New England Faculty and College Students Differ in Their Views About Evolution, Creationism, Intelligent Design, and Religiosity |
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Authors: | Guillermo Paz-y-Mi?o C Avelina Espinosa |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 285 Old Westport Road, North Dartmouth, MA 02747-2300, USA;(2) Department of Biology, Roger Williams University, One Old Ferry Road, Bristol, RI 02809, USA; |
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Abstract: | Public acceptance of evolution in Northeastern U.S. is the highest nationwide, only 59%. Here, we compare perspectives about
evolution, creationism, intelligent design (ID), and religiosity between highly educated New England faculty (n = 244; 90% Ph.D. holders in 40 disciplines at 35 colleges/universities) and college students from public secular (n = 161), private secular (n = 298), and religious (n = 185) institutions: 94/3% of the faculty vs. 64/14% of the students admitted to accepting evolution openly and/or privately,
and 82/18% of the faculty vs. 58/42% of the students thought that evolution is definitely true or probably true, respectively.
Only 3% of the faculty vs. 23% of the students thought that evolution and creationism are in harmony. Although 92% of faculty
and students thought that evolution relies on common ancestry, one in every four faculty and one in every three students did
not know that humans are apes; 15% of the faculty vs. 34% of the students believed, incorrectly, that the origin of the human
mind cannot be explained by evolution, and 30% of the faculty vs. 72% of the students was Lamarckian (believed in inheritance
of acquired traits). Notably, 91% of the faculty was very concerned (64%) or somehow concerned (27%) about the controversy
evolution vs creationism vs ID and its implications for science education: 96% of the faculty vs. 72% of the students supported
the exclusive teaching of evolution while 4% of the faculty vs. 28% of the students favored equal time to evolution, creationism
and ID; 92% of the faculty vs. 52% of the students perceived ID as not scientific and proposed to counter evolution or as
doctrine consistent with creationism. Although ≈30% of both faculty and students considered religion to be very important
in their lives, and ≈20% admitted to praying daily, the faculty was less religious (Religiosity Index faculty = 0.5 and students = 0.75) and, as expected, more knowledgeable about science (Science Index faculty = 2.27 and students = 1.60) and evolution (Evolution Index faculty = 2.48 and students = 1.65) than the students. Because attitudes toward evolution correlate (1) positively with understanding
of science/evolution and (2) negatively with religiosity/political ideology, we conclude that science education combined with
vigorous public debate should suffice to increase acceptance of naturalistic rationalism and decrease the negative impact
of creationism and ID on society’s evolution literacy. |
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