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I felt compelled to add my two cents to the evolution/creationism 
dialogue...

I just completed research at COSI Columbus as part of my Masters thesis in 
Cultural Anthropology. I surveyed museum guests to determine (amongst other 
things) the following:

1) What percentage of COSI visitors consider themselves evolutionists?
2) How literate/familiar are creationists with the multiple components of 
evolution (survival of the fittest, genetic variation, mutation, 
inheritance)?

Preliminary data suggests that even adults that subscribe to a creationist 
worldview aren't ignorant when it comes to the scientific constructs and 
principles that make up evolutionary theory.  For example,  when asked "In 
any given population of animals, some individuals have traits that make them 
better at surviving and reproducing than other individuals", over 94% of 
respondents claimed this statement to be true.

This, coupled with and reinforced by other survey questions, seems to 
suggest that STC visitors (and here I mean only adults) are accepting of 
scientific principles when the word evolution is not explicitly used.  The 
problem seems to arise when using the term evolution, and when extending 
these principles to apply to human beings. The idea of a human 
exceptionalism perspective is not new (see Miller, Scott and Okamoto's 
Public Acceptance of Evolution).  This may suggest that we start the 
dialogue by discussing processes such as the arms race of pathogen 
resistance to antibiotics, or by illustrating the ways in which selective 
breeding in livestock and dogs is effectively man-made selection.  Whatever 
the method, it couldn't hurt to show creationists that the scientific 
constructs that they accept - and that we call evolution - are happening all 
around them, all the time.

Just thought I'd put in my two cents.  I'll be sure to post more data as my 
work progresses...

Dustin Growick

SUNY Stony Brook
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