Creationism and Intelligent Design

Reiß, Michael

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-72761-5_86

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Creationism exists in a number of different versions but, depending on the country, from as few as 5% to over 50% of adults reject the theory of evolution. Instead, they believe that life came into existence as described by a literal (fundamentalist) reading of the early parts of the Bible, the Qu'ran or other scriptures and that the most that evolution has done is to change species into related species (Miller et al, 2006;Reiss, 2018b). For a creationist it is possible, for example, that the various species of hedgehogs (17 are generally identified, classified into five genera) had a common ancestor but this is not the case for the various species of hedgehogs, deer and cats -still less for monkeys and humans, for birds and reptiles or for whales and soft fruit.…”

Section: Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Faith, Science and classrooms

Reiss¹

2022

Debates in Science Education

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The importance of religion varies greatly between people (all absorbing, of no interest, abhorrent) and between countries (contrast theocracies and atheist / secular jurisdictions) but is difficult to measure. Surveys may attempt to determine religious beliefs (e.g., faith in God), religious practices (e.g., how often someone goes to a communal place of worship or reads the scriptures of their religion) and religious experiences (e.g., feeling that God is talking to one) and these three aspects of religion are sometimes aggregated into 'religiosity', which can be characterised as 'religious commitment'. However, there is considerable disagreement as to how best to ascertain each of these, with religious practice probably being the most objective, and some of the terms used in surveys and interviews don't translate very well between religions and languages.Perhaps the best international data on religious commitment are assembled by the Pew Research Center. In their most recent publication, weekly worship varies from 1% of the population in China, 6% in Sweden, 7% in Russia and 8% in the UK to 89% in Nigeria, 82% in Ethiopia and 72% in Indonesia, while the percentage who say that religion is very important in their lives varies from 3% in China, 10% in Japan, 10% in Sweden and 10% in the UK to 98% in Ethiopia, 94% in Pakistan and 93% in Indonesia (Pew Research Center, 2018). For a teacher, whatever their subject, what this means is that in most countries in the world, classrooms are going to contain some students for whom religion is important and some for whom it is not.

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Section: Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Faith, Science and classrooms

Reiss¹

2022

Debates in Science Education

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“…In addition, the share of the population holding creationist beliefs also varies between the states and regions. It has been reported that the acceptance of creationism and intelligent design is on the rise in different countries (Reiss 2018). The level of acceptance of the theory of evolution and its wide range is attributed to different factors, including religious views, cultural traditions, geographical diversity, and individual proficiency (Borgerding and Deniz 2018; Deniz and Borgerding 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teleological pitfalls in reading evolutionary trees and ways to avoid them

Schramm

Schmiemann

2019

Evo Edu Outreach

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Despite evolution being the central idea in modern biology, considerable variation exists in its acceptance around the globe, and reports of anti-evolutionist and creationist movements are widespread. Educators need to re-evaluate the approaches used for teaching students about evolution in order to facilitate its understanding and acceptance. A major hurdle in understanding the concepts of evolution is that humans tend to view the world in a teleological way. Learners create obstacles to understanding the concepts of evolution by ascribing purpose or intent-driven actions to animals, processes, or inanimate objects. An indispensable learning tool in the field of evolution is the evolutionary tree, as it is a direct representation of evolutionary hypotheses. The ability to read and understand this form of representation is prerequisite to fully understanding the concepts of evolution. In this work, we present issues faced when attempting to teach students to read evolutionary trees as well as troublesome diagrammatic properties that may foster teleological thinking. Further, we present teaching practices and methods that may be used to avoid the above challenges (from diagrammatic and instructional perspectives). With this work, we aim to raise awareness among educators about the different potential teleological pitfalls in the field of teaching how to read evolutionary trees, and to present different approaches for minimizing teleological reasoning and thinking in evolution education.

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Evolutionary stasis: creationism, evolution and climate change in the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum

Scaramanga

Reiß

2023

Cult Stud of Sci Educ

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There has been little consideration in the science education literature of schools or curricula that advocate creationism. Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) is among the world’s largest providers of creationist science materials with a curriculum divided into a system of workbooks which students complete at their own speed. This article examines the ways in which ACE presents particular areas of science that it considers to be contentious, namely evolution and climate change. The ACE curriculum has recently been rewritten, and we show that, like previous editions, the current curriculum relies on rote memorisation to the exclusion of other styles of learning, and that information presented is often misleading or distorted. Religious explanations of natural phenomena are sometimes given in place of scientific ones, and creationist assumptions are inserted into lessons not directly related to evolution or the Big Bang. Those who reject creationism are depicted as making an immoral choice. ACE’s recent curricula also add material denying the role of humans in climate change. It is argued that both the teaching methods and content of the ACE curriculum place students at an educational disadvantage.

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Creationism and Intelligent Design

Cited by 4 publications

References 26 publications

Faith, Science and classrooms

Faith, Science and classrooms

Teleological pitfalls in reading evolutionary trees and ways to avoid them

Evolutionary stasis: creationism, evolution and climate change in the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum

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