The latest survey of public beliefs about evolution in my home state is as appalling as it is unsurprising. Via the National Center for Science Education, I learn that in a new Louisiana State University poll, citizens were asked the following question:
Do you think the scientific theory of evolution is well supported by evidence and widely accepted within the scientific community, or that it is not well supported by evidence and many scientists have serious doubts about it?
The numbers: You can slice them various ways, but over 60 percent of Louisianans didn't answer the question correctly. 40.3 % said evolution was not well supported by evidence; 20.9% did not know. Only 38.8% could respond accurately concerning the standing of evolution within the scientific arena. And of course, along with such figures, the survey found that 57 percent of Louisiana residents support teaching out-and-out "creationism"--that's the word the survey used--in schools. We're getting killed out there. I have been closely following the evolution battle for well over a decade now; I'm sure many of our blog readers can say the same. So I think I'm entitled to pontificate a bit. What you only rarely see in this debate, it seems to me, are ingenious policy proposals for how to, er, solve the problem--make these kinds of numbers slowly, but steadily, change and improve. We have been in a holding pattern for decades on the teaching of evolution--with the exception of steady victories in the legal arena, there has been little progress, and those victories aren't enough. We really need fresh, new, solution-oriented ideas, ones that go beyond simply saying "improve education." Anyone know of any?
