Creation and evolution in public education

Overview

Most Christian groups accept evolutionary science without theological conflict. However, some conservative and fundamentalist Christian and Muslim sects and political groups strongly oppose teaching biological evolution, often due to literal readings of religious texts. This opposition is rare internationally, with evolution taught in science classes with little controversy except in parts of the United States and a few Muslim-majority nations, especially Turkey. In the U.S., the Supreme Court has banned teaching creationism as science in public schools. Intelligent design, presented as an alternative to evolution, has also been ruled unconstitutional by a lower court for its religious and cultural aims.

By country

In Australia, creationist views are popular among religious education teachers and creationist teaching materials have been distributed by volunteers in some schools, but many Australian scientists take an aggressive stance supporting the right of teachers to teach evolution unhindered by religious restrictions. In Brazil, the Ministry of Education forbids teaching creationism in scientific education classes; religious education is not forbidden, but the federal constitution states the union can neither impose, nor promote, nor finance any religion, as Brazil is a secular state.

In 2004, teachers of religious education classes in schools of the education department of Rio de Janeiro began presenting creationism as scientific fact, a practice directly initiated by politicians promoting their personal religious views, prompting Brazilian scientists to protest. Subsequently, a religious bench in congress has become increasingly influential, and a Brazilian senator publicly declared his religiously founded antagonism to evolution.

Evolutionary theory is part of public education in the People's Republic of China, where nearly all students receive education including evolutionary theory, though one study identified limitations with textbooks used there. On October 4, 2007, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted Resolution 1580, which observed that the war on evolution most often originates in forms of religious extremism linked to extreme right-wing political movements, and urged member states to firmly oppose teaching creationism as a scientific discipline on an equal footing with evolution.