Creationism in Europe: A Brief Look

The United States and Europe have very different views about creationism and evolution. Take a look at this blog post, for example. The United States are near the bottom in terms of belief in biological evolution, while a large amount of European countries are at the top. I find such statistics to be very interesting, especially when you take into context European attitudes toward teaching creationism: the Council of Europe, a group dedicated to democratic freedom and similar ideals, released a resolution in 2007 citing the dangers of teaching creationism. The resolution is congruent with what I’ve been blogging about; they don’t consider any form of creationism to be science and are of the opinion that teaching it in the classroom as science is dangerous.

But it’s important to consider that such a resolution, while a good indicator of the overall attitude of European countries has toward evolution, is hardly a definitive statement that encompasses every country’s attitude toward evolution. For example, a surprising amount of British schoolteachers think that creationism should at least be discussed in the classroom. So while Europe does seem to have a better grasp on the issue than America, creationism still has a presence.

I think that the question should be raised: what about Europe gives it more of a stance against creationism than America? I think an important factor is the secularization of Europe. In my opinion, the relative separation of church and state lends Europe a greater scientific leaning. Such an analysis would have to take into account a lot of variables, but I do think one constant remains between both America and Europe: the creationists are in the same vein, with the same arguments. In order to better deal with this debate in America, we should distance our government and legislature, and by proxy our public education, from any religious authority or thought.