Thirty two years of continuous assessment reveal first year university biology students in Australia are rapidly abandoning beliefs in theistic involvement in human origins
Abstract Background For the past 32 years, we have polled first-year biology students annually at the University of New South Wales concerning their views about evolution and creationism. The purposes of the research were to identify the level of commitment among incoming students to creationist bel...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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BMC
2018-08-01
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Series: | Evolution: Education and Outreach |
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Online Access: | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12052-018-0083-9 |
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author | Michael Archer Alistair G. B. Poore Alexis M. Horn Hayley Bates Stephen Bonser Matthew Hunt Jonathan Russell Nikkita P. Archer Dylan J. Bye E. James Kehoe |
author_facet | Michael Archer Alistair G. B. Poore Alexis M. Horn Hayley Bates Stephen Bonser Matthew Hunt Jonathan Russell Nikkita P. Archer Dylan J. Bye E. James Kehoe |
author_sort | Michael Archer |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Abstract Background For the past 32 years, we have polled first-year biology students annually at the University of New South Wales concerning their views about evolution and creationism. The purposes of the research were to identify the level of commitment among incoming students to creationist beliefs that could interfere with their receptivity to evolutionary science and to assess in retrospect whether these creationist beliefs were changing over time. Results The results have demonstrated a downward shift over time from 60% of the class in 1986 believing a god had something to do with the origin of humans, to 29% in 2017. Conversely, the percentage of students convinced that a god had nothing to do with the origin of humans rose from 25% in 1986 to 62% in 2017. The creationist belief that a god created the world de novo within the last 10,000 years declined from 10% in 1986 to 3.6% in 2017. The decline in the Australian students’ commitment to religious views about divine creation, especially creationism, considerably exceeded the corresponding beliefs among American students and their general public, where belief in creationism while slowly declining appears to have remained in the 40% range, four times that seen in our Australian survey. Conclusions The very low and declining levels of commitment to the creationist view that god created humans de novo suggests this view is unlikely to be a significant obstruction to accepting the scientific evidence for evolution. The results of the survey of UNSW students correlate with changes documented in the census of the general Australian public suggesting that our survey results of first-year biology students reflect overall changes in the Australian community as a whole. |
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format | Article |
id | doaj.art-356111bc1da84615b88d779dda306fec |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 1936-6426 1936-6434 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-04-12T11:31:53Z |
publishDate | 2018-08-01 |
publisher | BMC |
record_format | Article |
series | Evolution: Education and Outreach |
spelling | doaj.art-356111bc1da84615b88d779dda306fec2022-12-22T03:34:59ZengBMCEvolution: Education and Outreach1936-64261936-64342018-08-011111810.1186/s12052-018-0083-9Thirty two years of continuous assessment reveal first year university biology students in Australia are rapidly abandoning beliefs in theistic involvement in human originsMichael Archer0Alistair G. B. Poore1Alexis M. Horn2Hayley Bates3Stephen Bonser4Matthew Hunt5Jonathan Russell6Nikkita P. ArcherDylan J. ByeE. James Kehoe7PANGEA Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South WalesEcology & Evolution Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South WalesPANGEA Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South WalesPANGEA Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South WalesEcology & Evolution Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South WalesPANGEA Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South WalesPANGEA Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South WalesSchool of Psychology, University of New South WalesAbstract Background For the past 32 years, we have polled first-year biology students annually at the University of New South Wales concerning their views about evolution and creationism. The purposes of the research were to identify the level of commitment among incoming students to creationist beliefs that could interfere with their receptivity to evolutionary science and to assess in retrospect whether these creationist beliefs were changing over time. Results The results have demonstrated a downward shift over time from 60% of the class in 1986 believing a god had something to do with the origin of humans, to 29% in 2017. Conversely, the percentage of students convinced that a god had nothing to do with the origin of humans rose from 25% in 1986 to 62% in 2017. The creationist belief that a god created the world de novo within the last 10,000 years declined from 10% in 1986 to 3.6% in 2017. The decline in the Australian students’ commitment to religious views about divine creation, especially creationism, considerably exceeded the corresponding beliefs among American students and their general public, where belief in creationism while slowly declining appears to have remained in the 40% range, four times that seen in our Australian survey. Conclusions The very low and declining levels of commitment to the creationist view that god created humans de novo suggests this view is unlikely to be a significant obstruction to accepting the scientific evidence for evolution. The results of the survey of UNSW students correlate with changes documented in the census of the general Australian public suggesting that our survey results of first-year biology students reflect overall changes in the Australian community as a whole.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12052-018-0083-9EvolutionCreationismUniversity teachingTrends in belief |
spellingShingle | Michael Archer Alistair G. B. Poore Alexis M. Horn Hayley Bates Stephen Bonser Matthew Hunt Jonathan Russell Nikkita P. Archer Dylan J. Bye E. James Kehoe Thirty two years of continuous assessment reveal first year university biology students in Australia are rapidly abandoning beliefs in theistic involvement in human origins Evolution: Education and Outreach Evolution Creationism University teaching Trends in belief |
title | Thirty two years of continuous assessment reveal first year university biology students in Australia are rapidly abandoning beliefs in theistic involvement in human origins |
title_full | Thirty two years of continuous assessment reveal first year university biology students in Australia are rapidly abandoning beliefs in theistic involvement in human origins |
title_fullStr | Thirty two years of continuous assessment reveal first year university biology students in Australia are rapidly abandoning beliefs in theistic involvement in human origins |
title_full_unstemmed | Thirty two years of continuous assessment reveal first year university biology students in Australia are rapidly abandoning beliefs in theistic involvement in human origins |
title_short | Thirty two years of continuous assessment reveal first year university biology students in Australia are rapidly abandoning beliefs in theistic involvement in human origins |
title_sort | thirty two years of continuous assessment reveal first year university biology students in australia are rapidly abandoning beliefs in theistic involvement in human origins |
topic | Evolution Creationism University teaching Trends in belief |
url | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12052-018-0083-9 |
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