1. Megan Brenan, “40% of Americans Believe in Creationism,” Gallup, July 26, 2019, https://news.gallup.com/poll/261680/americans-believe-creationism.aspx.

2. Michael Lipka, “Religious ‘Nones’ Are Not Only Growing, They’re Becoming More Secular,” Pew Research Center, November 11, 2015, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/11/religious-nones-are-not-only-growing-theyre-becoming-more-secular; Alan Cooperman and Gregory A. Smith, “The Factors Driving the Growth of Religious ‘Nones’ in the U.S.,” Pew Research Center, September 14, 2016, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/14/the-factors-driving-the-growth-of-religious-nones-in-the-u-s.

3. M. Elizabeth Barnes and Sara E. Brownell, “A Call to Use Cultural Competence When Teaching Evolution to Religious College Students: Introducing Religious Cultural Competence in Evolution Education (ReCCEE),” CBE—Life Sciences Education 16, no. 4 (Winter 2017): 2–3.

4. Randy Moore and Sehoya Cotner, “The Creationist Down the Hall: Does It Matter When Teachers Teach Creationism?” BioScience 59, no. 5 (May 2009): 431–32.

5. Elaine Howard Ecklund and Christopher P. Scheitle, “Religion Among Academic Scientists: Distinctions, Disciplines, and Demographics,” Social Problems 54, no. 2 (May 2007): 296, 299; Gregory W. Graffin and William B. Provine, “Macroscope: Evolution, Religion, and Free Will,” American Scientist 95, no. 4 (July–August 2007): 294–97; see also Brenan, “40% of Americans Believe in Creationism.”

6. M. Elizabeth Barnes and others, “‘Accepting Evolution Means You Can’t Believe in God’: Atheistic Perceptions of Evolution among College Biology Students,” CBE—Life Sciences Education 19, no. 2 (Summer 2020): 3.

7. See Theodosius Dobzhansky, “Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution,” The American Biology Teacher 35, no. 3 (1973): 125–29.

8. See, for instance, Anton E. Lawson and John Weser, “The Rejection of Nonscientific Beliefs about Life: Effects of Instruction and Reasoning Skills,” Journal of Research in Science Teaching 27, no. 6 (1990): 589–606.

9. Amanda L. Glaze, M. Jenice Goldston, and John Dantzler, “Evolution in the Southeastern USA: Factors Influencing Acceptance and Rejection in Pre-Service Science Teachers,” International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education 13 (2015): 1191, 1203.

10. This refers to the process of hypothesis testing: experimentation, data gathering, data analysis, and interpretation.

11. Ryan D. P. Dunk and others, “A Multifactorial Analysis of Acceptance of Evolution,” Evolution: Education and Outreach 10, no. 1 (2017): 4–5; Hernán L. Cofré and others, “The Effect of Teaching the Nature of Science on Students’ Acceptance and Understanding of Evolution: Myth or Reality?,” Journal of Biological Education 52, no. 3 (2018): 255.

12. Barnes and Brownell, “Call to Use Cultural Competence,” 5–6.

13. William S. Bradshaw and others, “A Longitudinal Study of Attitudes Toward Evolution Among Undergraduates Who Are Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” PLOS One 13, no. 11 (2018): 1–29, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205798.

14. See “What Does the Church Believe about Evolution?,” New Era 46, no. 10 (October 2016): 41; and chapters in Jamie L. Jensen, Steven L. Peck, Ugo A. Perego, and T. Benjamin Spackman, eds., The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and Evolution (College of Life Science, Brigham Young University, 2025).

15. Katie F. Manwaring and others, “Influencing Highly Religious Undergraduate Perceptions of Evolution: Mormons as a Case Study,” Evolution: Education and Outreach 8, no. 23 (2015): 1–12; John Lindsay and others, “Using a Reconciliation Module Leads to Large Gains in Evolution Acceptance,” CBE—Life Sciences Education 18, no. 4 (2019): 1–11.

16. Ethan R. Tolman and others, “Reconciling Evolution: Evidence from a Biology and Theology Course,” Evolution: Education and Outreach 13 (2020): article 19, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12052-020-00133-9.

17. Ethan R. Tolman and others, “Testing the Effect of Aquarium-Based Learning on Patron Acceptance of Evolutionary Theory,” Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research 9, no. 2 (2021): 102–9.

18. Jasmine M. Truong, M. Elizabeth Barnes, and Sara E. Brownell, “Can Six Minutes of Culturally Competent Evolution Education Reduce Students’ Level of Perceived Conflict Between Evolution and Religion?,” The American Biology Teacher 80, no. 2 (2018): 106–15.

19. Henry Eyring, The Faith of a Scientist (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1967), 41.

20. Manwaring and others, “Influencing Highly Religious Undergraduate Perceptions”; Lindsay and others, “Using a Reconciliation Module”; Daniel G. Ferguson and Jamie L. Jensen, “Role Models, Compatibility, and Knowledge Lead to Increased Evolution Acceptance,” Evolution: Education and Outreach 14, no. 1 (2021): article 16, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12052-021-00155-x.

Danny Ferguson

BYU Studies Publications