PRESS RELEASE -- People For the American Way Foundation
http://www.pfaw.org/news/
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 10, 2000
CONTACT: Media Relations Department at 202-467-4999
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PUBLIC WANTS EVOLUTION, NOT CREATIONISM, IN SCIENCE CLASS, NEW NATIONAL
POLL SHOWS
Public Sees No Contradiction Between God and Darwin, Says Creationist
Ideas Can Be Taught About,
But Not As Science
Nearly three-quarters of a century after science teacher John Scopes was
found guilty of breaking Tennessee law for teaching evolution, most
Americans have a strong opinion about what should be taught in
America's science classes. In a new nationwide poll on the subject,
conducted by DYG, Inc., the polling firm headed by Daniel Yankelovich,
and commissioned by People For the American Way Foundation, 83% of
Americans say Darwin's theory of evolution belongs in the nation's
science classes.
While the public dispute is most often portrayed as an "either-or" choice
- evolution vs. creation - most Americans don't see it that way, the poll
shows. About 70% of Americans don't see any conflict at all between the
two explanations for how life came to be. The majority of the public
clearly does not buy the notion put forward by the creationists that you
must choose between the Bible and evolution.
Most Americans see evolution as scientific theory and creation as a
matter of belief, and believe that the two are not mutually exclusive.
While they want schools to acknowledge that many people have religious
beliefs concerning the beginning of life, they do not want evolution to
be replaced by creationism, nor do they want the two taught side-by-side
as equal but competing scientific theories.
"To put it simply, this poll shows that most Americans believe that God
created evolution," said Ralph G. Neas, President of People For the
American Way Foundation (PFAWF), which commissioned the poll in
the wake of public outcry over last year's decision by the Kansas Board
of Education to drop evolution from its statewide science standards.
Unlike previous polls that touch on the dispute over evolution vs.
creationism, this one focused exclusively on this topic, producing an
in-depth, nationwide look, for the first time, at how Americans see both
subjects and how they want schools to handle them. Many Americans say
schools should teach about creationism, but only a small fraction (less
than 3 in 10) want it to be taught about in science class as science,
either alongside evolution (13%) or exclusively, in its place (16%).
"Earlier polls have really only scratched the surface of this very
complex and nuanced issue," said Daniel Yankelovich, president of the
polling firm DYG, Inc. "Three or four survey items are not enough to
understand how the public really thinks about evolution and creationism
in the classroom. We developed an entire, comprehensive survey to
exploring the numerous and critically important facets involved in public
opinion on this issue."
Among the majority of Americans favoring evolution, 20% say schools
should teach only evolution, with no mention of creationism; 17% say
schools should teach only evolution in science class, but would permit
religious explanations for the origins of humankind to be covered in
another, non-science class; and 29% would allow creationism to be
discussed along with evolution in science class, but it should be made
clear that evolution is scientific theory while creationism is a belief,
not science.
The public is clearly not supportive of attempts by a small, extreme
minority to force their religious beliefs into science classrooms either
as "Creation Science, " (which almost half of Americans have never heard
of) or by stripping the teaching of evolution from the curriculum. The
poll shows that the majority of Americans (60%) reject the Kansas Board
of Education's 1999 decision to delete Evolution from its state science
standards.
"One of the most remarkable things this poll shows us is that, with this
kind of broad public support, there shouldn't be any controversy at all
about teaching evolution," said Neas. "The fact that there is a debate
shows us how effective a very small but very vocal group has been in
imposing their views on our schools."
"The poll should also be a warning to public officials and schools," Neas
continued. "If they cave in to pressure to eliminate evolution or to
force creationism into the science classroom, they will be acting against
the views and wishes of most Americans."
The polling was carried out by DYG, Inc., the opinion research firm
founded and still headed by Daniel Yankelovich and Madelyn Hochstein.
PFAWF's purpose in commissioning the poll was to inform the public
debate over the issue by letting the American people's views be known and
understood.
"In all the media debate over the Kansas Board's decision to drop
evolution, the one missing ingredient was what the people thought," said
Neas. "We conducted this poll to complete the picture."
Evolution vs. creation is a perennial hot topic, one that is sure to heat
up in Kansas again with state education board elections on the horizon
and half of the seats up for grabs. Recent disputes over a
textbook disclaimer in Oklahoma and a charter school that wanted to teach
creationism in Rochester, NY, are just a few recent examples of the
perpetually simmering debate started when Charles Darwin published his
revolutionary theory a century and a half ago.
When it comes to how schools should handle what has been portrayed as a
conflict between evolution and creation, the public agrees on a number of
basic principles, although they haven't formulated a detailed idea of
precisely how schools can resolve the matter in practice. There is broad
agreement that schools should acknowledge that some people have
creationist beliefs and even teach about those beliefs - but not as
science. There is also a strong consensus not only that schools should
teach evolution, but that how they handle the subject along with
creationist beliefs should be a matter of national policy, not just a
local matter to be decided by each state or school district.
The poll results also suggest that, while the public is overwhelmingly
supportive of teaching evolution, their knowledge is quite limited about
the details of evolutionary theory, pointing to a need for greater
efforts to inform and educate the public about evolution. At today's
news conference in Washington, PFAWF announced that it has begun planning
such a campaign to coincide with the 75th Anniversary this year of the
Scopes Trial.
The full 53-page report on the polling results released today can be
downloaded from the web at:
http://www.pfaw.org/issues/education/creationism-poll.pdf
Also available is PFAWF's special report on the evolution-creationism
controversy, "Sabotaging Science: Creationist Strategy in the '90s":
http://www.pfaw.org/issues/education/creationist-strategy.pdf
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT OUR WEBSITE:
EVOLUTION-CREATIONISM RESOURCE PAGE:
http://www.pfaw.org/issues/education/creationism.shtml
EVOLUTION AND CREATIONISM IN PUBLIC EDUCATION:
AN IN-DEPTH READING OF PUBLIC OPINION
http://www.pfaw.org/issues/education/creationism-poll.pdf
(Adobe Acrobat PDF format - 428 Kb, 53 pages)
ONE-PAGE SUMMARY CHARTS FROM CREATIONISM POLL:
* "Segmenting the Public: Teaching About the Origins of Mankind"
http://www.pfaw.org/issues/education/cr-poll-origins.pdf
(Adobe Acrobat PDF format - 35 Kb)
* "Question: Agree or disagree: A person can believe in Evolution
and still believe God created humans and guided their development?
http://www.pfaw.org/issues/education/cr-poll-consensus.pdf
(Adobe Acrobat PDF format - 35 Kb)
______________________________________________________________________
PFAWF's special report on the evolution-creationism controversy:
"SABOTAGING SCIENCE: CREATIONIST STRATEGY IN THE '90s"
http://www.pfaw.org/issues/education/creationist-strategy.pdf
(Adobe Acrobat PDF format - 123 Kb)
______________________________________________________________________
* Download free Adobe Acrobat browser plug-in software:
http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html
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