Reconciling evolution: evidence from a biology and theology course

Abstract

Background: Many individuals reject evolutionary theory due to a perceived conflict with their religious beliefs. To bridge this gap, educators have attempted different approaches including approaching evolution rejection as a consequence of deficit thinking and teaching students the nature of science (including the scientific process and peer review process as well as questions that science can and cannot answer).Teaching the nature of science has shown promising gains in the acceptance of evolution, although acceptance rates remain low. We propose a further approach: the use of a reconciliatory model designed to help students accept evolution within the framework of their religious beliefs. We tested this approach in both biology and theology classrooms at a Nazarene-affiliated university. Both professors approached the subject in a reconciliatory fashion. Results: This study found that by utilizing a reconciliatory approach, the students in both classrooms saw significant gains in evolution acceptance, with gains being greatest in the biology classroom. In addition, we saw no decrease in student religiosity. Conclusions: Implications of this are discussed. The results of this study confirm the effectiveness of a reconciliatory model, which opens several avenues for further research.

A New Measure of Students’ Perceived Conflict between Evolution and Religion (PCoRE) Is a Stronger Predictor of Evolution Acceptance than Understanding or Religiosity

“…A way that evolution instructors may be able to reduce students' perceived conflict between evolution and belief in God is to discuss that evolution is not necessarily atheistic and that students do not have to reject a belief in God in order to accept evolution. Biologists and science education researchers have written extensively about the conflation of evolution acceptance with atheism (Smith, 1994;Miller, 1999;Meadows et al, 2000;Scott, 2005;Collins, 2006;Reiss, 2009;Gould, 2011;Southerland and Scharmann, 2013;Tolman et al, 2020). In our past study, we reported that almost half of college biology students think that in order to accept evolution they would have to be atheists, highlighting the prevalence of this misconception (Barnes et al, 2020a).…”

Barriers to teaching evolution in higher education

“…Those faculty that are religious, or are teaching at a religious institution, also have the potential to be role models that provide a pathway for religious students to accept evolution, a factor known to lead to greater acceptance of evolutionary theory (Holt et al 2018). Additionally, instructors at religiously affiliated institutions have the added benefit of being in the position to employ religious cultural competence in evolution education (ReCCEE), an important part of the reconciliatory approach known to lead to gains in undergraduate acceptance of evolution (Barnes and Brownell 2016;Lindsay et al 2019;Tolman et al 2020). Despite their advantageous position, many professors are not comfortable employing strategies such as a reconciliatory approach, or do not feel that it is their purpose to help their students accept evolution (Barnes and Brownell 2016).…”

“…Fortunately, there is an ample amount of literature demonstrating that faculty can address student fear surrounding evolution (Manwaring et al 2015;Barnes and Brownell 2016;Lindsay et al 2019;Tolman et al 2020;Barnes and Brownell 2017;Truong et al 2018;Bertka et al 2019), and can increase student knowledge of evolutionary theory (Sinatra et al 2003;Mead et al 2017;Walter et al 2013;Rios et al 2015;Dunk et al 2019), which account for many of the reported internal factors.…”

“…While many educators have a desire to help their students become more accepting of evolutionary theory (Barnes and Brownell 2016), there are additional factors that have the potential to confound the difficulties already inherent in teaching evolution. Discourse surrounding science and faith is known to increase undergraduate acceptance of evolution (Manwaring et al 2015;Barnes and Brownell 2016;Lindsay et al 2019;Tolman et al 2020), but often requires institutional change. Such institutional change likely necessitates the availability of a large number of resources.…”

Role models, compatibility, and knowledge lead to increased evolution acceptance

“…Learning about the mechanisms and evidence for evolution appears to be important for students' understanding of the theory of evolution and for changing students' minds about evolution. One study by Talbot et al (Talbot et al 2020), looked at biology majors taking their capstone evolution course and found that increased knowledge of the mechanisms and evidence for evolution was the most important factor for students' increasing their acceptance of evolution while completing their coursework. In other studies, there was no correlation between teaching the facts of evolution and acceptance of evolution (Bishop and Anderson 1990;Sinatra et al 2003;Brem et al 2003;Mead et al 2017).…”