School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85282.
Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089.
CBE Life Sci Educ. 2020 Jun;19(2):ar21. doi: 10.1187/cbe.19-05-0106.
Although many scientists agree that evolution does not make claims about God/god(s), students might assume that evolution is atheistic, and this may lead to lower evolution acceptance. In study 1, we surveyed 1081 college biology students at one university about their religiosity and evolution acceptance and asked what religious ideas someone would have to reject if that person were to accept evolution. Approximately half of students wrote that a person cannot believe in God/religion and accept evolution, indicating that these students may have atheistic perceptions of evolution. Religiosity was not related to whether a student wrote that evolution is atheistic, but writing that evolution is atheistic was associated with lower evolution acceptance among the more religious students. In study 2, we collected data from 1898 students in eight states in the United States using a closed-ended survey. We found that 56.5% of students perceived that evolution is atheistic even when they were given the option to choose an agnostic perception of evolution. Further, among the most religious students, those who thought evolution is atheistic were less accepting of evolution, less comfortable learning evolution, and perceived greater conflict between their personal religious beliefs and evolution than those who thought evolution is agnostic.
尽管许多科学家都认为进化并不涉及对神或神的存在的断言，但学生们可能会假设进化是无神论的，这可能导致他们对进化的接受程度降低。在研究 1 中，我们调查了一所大学的 1081 名大学生的宗教信仰和对进化的接受程度，并询问如果一个人接受进化，他将不得不摒弃哪些宗教观念。大约一半的学生写道，一个人不能既相信上帝/宗教又接受进化，这表明这些学生可能对进化持无神论观点。宗教信仰与学生是否认为进化是无神论的无关，但认为进化是无神论的学生在更虔诚的学生中，对进化的接受程度较低。在研究 2 中，我们通过一个封闭式的调查，从美国八个州的 1898 名学生那里收集了数据。我们发现，即使学生可以选择对进化持不可知论的观点，仍有 56.5%的学生认为进化是无神论的。此外，在最虔诚的学生中，那些认为进化是无神论的人对进化的接受程度较低，对学习进化的舒适度较低，并且认为个人宗教信仰与进化之间的冲突比那些认为进化是不可知论的人更大。
