Religious Fundamentalism and the Ability to Understand Evolution in the United States

Religious Fundamentalism and the Ability to Understand Evolution in the United States

Religious Fundamentalism and the Ability to Understand Evolution in the United States

There seems to be an inverse relationship between fundamentalist religiosity in the United States and the acceptance of evolution as a scientific fact. This dismissal of evolution by certain religious groups has a well-documented history that may have more to do with the politics of religion than the actual dogma. These groups have been known to campaign against the existence of evolution creating confusion to the general public as to what evolution actually is.

Through what seems to be a campaign of miss information the groups that dismiss evolution as scientific fact have created a lot of confusion in the general public. Before examining these groups and who makes them up it is important to fully understand what is and is not science. It is also equally important to fully understand evolution and what the implications of evolution are.

Science is the human effort to understand and explain the natural and observable universe. It is done through observation of natural phenomena and experimentation in controlled settings to create predictions about future events in the natural world. Reproducibility is the backbone to the scientific method and what allows scientists to create facts, laws, and theories. The word theory, in the context of science, does not imply uncertainty. Theory means "a coherent group of general propositions used as principles of explanation for a class of phenomena" (Barnhart 1948). Theory is a meticulously tested statement of a general principle that explains the observable world. A scientific theory therefore describes a higher level of understanding that unites facts together. A scientific theory stands until proven wrong; falsifiability.

Science does not concern itself with the paranormal. The paranormal can be defined as extrasensory or existing...