Acceptance of evolution

From RationalWiki
(Difference between revisions)
Jump to: navigation, search
(links)
m
Line 1: Line 1:
{{bronze}}
+
  
 
'''Acceptance of evolution''', of course, refers to the number of people, or the type of people who accept that the diversity of [[life]] can be explained by [[evolution]] by [[natural selection]]. Some people sometimes say that they "believe" in evolution, but generally this isn't the right word; belief implies [[faith]], which implies a lack of [[evidence]]. And there is ''plenty'' of evidence for evolution. Thus, it would be better to say that one "accepts evolution as [[fact]]."
 
'''Acceptance of evolution''', of course, refers to the number of people, or the type of people who accept that the diversity of [[life]] can be explained by [[evolution]] by [[natural selection]]. Some people sometimes say that they "believe" in evolution, but generally this isn't the right word; belief implies [[faith]], which implies a lack of [[evidence]]. And there is ''plenty'' of evidence for evolution. Thus, it would be better to say that one "accepts evolution as [[fact]]."
Line 30: Line 30:
 
[[category:Evolution]]
 
[[category:Evolution]]
 
[[Category:Articles needing RWification]]
 
[[Category:Articles needing RWification]]
 
{{Evonav}}
 
{{keyword|evokey= Acceptance (STUB)}}
 

Revision as of 16:01, 23 August 2010


Acceptance of evolution, of course, refers to the number of people, or the type of people who accept that the diversity of life can be explained by evolution by natural selection. Some people sometimes say that they "believe" in evolution, but generally this isn't the right word; belief implies faith, which implies a lack of evidence. And there is plenty of evidence for evolution. Thus, it would be better to say that one "accepts evolution as fact."

Damn lies and statistics

While trying to get a handle on the demographics of religious belief can be difficult (people who declare themselves "spiritual but not religious", because they think it's more open minded than "atheist", confuse the matter seriously) it's easier to get an idea on how many people accept the science of evolution. Acceptance of evolution is notably interesting because such "controversies" don't exist with other theories and observations made by science, such as relativity or gravity. Although it should be noted that there are some people out there who are so detached from reality as to deny relativity has merit.

Some random facts about the acceptance of evolution:

  1. "[A]dults with some understanding of genetics are more likely to have a positive attitude toward evolution."[1]
  2. 97.3% of Biological Sciences department heads accept there is no scientific controversy over evolution.[2]
  3. Only 700 out of 480,000 earth and life scientists (00.14%) subscribe to literal biblical creationism[3]
  4. Acceptance of evolution tends to increase with level of education[4][5]
  5. It's not limited to the non-religious. Over 12,000 U.S. Christian clergy accept evolution.[6]
  6. The first known case of science-based evolution acceptance dates back to Charles Darwin's explication of natural selection in 1837[7].

Basically, anyone who has really looked at the evidence for evolution, including the fossil record and DNA is likely to disbelieve any religious tradition regarding the origin of species and life.

See also

Footnotes

  1. National geographic news
  2. Creation & Intelligent Design Watch
  3. "Keeping God Out of the Classroom", Newsweek, June 29, 1987, pp. 23.
  4. Creation/evolution controversy
  5. Pew Research Center
  6. The Clergy Letter Project
  7. Herbert, S. ed. 1980. The red notebook of Charles Darwin. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Historical Series 7 (24 April): 1-164.
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Community
Tools
support