Polling Opinion about Evolution:
Low Information Public Underscores Importance of Communication
Strategy
Matthew Nisbet
March 1, 2005
Tensions in American society over religious and scientific accounts of human
origins are centuries old, and the divide between the two contending worldviews
continues today as part of a growing political conflict over science education
standards. At the local, state, and national level, religiously-motivated
activists are working to change curriculum standards to allow for divine
accounts of human origins, while teachers, parents, lawyers, and scientists
labor to defend existing science-based standards.
The ongoing political struggle has been catapulted sporadically by the media
into the wider public eye, usually in reaction to proposed changes that have
reached some kind of institutional agenda, such as the decision in 1999 by the
Kansas State Board of Education to eliminate Darwinian evolution from the state
curriculum. More recently, the Kansas controversy has been followed with efforts
in Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and other states to include evolution
“disclaimers” in textbooks, or mandate that so-called alternative theories to
evolution be discussed by teachers. (For more, see the newly launched CreationWatch site).
These efforts are spearheaded by the intelligent design (ID) movement, a
well-coordinated coalition of lawyers, theologians, philosophers, elected
officials, and maverick scientists who contend that evolutionary theory is
riddled with holes, and that in order to explain the complexity of life and the
universe, some type of supernatural force must be at work. More savvy and
politically sophisticated than traditional young earth creationists, the key
target of the ID movement is the public. Via books, magazine articles, videos,
public speeches, direct mail campaigns, Web sites, and media appearances, the ID
movement seeks to mold public opinion, building political pressure on elected
officials to amend science education standards to include ID as an alternative
to Darwinian evolution (For more on the ID movement, see here).
To Read More of This Column Visit: http://www.csicop.org/scienceandmedia/evolution/
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