Denying Darwin: Views on science in the rejection of evolution by Dutch Protestants

Abstract

Evolution has met with considerable religious opposition for 150 years and is still controversial among various religious groups. This article tries to understand the evolution controversy by reframing it as a phenomenon of public understanding of science. Three paradigms were used as hypotheses for the rejection of evolution by Dutch Protestant Christians: knowledge deficit, attitude deficit and trust deficit. Ten Dutch Protestants rejecting evolution were interviewed about their views concerning evolution and science. It was found that the main reason for rejecting evolution was an a priori decision to trust the Bible more than science. Any views on science and evolution were based on this decision, so all three hypotheses, which suggest an a posteriori decision, were found to be not sufficient to explain the rejection of evolution, even though both a knowledge deficit and a trust deficit were found for some participants. However, all respondents felt that their a priori decision was supported by scientific facts. All respondents stated that evolution does not meet the criteria for good science and is therefore as unscientific as the belief in creation. Excluding evolution from science allows the respondents to retain their positive attitudes towards science.

Knowledge as Explanandum: Disentangling Lay and Professional Perspectives on Science and Religion

“…Long (2011), in an ethnographic analysis of American creationist students, has shown how a rejection of evolution is linked with questions of existential, social, and emotional stability. Hildering et al (2013) suggest that there are different levels of knowledge, and that, in the case of rejection of evolution, religious knowledge stands against scientific knowledge and trumps it – although for all respondents in their study, science continues to be valued highly in all other respects. As a matter of fact, the respondents in this study, Dutch creationists, make an effort to wrest evolution from the realm of science, which, among other things, serves to keep their general esteem of science intact.…”

“…Bauer et al, 2007). Studies that concerned the creation/evolution controversy from an STS perspective found little evidence that a knowledge deficit plays a decisive role in shaping a rejection of evolution, though it is not entirely irrelevant (Hildering et al, 2013).…”

“…Hence, it merely shifts the problem. Still, Hildering and colleagues point in the right direction when they state that “[a]rguments drawn from science are merely viewed as an addition to a decision that is already made and serve as a rationale to a non-rational decision” (Hildering et al, 2013: 997).…”

Diversification and internationalization in the sociological study of science and religion

“…Survey and interview research conducted by Hildering, Consoli, and van den Born () and Hermann (; in the Netherlands and the United States, respectively) found that students who reject evolution for religious reasons do not know less about evolutionary science. Quantitative sociological research has uncovered similar patterns (Baker, ).…”

Islamic Positivism and Scientific Truth: Qur’an and Archeology in a Creationist Documentary Film

“…Harun Yahya's creationism expresses a dogmatic belief in positive science, while taking a selective stance toward speculative science as it either recognizes the evident signs of God's design (and is therefore true: true science and true religion) or does not recognize them (and is therefore wrong: unscientific science, no religion or wrong religion) (see also Hildering et al 2012). Any kind of evolutionismbe it biological, social or religiousbelongs to this latter category of erroneous, misleading, lying, ideological pretense at science.…”