South Korea may remove evolution from textbooks

[mr friendly guy]

Nature

Publishers set to remove examples of evolution from high-school textbooks.

Soo Bin Park
05 June 2012
SEOUL


The evolution of Archaeopteryx will be excluded from some South Korean high-school textbooks after a creationist campaign.
KLAUS HONAL/NATURFOTO HONAL/CORBIS
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Mention creationism, and many scientists think of the United States, where efforts to limit the teaching of evolution have made headway in a couple of states1. But the successes are modest compared with those in South Korea, where the anti-evolution sentiment seems to be winning its battle with mainstream science.

A petition to remove references to evolution from high-school textbooks claimed victory last month after the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) revealed that many of the publishers would produce revised editions that exclude examples of the evolution of the horse or of avian ancestor Archaeopteryx. The move has alarmed biologists, who say that they were not consulted. “The ministry just sent the petition out to the publishing companies and let them judge,” says Dayk Jang, an evolutionary scientist at Seoul National University.

The campaign was led by the Society for Textbook Revise (STR), which aims to delete the “error” of evolution from textbooks to “correct” students’ views of the world, according to the society’s website. The society says that its members include professors of biology and high-school science teachers.

The STR is also campaigning to remove content about “the evolution of humans” and “the adaptation of finch beaks based on habitat and mode of sustenance”, a reference to one of the most famous observations in Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. To back its campaign, the group highlights recent discoveries that Archaeopteryx is one of many feathered dinosaurs, and not necessarily an ancestor of all birds2. Exploiting such debates over the lineage of species “is a typical strategy of creation scientists to attack the teaching of evolution itself”, says Joonghwan Jeon, an evolutionary psychologist at Kyung Hee University in Yongin.

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The STR is an independent offshoot of the Korea Association for Creation Research (KACR), according to KACR spokesman Jungyeol Han. Thanks in part to the KACR’s efforts, creation science — which seeks to provide evidence in support of the creation myth described in the Book of Genesis — has had a growing influence in South Korea, although the STR itself has distanced itself from such doctrines. In early 2008, the KACR scored a hit with a successful exhibition at Seoul Land, one of the country’s leading amusement parks. According to the group, the exhibition attracted more than 116,000 visitors in three months, and the park is now in talks to create a year-long exhibition.

Even the nation’s leading science institute — the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology — has a creation science display on campus. “The exhibition was set up by scientists who believed in creation science back in 1993,” says Gab-duk Jang, a pastor of the campus church. The institute also has a thriving Research Association for Creation Science, run by professors and students, he adds.

Antipathy to evolution
In a 2009 survey conducted for the South Korean documentary The Era of God and Darwin, almost one-third of the respondents didn’t believe in evolution. Of those, 41% said that there was insufficient scientific evidence to support it; 39% said that it contradicted their religious beliefs; and 17% did not understand the theory. The numbers approach those in the United States, where a survey by the research firm Gallup has shown that around 40% of Americans do not believe that humans evolved from less advanced forms of life.

“The ministry just sent the petition out to the publishing companies and let them judge.”
The roots of the South Korean antipathy to evolution are unclear, although Jeon suggests that they are partly “due to strong Christianity in the country”. About half of South Korea’s citizens practice a religion, mostly split between Christianity and Buddhism.

However, a survey of trainee teachers in the country concluded that religious belief was not a strong determinant of their acceptance of evolution3. It also found that 40% of biology teachers agreed with the statement that “much of the scientific community doubts if evolution occurs”; and half disagreed that “modern humans are the product of evolutionary processes”.

Until now, says Dayk Jang, the scientific community has done little to combat the anti-evolution sentiment. “The biggest problem is that there are only 5–10 evolutionary scientists in the country who teach the theory of evolution in undergraduate and graduate schools,” he says. Having seen the fierce debates over evolution in the United States, he adds, some scientists also worry that engaging with creationists might give creationist views more credibility among the public.

Silence is not the answer, says Dayk Jang. He is now organizing a group of experts, including evolutionary scientists and theologians who believe in evolution, to counter the SRT’s campaign by working to improve the teaching of evolution in the classroom, and in broader public life.

Nature 486, 14 (07 June 2012) doi:10.1038/486014a

Not quite as bad as the title sounds, but really? The education ministry simply saying to the publishers, you decide, rather than, match the curriculum?

[CJvR]

Remarkable, I thought Korea was more enlightened than this.

[SpaceMarine93]

This could create a precedence the other creationist movements to follow.

[Simon_Jester]

They were trying to follow it before it existed, so no doubt they will continue to try to follow it now.

[madd0ct0r]

However, a survey of trainee teachers in the country concluded that religious belief was not a strong determinant of their acceptance of evolution. It also found that 40% of biology teachers agreed with the statement that “much of the scientific community doubts if evolution occurs”; and half disagreed that “modern humans are the product of evolutionary processes”.

so it's massive levels of popular ignorance? Strange in such a tech forward society.

[mr friendly guy]

However, a survey of trainee teachers in the country concluded that religious belief was not a strong determinant of their acceptance of evolution. It also found that 40% of biology teachers agreed with the statement that “much of the scientific community doubts if evolution occurs”; and half disagreed that “modern humans are the product of evolutionary processes”.

so it's massive levels of popular ignorance? Strange in such a tech forward society.

Not necessarily. AQ aren't adverse to using technology to kill despite being religious fundamentalists. Its cognitive dissonance at work, especially given that biological evolution doesn't play a part in the creation of tech.

Note - Yes I am aware that you can use evolutionary algorithms to solve problems in computing, but people are clearly talking evolution in biology here.

[AniThyng]

so it's massive levels of popular ignorance? Strange in such a tech forward society.

Engineers, Computer Scientists and Programmers can do their jobs perfectly well without needing to invoke or care about biological evolution in any meaningful fashion, nor is atheism the religious philosophy of choice for engineers in the world outside this board

[Alyrium Denryle]

However, a survey of trainee teachers in the country concluded that religious belief was not a strong determinant of their acceptance of evolution. It also found that 40% of biology teachers agreed with the statement that “much of the scientific community doubts if evolution occurs”; and half disagreed that “modern humans are the product of evolutionary processes”.

so it's massive levels of popular ignorance? Strange in such a tech forward society.

Not really. If my students are any indication, the capacity for critical thinking is lacking, even if marvelous works of engineering are possible. That, and christian groups from the US flood Korea with missionaries.

[General Mung Beans]

However, a survey of trainee teachers in the country concluded that religious belief was not a strong determinant of their acceptance of evolution. It also found that 40% of biology teachers agreed with the statement that “much of the scientific community doubts if evolution occurs”; and half disagreed that “modern humans are the product of evolutionary processes”.

so it's massive levels of popular ignorance? Strange in such a tech forward society.

Not really. If my students are any indication, the capacity for critical thinking is lacking, even if marvelous works of engineering are possible. That, and christian groups from the US flood Korea with missionaries.

That's less of a case to-day though (compared to say fifty years ago), nowadays Koreans are sending missionaries all over the world especially the Third World.

[hypatia1128]

I remember my husband telling me about this. How disheartening... I can see something like this happening in America but in South Korea?

[Simon_Jester]

It rarely pays to assume that a country is sophisticated and scientifically literate, just by virtue of not being the United States.

[Ryan Thunder]

Well yeah, but first world and not the United States? Man. What's the world coming to? ( )

[Nephtys]

As an Electrical/Systems Engineer who's worked with Chinese and Korean companies (and graduate students, both in my program and when I was in Industry), there's a fundamental disconnect in cultural practice that is rather noticible. I do have asian relatives, so it's something I've noticed there as well.

Broadly generalizing, the education of engineering and physical sciences in China and Korea are more rote learning, than cultivating initiative or the personality that produces effective results. A lot less effort goes into critical thinking, working off new base assumptions or creative solutions, as well as most of those students being poorly suited to the professional work environment. The educational and cultural system makes them subject to authority. Great workers and absolutely brilliant for the gruntwork, but absolutely lacking in initiative. While this is indeed a specific set of people, I've seen it enough to be almost disconcerting, especially when compared to other foreign Engineers from European countries such as France or Germany.

I can see this translating to cultural conservatism even in such a thing as creationism, especially in Korea, which is known for having a more conservative culture that reveres authority and tradition.

[someone_else]

apart from the autmatic facepalm at stupidity coded into law, what kinds of damage will this do?

I doubt this will deal damage to anything other than Korean research in biology.

Great workers and absolutely brilliant for the gruntwork, but absolutely lacking in initiative.

It isn't so wrong if there are schools that train leaders. But I kinda smell that there is none.

[madd0ct0r]

1 in 10 or 12 is a natural leader - they'll rise with or without training.

[Simon_Jester]

Although the way they learn to lead may depend on the expectations of the people following them...

ANECDOTE FOLLOWS:

For a short time I worked in a research group that was nearly all Korean- the principal investigator was from Korea, the senior grad students were from Korea, most of the long-term collaborators were from Korea.

They had gotten very impressive work done, in my opinion, and were all set to do more very soon, and I respect that. The management style was to me... different than normal. It was unforgiving of error, low assessment of employee abilities, a certain amount of micromanagement.

It got results, and the bulk of the group was actually happy with it. But if I'd had to work there for any extended period of time, I'd have gone nuts. I also noticed that it wasn't good for the graduate students' professional development. Grad students in that group spent a long time working through the group as research-minions rather than researchers in their own right. Though there may have been reasons for that which I don't know or don't have details on, the language barrier being an obvious one.

[madd0ct0r]

warning: anecdotes ahead.

basically true, but it's gets a little fuzzier when you zoom in.

working in the east, I've had three hour meetings where the Chairman spoke 90% of the time, pausing only to ask other people questions. I've had 1 hr meetngs where I was the most junior person by a long way, and was encouraged and listened to when asked for my thoughts.
(actually, it was the same same guy running both meetings...)

In general working, I spent a lot of time wandering about, talking to people over a coffee, gently introducing ideas so they wouldn't be a surprise at the next meeting. I've met people who were very unhappy with their western boss asking them what they thought they should do - as far as they were concerned that was the bosses job and why should do his job for him?

On the other hand I met quite a few people who loved having a western boss, specifically because they felt they were being allowed to develop in their jobs instead of micromanaged. I'd guess the proportions of these two types is roughly the same in the east and west, just the proportions of bosses is a little different

[Irbis]

1 in 10 or 12 is a natural leader - they'll rise with or without training.

Though, my impression is, Asia in general gives a great deal of importance to the idea of not losing face, making speaking your own ideas or acting unordered is frowned upon so hard even people who should know better sit down and shut up. Take the case of Asian air crews - even when head pilot was doing grave mistake that would end up with everyone on board dead second pilots were deathly afraid of saying anything, and it took a great deal of effort and language change to retrain them into working teams. All it takes is wrong people ending up in charge, and the whole team effort is wasted.

apart from the autmatic facepalm at stupidity coded into law, what kinds of damage will this do?

I doubt this will deal damage to anything other than Korean research in biology.

When you're taught from early years Bible is right and evolution is wrong, in society as deeply entrenched as Asiatic one, challenging common knowledge and, say, becoming atheist becomes abnormally hard. Take Lysenko as example - Soviet Union had nowhere near Korean will to conform, but backward ideas on evolution of one idiot in charge greatly hurt scientific effort of a whole superpower.

[madd0ct0r]

1 in 10 or 12 is a natural leader - they'll rise with or without training.

Though, my impression is, Asia in general gives a great deal of importance to the idea of not losing face, making speaking your own ideas or acting unordered is frowned upon so hard even people who should know better sit down and shut up. Take the case of Asian air crews - even when head pilot was doing grave mistake that would end up with everyone on board dead second pilots were deathly afraid of saying anything, and it took a great deal of effort and language change to retrain them into working teams. All it takes is wrong people ending up in charge, and the whole team effort is wasted.

[

yah - I'd hazard a guess that Vietnam having a younger population and being considerably more chaotic makes it slightly more flexible then Korea, plus construction as an industry tends to be fairly rough 'n tumble.

[Alyrium Denryle]

That's less of a case to-day though (compared to say fifty years ago), nowadays Koreans are sending missionaries all over the world especially the Third World.

Yes, but barring missionaries, what is the primary mode of transmission for religion? Parent->Child.

[madd0ct0r]

yah - I'd hazard a guess that Vietnam having a younger population and being considerably more chaotic makes it slightly more flexible then Korea, plus construction as an industry tends to be fairly rough 'n tumble.

Ironically - that very night one of my students chose to talk about people keeping quiet and not expressing disagreement with old people or bosses as a major problem in society...