NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2014/01/03
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2014-01-03 14:50.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, Interesting data about American attitudes toward evolution and creationism in a new Pew Research Center report. Sad news of the death of Ian Barbour. And NCSE's archives reach a milestone.
A NEW PEW POLL ON EVOLUTION Six in ten Americans accept human evolution, while a third hold that humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center. Asked, "Which comes closer to your view?" and presented with "Humans and other living things have evolved over time" and "Humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time," 60% of respondents accepted the evolution option, 33% the creationist option, and 7% said that they didn't know or refused to answer. In 2009, 61% of respondents accepted the evolution option, 31% the creationist option, and 8% said that they didn't know or refused to answer. Those who agreed that humans have evolved over time were asked whether they thought "[h]umans and other living things have evolved due to natural processes such as natural selection" or "[a] supreme being guided the evolution of living things for the purpose of creating humans and other life in the form it exists today"; 53% preferred natural processes, 40% preferred guidance by a supreme being, and 7% said that they didn't know or refused to answer. Thus 32% of all the respondents chose evolution through natural processes, 24% chose guided evolution, and 33% chose creationism. In 2009, 32% chose evolution through natural processes, 22% chose guided evolution, and 31% chose creationism. The survey also asked a different group about evolution in such a way as not to highlight human evolution, with the word "animals" substituted for "humans." There was little difference: 63% of respondents accepted the evolution option, 32% the creationist option, and 5% said that they didn't know or refused to answer. Those who agreed that animals have evolved over time were asked whether they thought it was due to natural selection or guidance by a supreme being: 56% preferred natural processes, 38% preferred guidance by a supreme being, and 8% said that they didn't know or refused to answer. Thus 35% of all the respondents chose evolution through natural processes, 24% chose guided evolution, and 32% chose creationism. The Pew Research Center's report commented, "These beliefs differ strongly by religious group. White evangelical Protestants are particularly likely to believe that humans have existed in their present form since the beginning of time. Roughly two-thirds (64%) express this view, as do half of black Protestants (50%). By comparison, only 15% of white mainline Protestants share this opinion. There also are sizable differences by party affiliation in beliefs about evolution, and the gap between Republicans and Democrats has grown. In 2009, 54% of Republicans and 64% of Democrats said humans have evolved over time, a difference of 10 percentage points. Today, 43% of Republicans and 67% of Democrats say humans have evolved, a 24-point gap." Except for the questions about animal evolution, the report was "based on telephone interviews conducted March 21-April 8, 2013, among a national sample of 1,983 adults, 18 years of age or older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia (1,017 respondents were interviewed on a landline telephone, and 966 were interviewed on a cellphone). Interviews were completed in English and Spanish by live, professionally trained interviewing staff under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International. The margin of error at the 95% level of confidence for the entire sample was +/- 3%. The questions about animal evolution were asked of a group of 2,023 respondents, and the margin of error for that group is +/- 2.9%. For the report, visit: http://www.pewforum.org/2013/12/30/publics-views-on-human-evolution/ And for NCSE's collection of polls and surveys, visit: http://ncse.com/creationism/polls-surveys IAN BARBOUR DIES The distinguished scholar of science and religion Ian Barbour died on December 24, 2013, at the age of 90, according to Carleton College (December 27, 2013). Often credited with founding the academic field of science and religion, Barbour was the author of Religion in an Age of Science (HarperCollins 1990), Ethics in an Age of Technology (HarperCollins 1993), When Science Meets Religion (HarperOne 2000), and Nature, Human Nature, and God (Fortress Press 2009) among other books. In When Science Meets Religion, after reviewing the contentious history of efforts to undermine the teaching of evolution in the United States, Barbour wrote, "I believe that creation science is a threat to both religious and scientific freedom," adding, with respect to Phillip Johnson and Michael Behe, "though these authors are not biblical literalists they err in assuming that evolutionary theory and theism are incompatible. They, too, perpetuate the false dilemma of having to choose between science and religion." Barbour expanded on his disagreement with "intelligent design" in a 2000 talk (published in Zygon in 2001) critical of his fellow scholar of science and religion Huston Smith's sympathy for the position, writing: "Philosophical proponents of intelligent design, such as William Dembski ... and Stephen Meyer ..., write in the tradition of natural theology, in which science is used as evidence of the existence of a designer. My own approach is not natural theology but a theology of nature, in which one asks how nature understood by science is related to the divine as understood from the religious experience of a historical community." Describing "intelligent design" at least in Behe's and Smith's versions as assuming "intermittent divine intervention," he warned, "The God of the gaps has steadily retreated in the history of modern science." In the same talk, he noted that "[s]cientists have to assume methodological naturalism," that "intelligent design" proponents "do not offer testable hypothesis for scientific research," and that "virtually the entire scientific community agrees on descent with modification from earlier ancestors." Barbour was born in Beijing, China, on October 5, 1923. He studied physics, receiving his BA from Swarthmore College, his MA from Duke University in 1943, and his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1950. He then earned a BD from Yale Divinity School in 1956. After a few years teaching physics at Kalamazoo College, he went to Carleton College, where he spent the rest of his career in the physics and religion departments, retiring in 1986. Among his honors was his Gifford Lectureship in 1989-1991 and the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1999. For the obituary notice at Carleton College, visit: http://apps.carleton.edu/farewells/?story_id=1081774 For Barbour's paper in Zygon (PDF, subscription required), visit: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/0591-2385.00351/pdf A MILESTONE FOR NCSE'S ARCHIVES NCSE's archives now contain three thousand books! The lucky 3000th book in NCSE's collection is Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem, edited by Massimo Pigliucci and Maarten Boudry (University of Chicago Press, 2013). As it happens, the book contains contributions from Barbara Forrest, a member of NCSE's board of directors; Michael Ruse, a member of NCSE's Advisory Council; and various scholars who have worked with NCSE or published in Reports of the NCSE, including Stefaan Blancke, Michael Shermer, Donald Prothero, and John S. Wilkins. The books in NCSE's archives are catalogued on-line at LibraryThing. LibraryThing offers a variety of automatically compiled statistics, according to which NCSE's books weigh about two tons (1877 kilograms) and contain over nine hundred thousand pages in total, and would, if stacked, would reach 325.8 feet (99.3 meters), slightly higher than the Elizabeth Tower of the Palace of Westminster, which houses the bell Big Ben. If you'd like to contribute to the stack, and perhaps add the 3001st book to NCSE's collection, visit NCSE's wish list at Amazon.com. For NCSE's catalogue and statistics at LibraryThing, visit: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/NCSE http://www.librarything.com/profile/ncse/stats/physical For information about Philosophy of Pseudoscience, visit: http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo15996988.html And for NCSE's wish list at Amazon.com, visit: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/39U1UMFQ22WED/ WHAT'S NEW FROM THE SCIENCE LEAGUE OF AMERICA Have you been visiting NCSE's blog, The Science League of America, recently? If not, then you've missed: * Steve Newton continuing his series on creationism and the Grand Canyon: http://ncse.com/blog/2013/12/creationist-grand-canyon-claim-4-grand-canyon-rocks-were-0015274 * Glenn Branch investigating rumors of giant human remains: http://ncse.com/blog/2013/12/goliath-peloponnese-0015268 And much more besides! For The Science League of America, visit: http://ncse.com/blog Thanks for reading. And don't forget to visit NCSE's website -- http://ncse.com -- where you can always find the latest news on evolution and climate education and threats to them. -- With best wishes for the new year, -- Sincerely, Glenn Branch Deputy Director National Center for Science Education, Inc. 420 40th Street, Suite 2 Oakland, CA 94609-2509 510-601-7203 x305 fax: 510-601-7204 800-290-6006 branch@ncse.com http://ncse.com Check out NCSE's new blog, Science League of America: http://ncse.com/blog Read Reports of the NCSE on-line: http://reports.ncse.com Subscribe to NCSE's free weekly e-newsletter: http://groups.google.com/group/ncse-news NCSE is on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter: http://www.facebook.com/evolution.ncse http://www.youtube.com/NatCen4ScienceEd http://twitter.com/ncse NCSE's work is supported by its members. Join today! http://ncse.com/join
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