The level of support for evolution is extremely high within the scientific community and in academia, with 95% of scientists supporting evolution. An overwhelming majority of the scientific community accepts evolution as the dominant scientific theory of biological diversity.
Nearly every scientific society, representing hundreds of thousands of scientists, has issued statements rejecting intelligent design and a petition supporting the teaching of evolutionary biology was end
orsed by 72 US Nobel Prize winners. Additionally, US courts have ruled in favor of teaching evolution in science classrooms, and against teaching creationism, in numerous cases such as Edwards v. Aguillard, Hendren v. Campbell, McLean v. Arkansas and Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.
Creation of Adam
However, a 2014 Gallup survey reports, “More than four in 10 Americans continue to believe that God created humans in their present form 10,000 years ago, a view that has changed little over the past three decades. Half of Americans believe humans evolved, with the majority of these saying God guided the evolutionary process. However, the percentage who say God was not involved is rising.”
More recently, the intelligent design movement has attempted an anti-evolution position that avoids any direct appeal to religion. Scientists argue that intelligent design does not represent any research program within the mainstream scientific community, and is still essentially creationism. Its leading proponent, the Discovery Institute, made widely publicised claims that it was a new science, although the only paper arguing for it published in a scientific journal was accepted in questionable circumstances and quickly disavowed in the Sternberg peer review controversy, with the Biological Society of Washington stating that it did not meet the journal’s scientific standards.
Taking issue with the questionable ID claims, the board of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) issued a board resolution that includes,
“The contemporary theory of biological evolution is one of the most robust products of scientific inquiry. It is the foundation for research in many areas of biology as well as an essential element of science education.”
They state that the ID movement has failed to offer credible scientific evidence to support their claim that ID undermines the current scientifically accepted theory of evolution, no had the ID movement proposed a scientific means of testing its claims. Finally they claim,
” That the lack of scientific warrant for so-called “intelligent design theory” makes it improper to include as a part of science education.”
On August 1, 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush commented endorsing the teaching of intelligent design alongside evolution “I felt like both sides ought to be properly taught … so people can understand what the debate is about.” Recalling his days as Texas governor, Mr. Bush said in the interview, according to a transcript, “I felt like both sides ought to be properly taught.” Asked again by a reporter whether he believed that both sides in the debate between evolution and intelligent design should be taught in the schools, Mr. Bush replied that he did, “so people can understand what the debate is about.”
Today, many religious denominations accept that biological evolution has produced the diversity of living things over billions of years of Earth’s history. Many have issued statements observing that evolution and the tenets of their faiths are compatible. Scientists and theologians have written eloquently about their awe and wonder at the history of the universe and of life on this planet, explaining that they see no conflict between their faith in God and the evidence for evolution. Religious denominations that do not accept the occurrence of evolution tend to be those that believe in strictly literal interpretations of religious texts.—National Academy of Sciences, Science, Evolution, and Creationism
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