Jerry Coyne's Paper on the Acceptance of Evolution in America

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The inspiration for my post Danish Intelligence Uncovers Worldwide Faith-Based Plots was a research paper Jerry Coyne over at Why Evolution Is True was working on regarding the relationship between societies who accept evolution to be true and those who don't. It turns out that societies that are more dysfunctional are more likely to be religious and not accept evolution.

American resistance to accepting evolution is uniquely high among First World countries. This is due largely to the extreme religiosity of the United States, which is much higher than that of comparably advanced nations, and to the resistance of many religious people to the facts and supposed implications of evolution. The prevalence of religious belief in the United States suggests that outreach by scientists alone will not have a huge effect in increasing the acceptance of evolution, nor will the strategy of trying to convince the faithful that evolution is compatible with their religion. Because creationism is a symptom of religion, another strategy to promote evolution involves loosening the grip of faith on America. This is easier said than done, for recent sociological surveys show that religion is highly correlated with the dysfunctionality of a society, and various measures of societal health show that the United States is one of the most socially dysfunctional First World countries. Widespread acceptance of evolution in America, then, may have to await profound social change.

You can download the entire paper by clicking here.

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