12 Facts About Evolution Korea To Make You Think Twice About The Water Cooler
Evolution Korea
The economic crisis that hit Asia required a major review of the old system of government-business alliances and the public management of private risks. In Korea, this meant a change in the model of development.
In a controversial decision, South Korea's government has asked textbook publishers to ignore calls to remove examples of evolution from high school science books. This includes the evidence supporting the evolution of horses as well as the bird ancestral Archaeopteryx.
1. Evolution and Religion
A creationist group from South Korea has successfully convinced textbook publishers to remove evidence of evolution from science textbooks for high school students. The Society for Textbook Revise, an offshoot of the Korea Association for Creation Research which aims to rid biology textbooks of "atheist materialism," was behind the decision. The STR claims that such materialism paints an unhopeful picture for students and leads to their eventual loss of faith.
Scientists across the globe expressed concern when the STR campaign gained attention. In a letter addressed to the editor of Nature, evolutionary biologist Jae Choe from Ewha Womans University in Seoul complained that South Korea had given in to religious prejudice. He was supported by colleagues from across the country, who formed an organization called Evolution Korea to organize an anti-textbook petition.
Some scientists are also concerned that the STR campaign will 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, especially those with strong Christian and Muslim populations.
South Korea has a particularly significant cultural context for the evolution debate. 26 percent of the country's citizens belong to an organized religion and the majority of them practice Christianity or Buddhism. In addition, many Koreans adhere to the philosophy of Ch'ondogyo. It is based on Confucian principles that emphasizes harmony among people and individual self-cultivation. Ch'ondogyo believes that humans are one with Hanulnim, the God of the Sun, and that heavenly blessings are possible through good works.
All of this has made creationism fertile field. Numerous studies have revealed that students with religious backgrounds tend to be more uncomfortable about learning evolution than those who do not have a religious background. The causes behind this are not clear. One explanation is that students who have religious beliefs tend to be as well-versed in scientific concepts and theories which makes them more susceptible to the influence of creationists. visit this link is that students with religious beliefs are more likely to see evolution as an atheistic concept which could make them less comfortable with it.
2. Evolution and Science
In recent years, anti-evolution campaigns in schools have caused concern among the scientific community. A 2009 survey revealed that nearly 40% of Americans believe that biological evolution is not true and that believing in it would be contrary to their faith-based beliefs. Many scientists believe that, despite the fact that creationism has been successful the best way to counter this belief is to educate the public about the evidence for evolution.
Scientists have a duty to instruct their students in science including the theory of evolution. They must also inform the public about the research process and how knowledge is verified. They should explain how scientific theories are often challenged and revised. However, misconceptions regarding the nature of scientific research frequently fuel anti-evolution beliefs.
For instance, some people are able to confuse the term "theory" with the normal meaning of the word - a hunch or a guess. However, in science theories are thoroughly tested and verified using empirical data. A theory that survives repeated testing and observations becomes an established scientific principle.
The debate over the evolutionary theory provides a great opportunity to discuss the significance of the scientific method and its limitations. It is crucial to understand that science cannot answer questions about life's purpose or meaning, but rather provides a mechanism for living things to grow and adapt.
A comprehensive education should include exposure to all major scientific fields including evolutionary biology. This is particularly important because the jobs people are employed in and the decisions they make require knowledge of how science works.
The majority of scientists across the world believe that humans have evolved over time. A recent study that predicted the adults' view of the consensus on this subject found that those with higher levels of education and science knowledge were more likely to believe that there is a general consensus among scientists on the subject of human evolution. The people with more religious beliefs and have less knowledge of science are more likely to disagree. It is essential that educators emphasize the importance of knowing the general consensus on this issue to ensure that people are able to making informed decisions regarding their health care, energy use and other policy issues.
3. Evolution and Culture
Cultural evolution is a close relative of mainstream evolutionary theory. It explores the ways that humans and other species learn from each other. Researchers in this field utilize explanation models and tools adapted from those used by evolutionary theorists, and they go back to human prehistory to determine the genesis of our capacity for cultural understanding.
This approach also recognizes the differences between biological and cultural characteristics. Cultural traits are acquired slowly, whereas biological traits are mostly inherited at the same time (in sexual species, at fertilization). This means that the emergence of one cultural characteristic can affect the development of another.
In Korea, for example the introduction of Western fashion elements in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th century was the result of a complicated sequence of events. One of the most important was the arrival in Korea of Japanese occupation forces who introduced Western hairstyles and clothes.
After that, when Japan left Korea in the 1930s, some of these trends began revert. At the close of World War II, Korea was once more united but this time under the rule of the Choson dynasty.
Today, Korea is a vibrant political and economic power. Despite the current global financial crisis, the economy of Korea has grown steadily in the past decade and is set to continue its healthy growth in the coming years.
The current government is confronted with a variety of challenges. One of the most serious is the inability to come up with an effective strategy to deal with the economic crisis. The crisis has revealed weaknesses of the country's policies particularly its dependence on exports and foreign investment which could not last.
The crisis has shaken the confidence of investors. This means that the government needs to reconsider its strategy and come up with other ways to boost the domestic demand. To ensure a stable financial climate the government needs to overhaul its incentive, monitoring and discipline systems. This chapter offers a variety of scenarios for how the Korean economy could grow in a post-crisis environment.
4. Evolution and Education
One of the biggest challenges for educators of evolution is how to present evolutionary concepts in a manner that is appropriate for students of various age groups and developmental stages. Teachers need to, for instance be mindful of the diversity of religions in their classrooms and create a learning environment where students of both religious and secular perspectives are comfortable. Teachers must also be aware of common misconceptions about evolution and how to deal with these in their classrooms. Teachers must also have quick access to the numerous resources available to teach evolution.
In this context, Thinking Evolutionarily Convocation played an important role in bringing together evolutionary researchers and educators from different sectors to discuss the best practices for teaching about Evolution. Participants included representatives from scientific societies and educational researchers, as well as officials from government funding agencies, and curriculum developers. The convergence of various participants helped to identify a set of shared recommendations which will serve as the basis for any future actions.
A key recommendation is that the teaching of evolution should be integrated in every science curriculum at every level. To achieve this goal it is recommended that the National Science Education Standards (NRC) call for evolution to be taught in a seamless manner across all life sciences, with a progression of ideas that are developmentally appropriate. A new publication from NRC offers guidance for schools on how to integrate evolution into the life science curriculum.
Numerous studies have shown that a more comprehensive teaching of evolution is linked to more knowledge and belief in the existence of evolution. It is difficult to determine causal effects in the classroom because school curricula don't change in a random manner and are affected by the timing of state board of education and gubernatorial elections. To overcome this problem, I use a longitudinal data set that lets me control for year and state fixed effects as well as individual-level variations in teacher beliefs about the evolution of their curriculum.
Another important result is that teachers who are more comfortable teaching evolution report having less intrapersonal barriers to doing so. This is consistent with the idea that a more confident faculty is less likely to avoid evolution subjects in the classroom. They also may 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).