Charles Darwin would be 200 years old this week. There are a couple articles today (NYT, LiveScience.com) suggesting that it may be time to drop “Darwinian” from in front of the word “evolution”, because, as advocates of the move argue, it implies that the theory of evolution has remained stagnant since Darwin presented it to the world in Origin of Species in 1859, and that the terms “Darwinian evolution” and “Darwinism” leave the door open for the intelligent design camp to argue that there are other types of evolution or other “-isms”.
What really caught my eye, though, was the graphic accompanying the LiveScience.com article. It breaks down by religion the results of a survey on Americans’ views of evolution as the best explanation for the origin of human life.
The results show that whether one believes in evolution isn’t necessarily tied to whether one is religious, as those surveyed who belong to several non-Christian religions overwhelmingly believe evolution to be the best explanation for human origins. No Christian religion, however, topped 58 percent, and Muslims came in at 45 percent.
As for the debate over whether it’s time to lay the term “Darwinian” to rest, I think it misses the point. America’s lack of understanding about evolution won’t be cured by a change in wording. It’s about increased efforts at education and a much better showing by the scientific community in the field of public relations, where the ID camp has traditionally fared much better. I work with scientists, and I can tell you that most of them aren’t exactly great at PR or communicating scientific ideas to lay people in an easy-to-understand manner. For more on this thought, check out “Flock of Dodos”, a terrific documentary by Randy Olson about the evolution-vs.-ID debate.
