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Evolution’s Enforcers Are Waaaaay Out of Step with Public Opinion

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This week here in Seattle we will be welcoming participants to our 2016 Summer Seminars on intelligent design. We’ll do so with our customary mix of excitement, curiosity, and concern about keeping everyone’s identity secure.

I can say this year’s group of students and professionals is particularly impressive, accomplished, and diverse. More than that? As I noted, we are concerned to keep this experience safe, and therefore private.

We take these circumstances for granted by now, as if it were normal to have to observe precautions like this. But the fact is, students and scientists who investigate weaknesses in Darwinism and evidence for alternative theories are taking a risk. Evolution enforcers are a fact of academic life.

The good news is that the bullies don’t have public opinion on their side — not even close. The newly released opinion survey we’ve been talking about here found that academic freedom is strongly favored across every demographic — age, sex, political and religious affiliation.

The first question asked:

  • Rate your level of agreement or disagreement with the following statement: Teachers and students should have the academic freedom to objectively discuss both the scientific strengths and weaknesses of the theory of evolution.

Fully 94 percent of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed. Democrats and Republicans were very close at 93 percent and 95 percent agreement respectively. Admittedly, Republicans were a little more passionate, with 65 percent strongly agreeing compared to 54 percent among Democrats. Still, that’s clear bipartisan support.

Theists and atheists were also in agreement, at 96 percent and 86 percent. Theists were the somewhat more enthusiastic, with 62 percent strongly agreeing compared to 51 percent of atheists. Again, though, restricting academic freedom was unpopular among all groups. Of all demographic categories, atheists were the most inclined to a restrictive attitude. But still only a minority, 14 percent, disagreed with the statement.

The survey data also found that freedom for scientists is favored by all groups:

  • Rate your level of agreement or disagreement with the following statement: Scientists who raise scientific criticisms of evolution should have the freedom to make their arguments without being subjected to censorship or discrimination.

Here, 88 percent agreed or strongly agreed, a reflection of massive support from all demographics, including atheists and theists, Democrats and Republicans.

Click here to download the full survey results, including detailed information about methodology.

The bullies may fully reign on campuses, but only there. Everywhere else, Americans of all perspectives agree that students, teachers, and scientists should have the freedom to discuss evolution in an objective manner, including its strengths and weaknesses. That would be encouraging news were it not for the role of academia in shaping elite opinion.

Academic life remains a cosseted, overbearing world apart, where political and scientific correctness and scientific and intellectual bullying still hold sway. The same is true of the media, if to a somewhat lesser extent. Yet, thankfully, the rest of the country remains free.

Photo credit: Mancala [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

I’m on Twitter. Follow me @d_klinghoffer.

David Klinghoffer

Senior Fellow and Editor, Evolution News
David Klinghoffer is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute and the editor of Evolution News & Science Today, the daily voice of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, reporting on intelligent design, evolution, and the intersection of science and culture. Klinghoffer is also the author of six books, a former senior editor and literary editor at National Review magazine, and has written for the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Seattle Times, Commentary, and other publications. Born in Santa Monica, California, he graduated from Brown University in 1987 with an A.B. magna cum laude in comparative literature and religious studies. David lives near Seattle, Washington, with his wife and children.

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