According to a recent paper at BioMedCentral:
Striving toward a better understanding of how the global spread of creationist ideology may impact biology teachers and teaching worldwide, this study comparatively examines how biology teachers from three Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay) conceive the origin of humankind. It is reported that teachers from Uruguay (the most secular country) and Argentina (a country with intermediate religiosity) more frequently associated humankind origin with scientific terms Evolution, Natural selection, and Australopithecus. In contrast, Brazilian teachers stood out as those most frequently associating humankind’s origin to the religious term “God” alongside scientific terms. This study underscores the importance of the interplay of social factors (societal religiosity) and psychological factors (e.g., personal commitment) when considering the impact of teacher exposure to creationist ideology. It also highlights the need for biology teachers (particularly those in more religious countries) to undergo professional development.
Silva, H.M., Oliveira, A.W., Belloso, G.V. et al. Biology teachers’ conceptions of Humankind Origin across secular and religious countries: an international comparison. Evo Edu Outreach 14, 2 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12052-020-00141-91
Shades of Joshua Swamidass on the need to single out and punish creationists.
The paper is open access.
Casey Luskin responded to this paper:
[quoting from the paper] “It would seem reasonable to expect individuals who are knowledgeable about science and who have science-related professions to fully subscribe to evolutionary views (i.e., creationists simply lack the necessary knowledge). However, research shows that this is not necessarily the case. In a comparative study of life scientists in the UK and Brazil, Falcão (2008) found that Brazilian scientists believed in the supernatural more strongly than British scientists despite their common advanced scientific training. Brazilian scientists shoed [sic] to retain a firm attachment to a belief in God regardless of their university training level, e.g., scientific knowledge did not necessarily lead them to give up their belief in God.”
So what is the explanation for why scientists abandon Darwin? They don’t explicitly offer one, preferring to leave the situation in a state of the unknown, writing: “the relationship between scientific training / knowledge and religious belief is far from simple and straightforward. Being a knowledgeable and experienced member of the science profession does not necessarily guarantee one’s full embracement of evolutionary views or dismissal of creationist ones.” Perhaps there’s a simple explanation but they don’t see it due to a blind spot: scientists doubt Darwin because of the evidence.
Casey Luskin, “Academic Article Correcting Misconceptions about Evolution Promotes Misconceptions about ID” at Evolution News and Science Today
Note that the authors of the paper are quite clear that they want Brazilian scientists not just to embrace Darwinism whole hog but to give up their belief in God. So much for rot about “theistic evolution.” That’s for suckers.