Scientists call our time “the age of biology” because the biological sciences have witnessed such tremendous growth in the number and significance of scientific discoveries.
The most powerful discovery is biological evolution and its driving force of natural selection. (See the January issue 2009 of Scientific American).
Close behind is the discovery of the “molecule of life”, DNA, which is shared in different forms by all Earth’s organisms and which confirms evolution.
Yet in a 2007 study of 34 Western developed nations, the United States ranks next to last (above Turkey) in the proportion of its population accepting the validity of biological evolution.
“How can such a situation exist?” ask so many American educators, especially since evolution is so well documented and established in the sciences and the proofs for it keep growing through more and more discoveries. The answer is not simple.
Partly it is because of our decentralized school system that allows more local control over content than found in other nations. Partly it is the low standards of science and mathematics education found in our schools. Partly it is an aggressive campaign of anti-evolution misinformation found in American society.
And it is because of the nature of the topic. Evolution is an abstract idea. It operates at the genetic level.
Aside from microbes that can evolve in a matter of days, most evolution takes thousands or millions of years. And while mutations happen to individuals, evolution only happens to groups of organisms.
If America is to remain a leader in science, the general American public must come to accept this biological process as real and important. And this will happen when Americans cease to regard evolution as a threat to their religious beliefs.
We see this happening with the appearance of “evolutionary creationism” or “theistic evolution.” We see it with such books as “Thank God for Evolution.”
We see it best with the ever increasing number of Christian clergy (now almost 12,000) who in the past four years have signed on to The Clergy Letter Project (please Google it) to acknowledge that Bible truths and modern science can comfortably coexist and that evolution is “a foundational scientific truth.”
-Frank Traina