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Evolution in Europe

Submitted by ibarkas on Sun, 02/15/2009 - 1:32am.
A question that was brought up in Professor Grobstein's Thursday section was why is evolution such a problem in the United States and not such a problem in Europe?  This reminded me of a conversation I had with my cousin in Greece last summer.  We were talking about college and she asked me what classes I was planning on taking my first semester.  When I mentioned an evolution course to her, she was surprised because she couldn't understand how an entire course could be based on one theory.  The education system in Greece briefly introduces evolution as a theory in a science course in middle school classrooms and does not test students on it.  They also teach them the story of creationism in their Greek Orthodox religion course.  They then require students to pick their major in high school and they subsequently enter a professional school immediately after high school.  If you choose to go into biology, you will surely hear about evolution in depth.  However, if you choose another field, like religion, you will never encounter the story of evolution again.   Until Thursday's lecture, I thought that the difference between Europe and the U.S. was simply that they placed more emphasis on religion (they include religion courses in the curriculum in Greece), so the evolution dilemma was never really an issue.  However, during Thursday's class, I began to think that maybe the reason the U.S. is having this dilemma is perhaps because they are continuously struggling with the question of whether there is a difference between science and religion. Our education system is really a lot different so we are constantly struggling to answer this question.  It seems like in Greece and in other European countries like it they have already answered this question-they have decided that there is a difference between science and religion and it is an individual’s choice to decide which story they would like to further explore.  In the U.S., however, we have concluded that science and religion are two different stories, but we are having trouble discerning if there really is a difference between the two.  Should the story of creationism and evolution be taught simultaneously because there is no difference between science and religion? Or should the story of creationism be confined to a comparative religion course while evolution remains within the science classroom?  Although I am not entirely sure how I feel about these questions, I think that the problem is no longer how we feel about evolution in the U.S. because I think a majority of the population; whether they trust evolution or not, can agree that it is a good story.  I think the question that we need to answer is, the question that we were trying to answer in class on Thursday-is there a difference between science and religion.  I think that once we answer that question, the controversy over evolution will begin to subside.  We will either decide that science and religion are separate and therefore, evolution and creationism should be taught as separate stories. Or we will decide that science and religion are the same and therefore, evolution and creationism are stories that should be taught simultaneously.  Either way, I think coming to a definitive conclusion will lead us to recognize that both religion and science both consist of stories and I think coming to this conclusion as a society will help this controversy subside.   

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