Teaching Evolution Without Violating Students’ Religious Beliefs

In this Education Week commentary, Adam Laats (Binghamton University/SUNY) and Harvey Siegel (University of Miami) say that creationists aren’t correct when they say:

• The world is only 6,000 years old;
• Our species descended from two ancestors in the Garden of Eden;
• Studying evolution in school forces an anti-Christian religion on students;
• We need to modify the science curriculum by teaching intelligent design.

“Evolutionary theory is a building block of our understanding of life,” say Laats and Siegel. “As the best existing scientific explanation of the way our species came to be, how evolution works is vital for all students to understand. Students should not have a right to opt out of learning about a central tenet of contemporary science.” 

However, the authors continue, creationists are correct in protesting any attempt by public schools to impose religious beliefs on students. 

The thing is, they argue, “Teaching evolutionary theory is not in and of itself religious indoctrination.” That’s because evolution is not a religion. “How could a religion have no beliefs about the supernatural? No rituals? No moral commandments?”

But the theory of evolution definitely has religious implications for the followers of some religions. “Evolution forces a profound rethinking of traditional faith,” says Jason Rosenhouse of James Madison University. Creationists are correct to object if their children are asked by teachers to believe something that’s contrary to their religious upbringing. 

The responsible middle ground, say Laats and Siegel, is to ask students to learn about evolution without insisting that they believe it. In other words, we shouldn’t push skeptical students to say, “Natural selection is one of the most important ways species came to be differentiated.” Better for them to say, “Most scientists think natural selection is one of the best explanations.” 

And indeed, preliminary research indicates that this approach – separating what is believed from what is not believed – can work. Researchers in Arizona found that high-school students can understand evolution without giving up their deep skepticism about the theory.

“Teaching Evolution Is Not About Changing Beliefs” by Adam Laats and Harvey Siegel in Education Week, April 20, 2016 (Vol. 35, #28, p. 18), www.edweek.org 

From the Marshall Memo #634