Reply #2: Thanks for your response!

[SallyMander]

Your thoughts are really interesting too me, especially as a college student. I am a grad student at a large state university, so i get students from all over the state -- some from really liberal areas (like you), and others from VERY rural and conservative districts. So it's a really interesting balance. I taught evolution a few quarters ago, and we handed out an anonymous survey at the beginning of the quarter. One of the questions was, "what is your current perception of evolution?" We had some students reply things like "heresy," "blasphemy," and "i don't believe in it." So that's certainly something i'm dealing with.

You're exactly right about Bible literalists being the ones with big issues with evolution. There's a really good book called Monkey Girl that talks about the trial in Dover, PA where the school board tried to introduce "intelligent design" (modern-day creationism) into a public high school. The book (and the judge in the case) makes the interesting point that there is this dualism in the thinking that doesn't really need to exist. Like, you either believe in God (and ID) or you are an atheist (and accept evolution). As if the two were mutually exclusive, which they definitely aren't! In that same vein then, any evidence "against" evolution is used as evidence "for" ID -- as if they were the only two options.

Anyway, i feel like i'm rambling, but it's a topic that really interests me. I'm definitely interested in your perspective as a college student -- how much evolution did you learn in HS? Do you think you'll come across it again in college?