Evolution remains timeless controversy

Some things never go out of style.
With the rise of an increasingly science and technology-based society, scientific controversy remains a point of discussion. The concept of evolution, while now a decades-old debate, is a question that remains in the news today.
On Nov. 1, the University Program Council hosted engineer and science educator Bill Nye, who recently made waves with his comments about his views on evolution. At his lecture, Nye commented, "I have come under a little bit of controversy because I asserted that the world is a little bit older than 6,000 years."
Nye, who received a standing ovation at the end of his lecture, brought up a point that remains relevant among university students.
Jason Bond, professor of biological sciences, teaches a course on evolution and systematics and said science-based controversy sometimes arises even on the university level.
"I think that you have to recognize that there is going to be some component of the class that has been taught that evolution is antithetical to their belief system," Bond said.
Bond said different professors may take different approaches to presenting controversial information in class.
"I generally sort of feel like my purpose isn't to make folks questions their religious beliefs in any way," Bond said. "I, through the course of the semester, I keep it very science centered. ...So you know I focus on the science, and then I usually save for the last lecture sort of the discussion of the elephant in the room, which is so many people have been taught that these two things are diametrically opposed.
"And I tend to think that what -- and this is my opinion -- that educators, whether it be at the high school level or the grade school level or in college, that we're presenting information, we're presenting the science, and it's up to the students to then reconcile that."
Caleb Pickett, senior in electrical engineering, said he attended several Christian schools growing up. He said after getting to college, he was able to reconcile his Christian beliefs with scientific teachings.
"It wasn't necessarily that (science) directly contradicted what I already believed as a Christian," Pickett said. "It was the fact that they could actually -- the scripture and the science -- could be reconciled in the sense of evolution by saying, 'God could have easily just created a certain set of species and had everything progress from there,' or 'He could have created the base species and had everything go in different directions from there."
Amanda Guarini, senior in graphic design, said she thought students should be exposed to both evolutionary theory and creationism.
"I went to a Catholic school for 12 years, and we had religion class every day and we had science class every day," Guarini said.
"And, you know, we learned about evolution in my science class, and we would turn around and go to religion a few periods later and learn about that."
Guarini said she thought a way for public schools to expose students to creationism would be to offer religious elective courses, similar to the way universities offer electives.
According to Melody Russell, program coordinator of secondary science education, there are many such science-related controversies that may arise in the classroom, including issues such as global climate change and stem cell research.
She said science educators can address these issues by stimulating thought and discussion in school.
"Certainly students may have their different perspectives; a lot of times there, they may say, 'well, my parents say this or my parents say that,'" Russell said.
"But one of the things that our teachers, and we as educators, really strive to do is just give the information and let the students... make their own decisions about what they think about global climate change or whether or not they think stem cell research is right or wrong or whether or not they think that, you know, some of the other topics that we may have talked about with regards to evolution and things like that."
In response to different views on scientific theories, the 2005 Alabama Course of Study: Science document, which is currently used in Alabama schools, includes a position statement in its preface that addresses these diverse opinions.
"The Alabama Course of Study: Science was developed within the context of trying to establish scientific literacy, not to question or diminish one's beliefs or faith," the statement says.
Russell said providing accurate and current information is one of the most important things to do in terms of educating students about issues that may spark debate.
"And then, as far as what their opinion may be about them, what they may say about them, those are decisions that we give them, they can make themselves," Russell said.
"But we give them the information; we want to make sure they're informed, so when these topics come up, as you mentioned, about evolution and those types of things, then they're able to make informed decisions based on the information that they're given already in their curriculum."
Bond referred to Jay Gould, a well-known evolutionary biologist who referred to science and religion as "non-overlapping magisteria."
"So scientists might ask the question, 'Can we clone humans?'" Bond said. "You know, society, religious leaders, there's this whole other component where those folks might better be in a position to pose the question, 'Should we be cloning humans?'
"And so I think that there are these different segments of not necessarily society, but these different segments of our culture that all contribute, but in their sort of different ways."
Bond said evolution is an important concept to many people.
"There are all sorts of scientific theories out there," Bond said. "I think this one's particularly poignant because it says a lot about who we are and what was the origination of our species, and that's a non-trivial issue for beings that are conscious and think about their place in the world and the general scheme of things."