Evolution and religion: attitudes of Scottish first year biology and medical students to the teaching of evolutionary biology

Abstract

Over a 12 year period, 4 – 11 per cent of a large first year Scottish university biology class stated that they rejected the occurrence of biological evolution. There was a slight, but statistically significant, decline in evolution- rejection over the 12 years. In the one year surveyed, the figure for medical students was 10 per cent. Most evolution-rejectors accepted the occurrence of within-species evolutionary changes: their objection was to the origin of new species. Acceptance of a literal religious creation account was the principal reason for rejecting evolution, whereas those accepting did so more on grounds of the lack of good alternative explanations, than on the strength of the evidence. Rejection of evolution correlated strongly with religious belief — mainly various sorts of Christianity or Islam. However, over half of those accepting evolution also claimed to have a religious faith. When asked to evaluate the evidence for various scientific propositions, including evolution, evolution-rejectors were generally a little more sceptical than acceptors: the two groups differed most starkly on the evidence for evolution and continental drift. These results are discussed in the context of the very different public attitudes towards the teaching of evolution in the USA and elsewhere, and of strategies in science education that acknowledge the role of values and the nature of scientific evidence.