Will Evolution Korea Never Rule The World?
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Evolution Korea
The economic crisis that swept across Asia caused a major review of the traditional system of government, business alliances, and public management of risk. In Korea, this meant a shift in the model of development.
In a controversial move, South Korea's government has asked textbook publishers to ignore calls to eliminate examples of evolution in science books for high school students. These include the evidence for the evolution of horses and the avian ancestral Archaeopteryx.
1. Evolution and Religion
A South Korean creationist group has persuaded textbook publishers to eliminate evidence of evolution from high school science texts. The Society for Textbook Revise, an independent branch of the Korea Association for Creation Research that aims to cleanse biology textbooks of "atheist materialism," was behind the move. The STR asserts that such materialism creates an image of negativity for students, making them abandon their faith.
Scientists across the globe expressed concerns when the STR campaign made headlines. Jae Choe, an evolutionary biologist at Ewha Womans University, Seoul, complained in an open letter to Nature's editor that South Korea had succumbed to religious prejudice. He was backed by colleagues from across the country who formed a group called Evolution Korea to organize an anti-textbook petition.
Some researchers are worried that the STR campaign will be spread to other regions of the world where the prevalence of creationism is rising. The letter to Nature warned that the anti-evolution movement could intensify pressure for revisions to textbooks in other countries, particularly those with large Christian and Muslim populations.
South Korea has a particularly significant cultural context for the debate about evolution. 26 percent of South Koreans are members of a religion with the majority of them practicing Christianity or Buddhism. In addition, many Koreans adhere to the Ch'ondogyo philosophy, which is founded on Confucian principles which emphasizes harmony in society and individual self-cultivation. Ch'ondogyo is a belief system that teaches that humans are one with Hanulnim, the God of the Sun, and that the heavenly blessings are possible by doing good deeds.
All of this has created fertile ground for the spread of creationism. Multiple studies have shown students with a religious background to be more reluctant to learn about evolution than those who don't. The underlying causes are not evident. One reason is that students with religious beliefs tend to be as familiar with scientific theories and concepts which makes them more vulnerable to the influence of creationists. Another reason could be that students who have religious backgrounds are more likely to view evolution as a religious concept, which may make them less at ease with it.
2. Evolution and Science
In recent times, the scientific community has been concerned about the anti-evolution agenda in schools. A study conducted in 2009 found that over 40 percent of Americans believe that biological evolution is not true, and that a belief in it could be in conflict with their religious beliefs. Despite the success of creationism in some states, a lot of scientists feel that the best method to counter this movement is not to be actively involved in with it, but rather educate people about the evidence for evolution.
Scientists are responsible to instruct their students in science including the theory of evolution. They also need to inform people about the process of science, and how scientific knowledge is gathered and validated. They should also clarify that scientific theories are frequently challenged and re-examined. However, misperceptions regarding the nature of scientific research frequently create anti-evolution beliefs.
For example, some people may confuse the word "theory" with the common meaning of the word - a hunch or guess. In science, however, an hypothesis is rigorously tested and empirical evidence is used to verify it. A theory that has survived repeated testing and observations becomes a scientific principle.
The debate on evolution theory is an excellent chance to discuss the importance of scientific method and its limits. It is essential for people to recognize that science is not able to answer questions about the purpose or meaning of life, but it is merely a means through which living organisms can evolve and change.
A well-rounded education must include exposure to all major fields of science including evolutionary biology. This is crucial because a lot of jobs and choices require people know how science operates.
The majority of scientists around the world believe that humans have evolved over time. In a recent study, which predicted the opinions of adults about the consensus on this topic people with higher levels of education and knowledge of science were found to be more likely believe there is a wide agreement among scientists regarding the evolution of humans. People with more religious beliefs and have less science knowledge tend to be more skeptical. It is important that educators insist on the importance of understanding this consensus, so that people can make informed decisions about health care, energy usage and other issues of policy.
3. Evolution and Culture
Cultural evolution is a close cousin of the popular evolutionary theory. It explores how humans and other organisms learn from each other. Researchers in this area use explanation tools and models derived from evolutionary theorists and go back to prehistoric times to find the origins of culture.
This approach also recognizes the differences between the characteristics of culture and biological. While biological traits are largely inherited all at once (in sexual species, after fertilization) however, cultural traits can be acquired over a lengthy period of time. The acquisition of a cultural characteristic can affect the growth and development of another.
In Korea for instance the introduction of Western fashion elements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was the result of a variety of events. One of the most significant was the arrival in Korea of Japanese occupation forces that introduced Western hairstyles and clothes.
When Japan left Korea in the 1930s, some of these trends began to reverse. At the close of World War II, Korea had once again unified and was again under the rule of the Choson dynasty.
Today, Korea is an economic and political power. Despite the recent global financial crisis, the country's economy has grown consistently over the last decade and is set to continue its healthy growth in the near future.
The here current government is faced by a myriad of problems. One of the most serious is its inability to develop a coherent policy to address the economic crisis. The crisis has exposed the shortcomings of the country's economic policies, mainly its overreliance on foreign investment and exports, which may not be sustainable in the long run.
As the crisis has shattered the confidence of investors, the government needs to reconsider its economic strategy and find alternatives to increase domestic demand. To ensure a stable economic climate, the government will have to reform its incentive, monitoring and discipline systems. This chapter outlines several scenarios of how the Korean economy could grow after the crisis.
4. Evolution and Education
The challenge for educators of evolution is how to teach evolutionary concepts that are appropriate for various levels of development and ages. Teachers need to, for instance, be sensitive to the religious diversity in their classrooms and create a welcoming environment where students of both secular and religious beliefs are at ease. Additionally, teachers must be aware of common misconceptions about evolution and how to deal with these in their classrooms. Teachers must also have easy access to the many resources that can be used to teach evolution.
In this regard the Thinking Evolutionarily Convocation was an important step in bringing together evolutionary scientists and educators from a variety of disciplines to discuss most effective methods of teaching evolution. Participants included representatives from scientific societies as well as educational research, officials of government funding agencies as well as curriculum developers. The convergence of diverse participants helped to identify the common recommendations which will serve as the foundation for future actions.
One important recommendation is that the study of evolution should be integrated in all science curricula at any level. To achieve this goal it is recommended that the National Science Education Standards (NRC) call for evolution to be taught in an integrated manner across all sciences, with a progression of concepts that are developmental appropriate. A new publication from NRC provides guidelines to schools about how to integrate evolution in the life science curriculum.
Multiple studies have shown that a more thorough presentation of evolution is linked to a greater understanding of students and belief in the existence of evolution. However it is difficult to determine causal effects in the classroom is difficult because school curriculums are not randomly assigned and evolve in time as a result of the predetermined timeframe of gubernatorial elections as well as appointments to the state board of education. To overcome this limitation, I use a longitudinal data set that lets me control for year and state fixed effects and individual-level variation in teacher beliefs regarding evolution.
Teachers who are more comfortable teaching evolution have fewer internal barriers. This is consistent with the hypothesis that a faculty with more confidence is less likely to avoid discussing evolution topics in the classroom. Additionally, they could be more likely to employ strategies like the reconciliatory approach that has been proven to improve the acceptance of undergraduate students of evolution (Harms and Reiss 2019; Tolman et al. 2020).