WHY CREATIONISM IS LOSING THE WAR

Over the years I have had all manner of conversations with fundamentalist Christians regarding the theory of evolution.  In all those discussions I have not changed a single person’s mind regarding the reality of evolutionary processes.  Zero.  It seems that people either have already accepted the fact of evolution or they find reasons to deny it.

On its face, it would seem that convincing others of the truth of evolution should be much easier than changing their minds regarding more philosophical issues such as belief in the existence of a personal God.  After all, not only is there overwhelming scientific evidence in support of evolution, but the principles behind the theory are so commonsensical.  [See http://skepticreflections.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-laymans-explanation-of-evolution.html.]  Still, for me, zero “conversions.”

A few years back I bought a book intended to provide techniques that nonbelievers like myself could use to convince persons of faith that there is reason to doubt the existence of a personal god.  The author claimed great success in changing the minds of Christians, providing examples of the methods that he used.  For the most part his examples involved the use of rational argument and generally employed some variation on the Socratic method, the idea that you can lead an individual to change his or her beliefs by asking a carefully ordered series of questions to all of which the other person will answer yes and that will gradually lead to a change in their basic beliefs.  While the book was aimed specifically at beliefs in a personal god, rather than in evolution, the principles, I believe, should be the same, since opposition to evolution is nearly always rooted in religious beliefs that are contradicted by the evidence underlying evolutionary principles.  After reading the book, I concluded that it was worthless and consigned it to my donation pile.

Despite my lack of success, however, it is clear that belief in evolution among Americans continues to rise, while the conflicting belief in creationism continues to decline.  According to a 2017 Gallup poll, [https://news.gallup.com/poll/210956/belief-creationist-view-humans-new-low.aspx] after remaining relatively stable for a number of decades, the percentage of Americans who believe that God created humans in their present form at some time within the last 10,000 years or so--the young earth creationist view--has reached a new low.  “Only” 38 percent of adult Americans now accept creationism, down from an average of 46 percent as recently as 2011, while belief in some form of evolution, either God-guided or not, has increased from 47 percent to 57 percent over that same timeframe.  Of course we are still way behind Europe when it comes to acceptance of evolution and rejection of creationism, but, still, I am encouraged.

I find these changes heartening, but they raise the question of why I personally have been so unsuccessful in persuading anyone to change his or her beliefs regarding evolution while at the same time there has been a significant change in Americans’ beliefs regarding religion generally.  Have I been going about it all wrong?  Am I just not very good at persuasive argument?  Probably, but I think a much more important factor in these changes is age demographics.

In a 2018 Pew Research study [http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/age-distribution/], among Americans 18-29 years old, 16 percent stated that they did not believe in God, and another 8 percent reported that they were uncertain whether or not God exists.  Among those 65 years or older, on the other hand, only 6 percent stated that they did not believe in God, while another 4 percent reported that they were uncertain about God’s existence.

In another 2017 study [https://www.statista.com/statistics/245478/self-described-religious-identification-of-americans/] the percentage of Americans who categorized their religious affiliation as “None” rose from 3 percent in 1970 to 20 percent in 2017.  Importantly, that study reported that by 2017, while 12 percent of those 65 years and older were Nones, a whopping 38 percent of 18-29 year olds characterized themselves as Nones.  (Of course, stating that you do not have any religious affiliation does not mean that you do not believe in God, it could also mean that you simply do not belong to any particular religious sect.  Still.)

In other words, the reason that belief in God is declining while belief in evolution is on the rise is not because individual adults are changing their beliefs.  Rather, it is because more and more young people are growing up without belief in God or in creationism and, instead, are embracing a rational, scientific approach to knowledge, including evidence for evolution.

Bottom line:  The key going forward should be to focus resources on student education, especially in the lower grades, where science needs to be taught not just as a body of knowledge but as a methodology for evaluating evidence and for furthering our understanding of the world.  Early training in critical thinking skills is crucial.  The First Amendment may provide that children in parochial schools can be indoctrinated in religious belief, including a rejection of evolution.  But the First Amendment also assures that children who attend public schools cannot be subjected to such religious indoctrination and have a right to be educated in the established principles of science and of rational thinking skills.

© 2018 John M. Phillips