Creationism In US High Schools: 16 Percent Of US Science Teachers Are Creationists

ABC News reports on the findings of a study that concluded 16% of U.S. science teachers are Creationists, and that, disturbingly, one in eight are teaching creationism as a valid science:

Despite a court-ordered ban on the teaching of creationism in U.S. schools, about one in eight high-school biology teachers still teach it as valid science, a survey reveals. And, although almost all teachers also taught evolution, those with less training in science -- and especially evolutionary biology -- tend to devote less class time to Darwinian principles...

...The researchers polled a random sample of nearly 2,000 high-school science teachers across the U.S. in 2007. Of the 939 who responded, 2 percent said they did not cover evolution at all, with the majority spending between 3 and 10 classroom hours on the subject.

However, a quarter of the teachers also reported spending at least some time teaching about creationism or intelligent design. Of these, 48 percent -- about 12.5 percent of the total survey -- said they taught it as a "valid, scientific alternative to Darwinian explanations for the origin of species".

Related: Ben Stein: Front Man for Creationism's Manufactroversy

Comments

[rkx13]

Science and religion make a strange pair
A balanced human being today should have allot of science and a little religion
Darwin was a careful and thoughtful investigator
People without science has already been tried
They are called cavemen
Do you really want to try that again?
We seem to be headed that way

[research]

Creationist are insulating God!

Is god too weak or stupid to have created evolution?

[Ddorsey]

I'm in High school, and I can tell you that about 25% of us are agnostic/aethiest, and that's being modest. They're just too scared to "come out" to their parents, but in 15-25 years there will be a trend of a lot more.

[ElPerro]

"The priests of the different religious sects¦dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight, and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subdivision of the duperies on which they live."
- Thomas Jefferson

[MrJoyboy]

That's appropriate because judging from the polls, 50% of Americans are idiots.

[Tamas]

Science is a process of curiosity and investigation neither of which is associated with creationism which is merely acceptance.

[dukeitout]

I recall months ago in one of the early Republican debates (2008 Presidential) all 5 or 6 candidates except Paul, summarily rejected evolution as a valid scientific theory. Ole McCain timidly raised his hand to reject evolution. So did Romney and the rest of the "intelligent design" politicos. Sadly, there are science teachers that put their religious dogma ahead of their science. Some of these teachers are very intelligent but let their stubborness trump their intellect. Maybe they have presidential ambitions.

[RichardRoe]

If you mean the first Republican debate, then no, only Brownback, Huckabee and Tancredo raised their hands. Paul later said that he _doesn't_ accept evolution. Romney elaborated that he does indeed belief in evolution. McCain, well, as always you don't know exactly where he stands on the issue, but he didn't raise his hand.

[gnomic]

No wonder America is losing its place as the leader in innovation. We have stupid people teaching our kids stupid things rather than science. That's the kind of stupidity that puts a complete moron in the White House.

the shame of it.

[RealityBaseCamp]

I guess it's to be expected. Creationists have majored in various disciplines in order to get credentials so they can denounce the practice of objectively evaluating all the evidence. Nothing like a science degree after your name to sell your antiscience book. It figures that some of them go into teaching just so they can influence young minds and close a few which would otherwise have been open.

[RuralLib]

Sorry for not proofreading. I do know how to spell "retired".

[RuralLib]

Who hires teachers? School boards (seldom from the scientific community) do, based upon the recommendation of administrators (rarely having any real foundation in science), and influenced by local politics, friendships and family relationships. I am a reitired biology teacher from a rural public high school. I was present at interviews where successful candidates presented credentials from "Christian" colleges and proudly included teaching Sunday school classes on resumes.
It is my opinion that there has been a movement by the conservative religious right to prepare teachers at their favored institutions and send them out to promote creationism (in its various disguises) in public schools. Am I paranoid?

[ElPerro]

This makes perfect sense. Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition began a project about two decades ago to begin placing "stealth" candidates in local positions of power such as school boards by getting them to hide their wingnuttetry until AFTER they were well established in their positions. We could be seeing the results of his successes.

[MajorKong]

Maybe we should have some scientists teaching theology then.....

[browndog2]

If you believe God created the world inwhich you live you're a "dogmatic Christian extremist".

"i know for a fact God didn't create the Earth".

"Fictional characters don't create anything".

[chinohillster]

WHY is there psychological resistance to evolution?

It is too easy, too facile to attribute this resistance to ideology, culture, politics or lack of education. I think science is absoulutely _marvelous_ - I love watching scientific programs, reading scientific books and the like.

Yet I also believe in God, an N-dimensional being who, through evolutionary processes, created the world over time (what is 12-16 billion years to an eternal, infinite Being?) I have no problem with Darwin, and I have no problem with Scripture, because they are not mutually exclusive to me.

Science tells me that the Earth is in the right zone from its sun, with plate tectonics, other processes in operation to retain oxygen and liquid water, a large Moon in tidal lock, and a large Jupiter to keep most extinction-level asteroids from the Earth (most, not all). Science tells me of the similarity between all living beings, their form and function, and how they operate.

A belief in God, for me, fills the gap between Planck Time (10 to the minus 43 after the Big Bang) and the singularity, the point beyond which the GUTs (Grand Unified Theories) tend to break down. A belief in God tells me that the Universe has a design, a purpose, and an imprint, much like a fine product of the Bayerische Motoren Werke.... (ha)

I think science should be taught in science classes, with intellectual rigor. I think questions of origins are for the philosophy class...

[radmul]

What created god?

[drblack]

They aren't science teachers.
I am sure everyone of them is a dogmatic christian extremists.
Do they teach the alien seeding idea? The Flying Spaghetti Monster idea?
Science has nothing to do with belief.
Most of those who believe in creationism have never actually read and researched on Evolution and think Darwin wrote the Origin of Life instead of "The Origin of Species".
Science is a method and process to determine what is fact; creationism doesn't hold up to scientific evaluation.
Many religious people accept evolution but you won't find any but the christian extremists who accept creationism because there is no science to back it up.

[wsblake]

And 95 percent of all high school teachers are close-minded, conservative morons.

[UnbiasView]

You must obviously not have any kids in public schools then . . .

Did you know that kids these days get medals and trophies for finishing in 13th place? Only liberals reward people for losing.

Did you know they use Al Gore's movie in many science classes even though everyone knows the truth is stretched big time? Only liberals would believe that his movie is fact.

[shockmagog]

If you can't defend the stupid idea of creationism, and you cannot defend those who foist it on us with no regard to our nation's future, simply say so. Stop trying to change the subject to some other argument you always lose.

[Araxiel]

I was educated by Jesuit priests and Dominican nuns. I still remember, back in the olden days (1950s) one the nuns in science class telling us that there was nothing wrong with believing in evolution, that it was, as she saw it, God's intent to let life and the universe unfold in wondrous ways. Anyhow, in the intervening years, I came to appreciate what she told us so many years ago, and even though I am no longer a religious person, I still am amazed at how many Americans are so very stupid when it comes to empirical evidence. I think religion, as Christopher Hitchens points out so well in his latest book, "poisons everything." If we do, as it seems likely, fall further behind other countries in science and technology, we have no one to blame but ourselves for allowing creationism and intelligent design to gain a foothold in our public schools.

The evangelicals and their political cronies have done untold damage to our culture and especially to our system of public education.

[researcher]

many are teaching intelligent design not creationism.

darwin has more gaps than mc wars straight talk.

to teach it as fact will be a laughin matter a hundred years from now.

the universe is intelligent but to our ignorant eyes it looks like chaos.

the problem with teaching intelligent universe is that the religous folks will sneak in their religious beliefs and many of those are illogical. i actually saw a 5 year old ask a sunday school teacher about god and she did not have an answer.

he figured out the insanity of what she was teaching at 5.

poor kid the parents will make sure he get brainwashed to accept those illogical beliefs. and so it goes.

[Quaoar]

Intelligent Design IS creationism.

[Boboday555]

I'm amazed that so many people from the bread basket of America don't believe in 'natural selection' considering how often they have to contend with pesticide resistant insects.
Pesticide resistant insects are the very definition of 'natural selection.'

[SlinkyTWF]

Technically, that is "unnatural selection," wherein the changes in evolotionary development are driven by conscious actions of those who would modify their environment. Carl Sagan gave a fantastic example of this in his Cosmos series with the story of a species of crab in Japan that flourished while others were fished-out because the markings on their shell were considered by locals to have some spiritual significance.

[ResidentChimp]

At one time over ninety percent of scientists were creationists. They're really two different viewpoints that don't exclude each other.

[kdogg]

they can be mutually exclusive but thats because one is a theory based of science and evidence and the other is a belief based of faith. if beliefs are allowed become fact then the basis of science is destroyed.

[kdogg]

sorry meant inclusive not exclusive

[cmaff05]

Creationism is junk science. Why is it taught in schools?

[CC1]

Creationism is a joke and usually on religious grounds. If teachers insist on polluting students' mind with that drivel, at least do it in a private faith based school.

[Boboday555]

With the ever dwindling pool of jobs in this country, especialy jobs in high tech and all things science, I'm all for them teaching ID to their kids.

When their kids go up against ours for a job in, let's say, the Earth sciences, and their kids explain that the Earth is 6,000 thousand years instead of 4.5 billion, our kids will get the jobs.

I, for one, am all for them teaching Creationism exclusively.

[ResidentChimp]

It's obvious that you don't understand science, religion or intelligent Design.

[kdogg]

its obvious you don't either. ID and creationism are bad science, ie they are not based off hypothesis supported with evidence. teach children bad science and they will be at a dis-advantage compared to children that learn the proper fundamentals of science. seems pretty cut and dry to me.

[Boboday555]

And roughly 16% of Americans don't think George W. AWOL is the worst President in American history.
Very interesting...

[UnbiasView]

And 18% think the Democratis lead congress is doing a good job.
Also very interesting...

[drblack]

Democrats don't actually lead Congress because they don't have a commanding majority.
Congress is basically split 50-50 and Cheney has the deciding vote.
After this upcoming election the Democrats will have a majority and then we will see.

[DuffyShort]

So what, three out of ten Republican Presidential candidates were too. It's not against the law to be stupid. Look at the right wingers on Fox that call global warming a hoax. I bet all of the science teachers from Bob Jones University are creationists. Creationism needs to be in the Literature Department. It has no place in the Science Department. The New Testament is more the product of the Church of the first through the fifth centuries than a chronicle of the life of Jesus. Jesus himself was likely just a human like me and you. It is written that he was disappointed when the end of time did not come during his stay on earth. His physical miracles were created by a new religious culture that needed to compete with the polytheism of the Greeks and Romans. Jesus was a reasonably well known dark skinned rabbi that had a relatively strong following. His crucifixion made him a martyr and the spin doctors of the next few hundred years created a mythology that many now worship. Many humans need a belief system to provide a source for basic morality. Whether Christian or Muslim or Buddhist or Jew....all are based on the needs of those religions to control people. The current wave of fundamentalist Christianity sweeping the US is likely not what Jesus had in mind, if he did actually exist.

[Boboday555]

Bingo!
Organized Religion is a business...just a business.
Remember what Jesus himself said about organized religion;
"Pray not in public like the Pharisees. Pray, instead, in your private inner room."

[UnbiasView]

Who cares, the public schools are based on the religion of government . . . what's the difference?