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Science and religious anti-evolutionism Anti-evolution campaigning has a significant influence on public opinion. It undermines mainstream science and brings equal discredit to 'mainstream Christianity'. Confusingly, the term 'creationist' has been hijacked by a non-representative but highly vocal pressure-group. Strictly speaking, all Christians believe in some form of creation, by definition, but are not necessarily 'anti-evolution'. Only a vocal minority find it necessary to argue with science. The first rule is to make a clear distinction between anti-evolutionists and non-militant believers. Failure to make this distinction, by outspoken atheists campaigning in the name of science, has needlessly polarised and alienated huge sectors of the public. No religious beliefs, INCLUDING ATHEISTIC BELIEFS, must be allowed to prejudice the interpretation or communication of evolutionary science.
The same issues arise in Judaism, of course, and evolutionary science seems to be a specially difficult subject in Islam. I have also seen many non-religious people whose attitudes and scientific understanding have been negatively influenced by anti-evolution campaigning. I regularly give talks about this to church groups and see big attitude changes as a result. The issue has become so polarised that the conciliatory viewpoint is rarely promoted. Hopefully these notes might be useful to others in dialogue with faith groups. |
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