natural selection and survival of the fittest, which leads to a belief that they are superior over the weak,” said Foster.

 

Diagnosis: Yes, even people in Florida’s Bible arc voted him out after one period, and he doesn’t seem to have enjoyed any significant political career since 2014. Still.