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Table 10 Levels 1 and students’ level of acceptance of three evolutionary statements

From: Evolution and Religion: Attitudes of Scottish Bioscience Students to the Teaching of Evolutionary Biology

Statement

 

Reject

N

Accept

 

Reject

N

Accept

Homo sapiens are descended from ancient species of apes: hence chimpanzees and H. sapiens share a single common ancestor

Level 1 acceptors

5

20

75

Level 1 rejectors

51

19

30

Level 4 high

2

4

94

Level 4 low

5

16

79

    

Level 4 rejectors

71

29

0

Species have been able to generate other species over long periods of time due to the process of natural selection (i.e., macro-evolution)

Level 1 acceptors

3

16

81

Level 1 rejectors

47

30

23

Level 4 high

0

7

93

Level 4 low

3

6

91

    

Level 4 rejectors

58

28

14

Natural selection acts at a within-species level allowing species to adapt to changes in their environment, e.g., antibiotic resistance in MRSA (i.e., micro-evolution)

Level 1 acceptors

2

16

82

Level 1 rejectors

34

26

40

Level 4 high

0

7

93

Level 4 low

1

5

94

    

Level 4 rejectors

0

29

71

  1. Level 1 evolution acceptors (n = 859) shown separately from rejectors (n = 61). Level 4 high acceptors (n = 255) shown separately from low (n = 228) and from rejectors (n = 7). Results from 2008 to 2009 and 2009 to 2010 combined. Data are shown as a percentage of those giving a ranking of 1, 2 = reject; 3 = neutral; 4, 5 = accept