Problem Concepts in Evolution Part I: Purpose and Design

In 1999, Scott suggested that evolution has existential repercussions for some students because they confuse methodological naturalism with philosophical naturalism: conflating the incapacity of scientific explanations to appeal to the supernatural with the idea that God must not exist. Unfortunately, part of the reason for the confusion involves terms that are used in a technical sense by evolutionary biologists but that also convey existential meanings to the general public. Such terms therefore should be used carefully by teachers, and their scientific meanings distinguished from their common meanings. We revisit these problem concepts, particularly in light of recent papers in cognitive psychology as they relate to understanding evolution, in a two-part series of articles. Here, in part I, we address design and purpose.

[1]  C. Darwin.  The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life , 2019 .

[2]  Joseph Poulshock,et al.  Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the New Creationism , 1999 .

[3]  Pinaki Mazumder,et al.  National Science Foundation Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Computing and Communications Foundations (CCF) Emerging Models and Technologies for Computation (EMT) , 2008 .

[4]  Randy Trani.  I Won't Teach Evolution; It's Against my Religion. And Now for the Rest of the Story… , 2004 .

[5]  R. Numbers,et al.  Darwinism Comes to America. , 1998 .

[6]  Christopher P. Scheitle,et al.  Religion among Academic Scientists: Distinctions, Disciplines, and Demographics , 2007 .

[7]  A. D. Grey.  The Evolution of Dogma , 2011 .

[8]  Amy M. Hightower,et al.  Science and Engineering Indicators , 1993 .

[9]  D Kelemen,et al.  Why are rocks pointy? Children's preference for teleological explanations of the natural world. , 1999, Developmental psychology.

[10]  Ross H. Nehm,et al.  Does Increasing Biology Teacher Knowledge of Evolution and the Nature of Science Lead to Greater Preference for the Teaching of Evolution in Schools? , 2007 .

[11]  T. Gregory.  The Argument from Design: A Guided Tour of William Paley’s Natural Theology (1802) , 2009, Evolution: Education and Outreach.

[12]  C. Darwin.  On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life , 2019 .

[13]  T. Rosenthal,et al.  And now for the rest of the story. , 1993, Journal of the Tennessee Medical Association.

[14]  E. M. Evans,et al.  The Emergence of Beliefs about the Origins of Species in School-Age Children. , 2000 .

[15]  K. Thomson.  The meaning of evolution. , 1982, American scientist.

[16]  Michael Weisberg,et al.  The Importance of Understanding the Nature of Science for Accepting Evolution , 2008, Evolution: Education and Outreach.

[17]  Ronald D. Anderson.  Teaching the theory of evolution in social, intellectual, and pedagogical context , 2007 .

[18]  Why are rocks pointy? Children's preference for teleological explanations of the natural world. , 1999 .

[19]  Sarah K. Brem,et al.  Changing Minds? Implications of Conceptual Change for Teaching and Learning about Biological Evolution , 2008, Evolution: Education and Outreach.

[20]  Randy Moore,et al.  IS THE AGE OF THE EARTH ONE OF OUR “SOREST TROUBLES?” STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS ABOUT DEEP TIME AFFECT THEIR ACCEPTANCE OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORY , 2010, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[21]  J. Tobias,et al.  Signal Design and Perception in Hypocnemis Antbirds: Evidence for Convergent Evolution Via Social Selection , 2009, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[22]  Jon D. Miller,et al.  Public Acceptance of Evolution , 2006, Science.