Re: Student perceptions re evolution

From: George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Date: Wed Aug 20 2003 - 19:22:08 EDT

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    John W Burgeson wrote:
    >
    > Howard asked: "So, for list discussion, what do you make of this poll
    > result? "
    >
    > What it says to me is that the ASA and like organizations have failed
    > miserably in getting the ideas of faith/science across to our children
    > and that ICR, AIG and the like are winning the race going away.
    >
    > To the average young person, it is so comforting to be certain about
    > faith/science issues.
    >
    > That goes for too many of the mature folks in our country as well.
    >
    > Having followed this issue for ~ 30 years, I see no reversal in the
    > future; rather, the margin by which the young-earthers are winning the
    > hearts and minds of the population will ever increase.
    >
    > If anyone has a solution to the problem, speak up. Please.

            As I understand it, the question put to the students wasn't whether they
    accepted evolution but what percentage of academic biologists accept it. The 2 are, of
    course, related - those who don't want to think evolution is true would like to believe
    that "real scientists" agree with them.
            No magic solution here but 2 suggestions - 1 that I've long harped on & another
    prompted by Howard's post.
            1) No headway will be made among conservative Christians who reject evolution
    unless one can convince them that a person can accept evolution without abandoning the
    traditional Christian faith.
            2) To the extent that evolution is identified in the popular mind with dogmatic
    atheists like Dawkins, it's possible for anti-evolutionists to portray his whole
    position - including his insistence on the scientific correctness of evolution - as
    extreme & therefore an aberration. We need to get before the public as many examples as
    possible of evolutionary scientists who don't have extreme anti-religious views, some of
    whom (though not necessarily all) should be Christians.

                                                            Shalom,
                                                            George

    George L. Murphy
    gmurphy@raex.com
    http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/

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