The theory that humans have evolved over millions of years independent of any “divine” influence is not widely accepted in many countries. That list now includes Brazil, according to the Science and Development Network.
Scientists say evidence indicates that modern humans are the result of an evolutionary process that involves random mutations in our genetic material, some of which confer advantages and are therefore perpetuated down generations.
Only 9% of the Brazilians interviewed a survey by the country’s main public opinion analyst, IBOPE, said they accept that scientific consensus.
Just more than half (54%) said humans developed over millions of years but that a god planned and controlled the process.
And almost a third (31%) of interviewees believed a god created humans 10Â 000 years ago, and that we have not changed since then.
The survey was commissioned by Época magazine, one of Brazil’s top three general magazines, to stimulate debate about a controversial decision made last year by the governor of Rio de Janeiro, Rosinha Mateus, to introduce teaching of creationism in schools.
Creationists believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible’s account of creation of the universe and life on Earth.
A significant number (89%) of those interviewed by IBOPE said creationism should be taught in schools, with 75% of the interviewees going further, saying creationism should replace evolutionary theory.
Many of these respondents were those who stated that humans have changed over time, but that a god controls the process rather than it being random, as scientists contend.
Biased answers
Ildeu de Castro Moreira, head of science communication at Brazil’s ministry of science and technology, claims that some of the survey’s questions were confusing, leading to a bias in the answers.
For example, one question asked whether respondents thought humans had been developing over millions of years, but did not explain clearly what “developing” meant.
Moreira also says that complexity of the issue means that the results of the survey cannot be simply explained as a “war between religious and scientific beliefs”. One factor at play, he says, is the poor quality of science teaching in Brazil.
He says the government and civil society organisations should focus education efforts on open-minded young people.
Ennio Candotti, president of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science, agrees that the survey highlights the poor quality of science education, adding that a widespread creationist viewpoint is not limited to Brazil, but is also a feature of other countries, including the United States.
“It is task of the schools to distinguish different fields, keeping areas such as physics, mathematics and biology separate from moral principles and cultural values, yet teaching them together in a harmonic way,” he says.
Candotti suggests creationism could be taught within the framework of theories that seek to explain the formation and the evolution of the universe and the world.
The survey showed education level had only a slight influence on people’s beliefs.
Only 10% of those with a university degree believed in evolution unguided by a god, whereas among those without a university education, the figure was 6%.
Results reports favour evolution
The article published by Época provoked protests from creationists, who said the survey’s results were reported in a way that was biased in favour of evolution. The Brazilian Creationist Society collected on its website comments made in response to the Época article by representatives of the main creationist organisations.
According to one of the comments, by Christiano P da Silva Neto — president of the Brazilian Association for Research on Creation — teaching creationism in schools does not exclude evolutionary theory.
“Considering that neither theory of the origin of life can be proved scientifically, both should be taught in schools to allow students to consider the arguments for each and decide what makes sense for them and which they will consider as the true explanation of our origins,” Da Silva Neto said.
The IBOPE survey, held from December 9 to 15 included 2Â 002 people, in a representative sample of the entire Brazilian population more than 16 years old.
According to IBOPE, the error of margin in the survey’s results was plus or minus 2,2%.
Evolutionary facts at SA festival
Meanwhile, evolutionary facts underpin many of the events coming up at Africa’s largest science festival, the ninth annual Sasol Science Festival (SciFest) in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape.
For example, a workshop on how life nearly went kaput not once but several times will examine the evolutionary evidence available across much of the country.
Palaeontologists Billy de Klerk and Rose Adendorff will be at the Albany Museum, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary during the SciFest, to host late-morning workshops on what happened after the great ice age took over the world about 300-million years ago.
Slowly, primitive plants and animals started to colonise the Earth in a real-life episode of Noah’s Ark.
De Klerk and Adendorff say “this we know because they are preserved as fossils in what we now term the Karoo Basin — recording the evolution of life over 100-million years”.
But it wasn’t easy going: “The success of these plants and animals was interrupted by two massive extinction events that took place at 250-million and 65-million years ago when it is estimated that up to 85% of all life on Earth was killed,” they say.
The workshops take place in the Makana Biodiversity Centre on March 16, 18, 20 and 22.
Because one of those mass extinctions — the last-one 65 million years ago — wiped out the dinosaurs and left space for the evolutionary ancestors of humanity to thrive, it is worth noting that prominent palaeobiologist Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan will be speaking on how she pieces together the puzzles of how dinosaurs lived by detecting clues hidden in fossilised bones.
Chinsamy-Turan, from the University of Cape Town, will be giving the keynote address on Friday March 18 at the official opening of the Sasol SciFest by South African Minister of Science and Technology Mosibudi Mangena, hosted by Bram de Klerk of the giant petrochemical company Sasol.
But the most convincing display of evolution may come from three young actors.
Mohanuoa Lethola, Mnatha Vika and Den Antonakas will leap about the stage in the multilingual play Walking Tall: From Apeman to Spaceman almost every morning at the Sasol Scifest.
The play, commissioned by the Palaeo-Anthropological Science Trust based at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, is an entertaining and amusing look at our evolutionary road thus far. — SciDev.Net
For more information, or to book for any of the above events, go to www.scifest.org.za or phone (27) 046 603 1106