If you haven’t read it already, there’s an excellent article about Evolution in the November National Geographic. It’s written by veteran nature writer David Quammen, and he does a good job.

The article doesn’t make any assumptions about the reader’s knowledge of evolution, which might at first seem odd for a National Geo piece. Reading the editor’s comments at the start of the issue makes it clear, however, that National Geographic has realized something that a lot of us “educated” types have been slow to grasp: we’re the minority. Most people have very little or even zero exposure to fundamental evidence behind evolutionary theory, and have pretty much been asked to accept it on faith. It isn’t much more than a buzzword to the wider world. For highschool graduates and even people with university degrees in anything other than science, the most classroom teaching on the subject they will have is probably just a few days in science class. Lots of people won’t have taken science class that far. Everyone is expected to know that evolution is why there are species, but if we’re expecting them to know that without offering the reasons, what does that sound like?

So it’s not especially suprising that we’re running into trouble with creationism in the science classroom. If the people who vote for the school board supervisors have been asked to take evolution on faith, why should we be suprised when they ask that other matters of faith be addressed in the science classroom?

The article is online here.

An interesting, perhaps disturbing side note. If you search for “evolution” on the National Geographic website, some of the auto-generated “sponsored links” that may appear at the top of the results page include:

What about Evolution?

– What are the basic concepts of the theory of evolution? Is there evidence for intelligent design?, from everystudent.com, “Exploring questions about life and God”, and

What’s the Truth? Evolution or Creation?

– Request the FREE booklet, Evolution or Creation – Does it Really Matter What You Believe? from the United Church of God.

Somebody’s spending the money to get their links sponsored on National Geographic’s search page. We’ve got a spectacular quantity of convincing evidence on our side, maybe we should get more active in suggesting why it’s better than some FREE pamphlets.