Teaching Evolution in a Creation Nation

Laats Adam, Siegel Harvey

No fight over what gets taught in American classrooms is more heated than the battle over humanity's origins. For more than a century we have argued about evolutionary theory and creationism (and its successor theory, intelligent design), yet we seem no closer to a resolution than we were in Darwin's day. In this thoughtful examination of how we teach origins, historian Adam Laats and philosopher Harvey Siegel offer crucial new ways to think not just about the evolution debate but how science and religion can make peace in the classroom. Laats and Siegel agree with most scientists: creationism is flawed, "as science". But, they argue, students who believe it nevertheless need to be accommodated in public school science classes. Scientific or not, creationism maintains an important role in American history and culture as a point of religious dissent, a sustained form of protest that has weathered a century of broad – and often dramatic – social changes. At the same time, evolutionary theory has become a critical building block of modern knowledge. The key to accommodating both viewpoints, they show, is to disentangle belief from knowledge. A student does not need to "believe" in evolution in order to "understand" its tenets and evidence, and in this way can be fully literate in modern scientific thought and still maintain contrary religious or cultural views. Altogether, Laats and Siegel offer the kind of level-headed analysis that is crucial to finding a way out of our culture-war deadlock.

About the Author

Adam Laats is associate professor of education and history at Binghamton University, State University of New York. He is the author of "The Other School Reformers" and "Fundamentalism and Education in the Scopes Era".

Harvey Siegel is professor of philosophy at the University of Miami. He is the author of several books, including "Relativism Refuted, Educating Reason, and Rationality Redeemed?", as well as the editor of "Reason and Education" and "The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Education".

Reviews

"What do you get when you cross a historian and a philosopher? If it's Laats and Siegel, the answer is 'Teaching Evolution in a Creation Nation'. Thoughtful and provocative, historically detailed and philosophically informed, this book is a must for anyone interested in understanding the conflict over evolution education in the United States" – Glenn Branch, deputy director, National Center for Science Education

"'Teaching Evolution in a Creation Nation' provides not only a readable and reliable survey of past encounters but a sensible guide to future practices. Rather than promoting public-school classrooms as pulpits for converting skeptical students to evolution (which has rarely proved an effective technique in any case), they recommend helping students to understand the arguments and evidence for evolution. This book should be required reading for all evolution educators" – Ronald L. Numbers, author of "The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design"

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