Talk:Evolution/supportdraft2

Untitled
An interesting feature of the creationism-evolution controversy is the drastically different views of the dispute by different societal elements:
 * The public is quite divided
 * The court system in the US has mainly favored the evolution side, but there are many loopholes left for creationism in some court decisions.
 * some relatively small religious communities strongly favor the creationism position
 * mainstream religious groups in the West favor evolution
 * The political opinion is also divided, but there is seeming progress being made by the creationist side of the controversy
 * scientists are more in favor of evolution, particularly if they work or are trained in biology

The level of support for evolution is a source of controversy. Creationists point out that few scientists accept evolution, and that a significant controversy about evolution exists in the scientific community.

Supporters of evolution counter that these claims are unequivocally false. For example, evolution supporters claim that These statements are examined in greater detail. The vast majority of scientists accept evolution as the most reasonable scientific theory to explain the data.
 * Over 99% of all biologists in the US support evolution.
 * Dozens of scientific societies representing hundreds of thousands of scientists support evolution.
 * A petition in favor of evolution was endorsed by 72 US Nobel Prize winners
 * In the US, so far the creationists have lost numerous court battles (although this is likely to change or become irrelevant, as noted below)

On the other hand, creationists point out that they have, at least in some countries, persuaded far more of the general public that creationism is a more convincing explanation for the natural world. In addition, creationists have been far more successful making inroads in the political realm in the US and other countries.

Scientific support
There is overwhelming support in the scientific community and academia for evolution. One estimate in 1987 was that more than 99.84% of almost 500,000 scientists with professional credentials in the earth and life sciences supported evolution over creation science. An expert in the evolution-creationism controversy, professor and author Brian Alters states that "99.9 percent of scientists accept evolution" A 1991 Gallup poll of Americans found that only about 5% of scientists (including those with training outside the biology) identified themselves as creationists.

Not only do most scientists accept evolution, but there is a widespread belief in the scientific community that intelligent design (an explanatory principle closely related to creationism) is unscientific, is pseudoscience, or is junk science. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has stated that intelligent design "and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life" are not science because they cannot be tested by experiment, do not generate any predictions, and propose no new hypotheses of their own. In September 2005, 38 Nobel laureates issued a statement saying "Intelligent design is fundamentally unscientific; it cannot be tested as scientific theory because its central conclusion is based on belief in the intervention of a supernatural agent." And in October 2005 a coalition representing more than 70,000 Australian scientists and science teachers issued a statement saying "intelligent design is not science" and called on "all schools not to teach Intelligent Design (ID) as science, because it fails to qualify on every count as a scientific theory."

In 1986, an amicus curiae brief asking the US Supreme Court to reject a Louisiana state law requiring the teaching of creationism in the case Edwards v. Aguillard was signed by 72 US Nobel Prize winners, 17 state academies of science and 7 other scientific societies. This was the largest collection of Nobel Prize winners to sign anything up to that point. The amicus curaie brief also clearly described why evolution was science, not religion, and why creationism is not science.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest general scientific society with more than 130,000 members and over 262 affiliated societies and academies of science including over 10 million individuals, has made several statements and issued several press releases in support of evolution. The prestigious US National Academy of Sciences that provides science advice to the nation, has published several books supporting evolution and denouncing creationism and intelligent design.

There are many scientific and scholarly organizations from around the world that have issued statements in support of the theory of evolution

Disputing scientific support for evolution
Creationists strongly dispute the allegation that there is overwhelming support for evolution in the science community. To counter the charge that there are no scientists who disagree with the principles of evolution, creationist organizations  create lists of hundreds of scientists that disagree with evolution and support creationism. Some prominent creationist organizations that have produced these kinds of lists include:
 * Discovery Institute
 * Institute for Creation Research
 * Answers in Genesis
 * Creation Ministries International

On the Institute for Creation Research website is the following statement:


 * Today there are thousands of scientists who are creationists and who repudiate any form of evolution in their analysis and use of scientific data. Creationist scientists can now be found in literally every discipline of science and their numbers are increasing rapidly. In the Creation Research Society (2717 Cranbrook Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48104) alone there are over 650 scientist members with either doctor's or master's degrees in some field of natural science. Among the additional 2,000 + sustaining members of the Society, many are also scientists with bachelor's degrees, in addition to numerous social scientists and other highly educated people with postgraduate degrees in their own fields. Evolutionists are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the fiction that evolution is "science" and creation is "religion." When news media personnel and others make such statements today, they merely reveal their own liberal social philosophies—not their awareness of scientific facts!

Support for evolution by religious bodies
One of the most powerful points that creationists make is that they are doing God's work, and respectful of spiritual values. Many of the creationists act as preachers to preach the gospel. Many creationist organization are registered as tax-free religious organizations. Creationists often claim that they represent the interests of the true Christians, and evolution is only associated with atheism.

However, there are several religious organizations that have issued statements in support of evolution: In addition the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams has issued statements in support of evolution in 2006. The Clergy Letter Project is an signed statement by 10,000 American Christian clergy of different denominations rejecting creationism organized in 2004. Molleen Matsumura of the National Center for Science Education found, "of Americans in the twelve largest Christian denominations, 89.6% belong to churches that support evolution education." These churches include the United Methodist Church, National Baptist Convention USA, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), National Baptist Convention of America, African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church, and others.

Support for evolution in medicine and industry
A common complaint of creationists is that evolution is of no value and has never been used for anything and will never be of any use. Nothing would be lost by getting rid of evolution.

However, evolution is not just part of science, but is being put to use in medicine and genetics and industry. Corporations such as pharmaceutical companies utilize biological evolution in their development of new products. They do this because they have a profit motive, and the motive encourages them to use the take a hardline, verifiable approach to their research and development efforts. There is no luxury of time and effort to be wasted on ideas that do not have substantial scientific support behind them.

Because of this, there have been some expressions of support for evolution on the part of corporations. In Kansas, there has been some widespread concern in the corporate and academic communities that a move to weaken the teaching of evolution in schools will hurt the state's ability to recruit the best talent, particularly in the biotech industry. Paul Hanle of the Biotechnology Institute warned that the US risks falling behind in the biotechnology race with other nations if it does not do a better job of teaching evolution. James McCarter of Divergence Incorporated  states that the work of 2001 Nobel Prize winner Leland Hartwell which has substantial implications for combating cancer relied heavily the use of evolutionary knowledge and predictions. McCarter points out that 47 of the last 50 Nobel Prizes in medicine or physiology also depended on the use of evolutionary theory.

Other support for evolution
There are also many educational organizations that have issued statements in support of the theory of evolution

Repeatedly, creationists and intelligent design advocates have lost suits in US courts. However, given the Santorum Amendment, flavors of creationism might very well be introduced into American classrooms.

Public support
Creationists often claim that public support of creationism is a sign of creationism's validity as a scientific theory. In some countries, creationist beliefs have made substantial inroads with the public, even garnering the majority of public opinion. Given the political power this public support represents, it is likely that there will be more conflict and controversy in the future.

There have been numerous public surveys to try to ascertain levels of belief in evolution. The results of these polls are not the same in all countries that are surveyed. The US has one of the highest levels among industrialized countries of public belief in biblical or other religious accounts of the origin of the diversity of life forms on earth.

According to a 2006 Gallup poll, about 46% of Americans believe in strict creationism, concurring with the statement that "God created man pretty much in his present form at one time within the last 10,000 years," and 36% believe that God guided the process of evolution. Only 13% believe that humans evolved over millions of years, without any supernatural intervention. Belief in creationism is inversely correlated to education; of those with post-graduate degrees, only 22% believe in strict creationism. A poll in the year 2000 done for People for the American Way found 70% of the American public felt that evolution was compatible with a belief in God.

According to a study published in Science, between 1985 and 2005 the number of adult Americans who accept evolution declined from 45 to 40%, the number of adults who reject evolution declined from 48 to 39% and the number of people who were unsure increased from 7% to 21%. Besides the United States the study also compared data from 32 European countries (including Turkey) and Japan. The only country where acceptance of evolution was lower than in the United States was Turkey (25%). Public acceptance of evolution is most prevalent in Iceland, Denmark and Sweden at 80% of the population. (See the chart)

A 2006 UK poll on the "origin and development of life" asked participants to choose between three different perspectives on the origin of life: 22% chose creationism, 17% opted for intelligent design, 48% selected evolution theory and the rest did not know. As the poll lacked nuanced survey techniques and equivocated on origin definitions as well as forced participants to make choices as though there were only three options, its results do not necessarily indicate the views of the general public concerning mainstream science or religious alternatives.

However, it should be noted that just because the public supports something, it does not necessarily mean it is true. A study by Miller et al (1997) felt fewer than 20% of Americans possessed basic scientific literacy. A poll in the year 2000 done for People for the American Way found only 48% of the people polled could choose the correct definition of evolution from a list.

Polls were conducted by Bryan Farha at Oklahoma City University and Gary Steward of the University of Central Oklahoma in 2006, and compared to the results of a Gallup poll in 2001. They found fairly consistent results. The Farha-Steward poll results are followed by the Gallup results in parentheses.

Other surveys by different organizations at different times have found very similar results. A 2001 Gallup Poll found that the general public embraced the following: 54% of people believed in psychic/spiritual healing, 42% believed in haunted houses, 41% believed in satanic possession, 36% in telepathy, 25% in reincarnation, and 15% in channeling. A survey by Jeffrey S. Levin, associate professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk found that over 2/3 of the U.S. population reported having at least one mystical experience.

A 1996 Gallup poll estimated that 71% of the people in the United States believed that the government was covering up information about UFOs. A 2002 Roper poll conducted for the Sci Fi channel reported that 56% thought UFOs were real craft and 48% that aliens had visited the Earth.

A 2001 NSF survey found that 9 percent of people polled thought astrology was very scientific, and 31 percent thought it was somewhat scientific. About 32% of Americans surveyed stated that some numbers were lucky, while 46% of Europeans agreed with that claim. About 60% of all people polled believed in some form of ESP and 30% thought that UFOs were "some of the unidentified flying objects that have been reported are really space vehicles from other civilizations."

Also, as Steve Sailer points out, it is also not clear how firmly held the public beliefs in creationism are. After all, most of the creationist claims require a literal reading of Genesis and a belief in biblical inerrancy. However, even among the most fervert American Christians, the 15% that are evangelical protestants, only 47.8% believe that the bible is literally true, and 6.5% believe that the bible is an ancient book full of history and legends. Only about 11% of Catholics and mainline Protestants believe the bible is literally true, and only 9% of Jews believe the Torah is literally true. About 20% of Catholics and Protestants reported that the bible is a book of history and legends, and 52.6% of Jewish respondents felt the same about the Torah. These figures make it clear that a large fraction of Christians and Jews do not subscribe to the necessary beliefs to adopt creationist principles whole-heartedly.

From these results, it is not possible to put much credence in the creationist claim that public levels of belief correspond to more certainty.

Project Steve
The National Center for Science Education has produced a light-hearted petition called "Project Steve" in supported of evolution. Only scientists named "Steve" or some variation (such as Stephen, Stephanie, and Stefan) are eligible to sign the petition. It was meant as a parody of the lists of alleged "scientists" that supposedly support creationist principles that creationist organizations produce.

According to the United States Census, about 1.6% of males and 0.4% of females have a first name that would qualify them to sign the petition. Therefore, about 1% of all people in the United States are called Steve or some name that is close to Steve.

Therefore, if one can get N scientists named Steve or something similar to endore the petition, one might expect that roughly 100xN scientists with all kinds of names would endorse the petition. As of the end of 2006, over 770 scientists named Steve had endorsed the petition, suggesting that if all scientists were allowed to endorse the petition, about 77,000 scientists would have signed. This compares with the Discovery Institute's claim to have over 600 scientists that support intelligent design as of the end of June, 2006.