Gut instinct and not knowledge, determines acceptance of evolution

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Gut instinct and not knowledge, determines acceptance of evolution
OP - January 19, 2012, 08:34 PM

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ScienceDaily: Your source for the latest research news and science breakthroughs -- updated daily

Evolution, Gut Feelings Trump Facts

ScienceDaily (Jan. 19, 2012) — For students to accept the theory of evolution, an intuitive "gut feeling" may be just as important as understanding the facts, according to a new study.

In an analysis of the beliefs of biology teachers, researchers found that a quick intuitive notion of how right an idea feels was a powerful driver of whether or not students accepted evolution -- often trumping factors such as knowledge level or religion.

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"What we found is that intuitive cognition has a significant impact on what people end up accepting, no matter how much they know," said Haury. The results show that even students with greater knowledge of evolutionary facts weren't likelier to accept the theory, unless they also had a strong "gut" feeling about those facts.

When trying to explain the patterns of whether people believe in evolution or not, "the results show that if we consider both feeling and knowledge level, we can explain much more than with knowledge level alone," said Minsu Ha, lead author on the paper and a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Teaching and Learning.

In particular, the research shows that it may not be accurate to portray religion and science education as competing factors in determining beliefs about evolution. For the subjects of this study, belonging to a religion had almost no additional impact on beliefs about evolution, beyond subjects' feelings of certainty.

These results also provide a useful way of looking at the perceived conflict between religion and science when it comes to teaching evolution, according to Haury. "Intuitive cognition not only opens a new door to approach the issue," he said, "it also gives us a way of addressing that issue without directly questioning religious views."

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This isn't surprising. Even as a muslim I believed in evolution in spite of Islam following the adam and eve timeline for life.

Even though I don't understand the full ins and outs of evolution so wouldn't do well in a debate proving why I think it's right, it just always made so much sense to me.

Far more sense than centuries of inbreeding...(although to be fair.....lol)

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Re: Gut instinct and not knowledge, determines acceptance of evolution
Reply #1 - January 19, 2012, 08:35 PM

I believed in evolution to, I just believed it didn't apply to Humans.

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Re: Gut instinct and not knowledge, determines acceptance of evolution
Reply #2 - January 19, 2012, 08:51 PM

Quote from: Andromeda on January 19, 2012, 08:35 PM
I believed in evolution to, I just believed it didn't apply to Humans.

Same here. Since I accepted it for other creatures it made me think more about applying it to humans, so it didn't take long for me to start to believe in evolution involving humans too.
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Re: Gut instinct and not knowledge, determines acceptance of evolution
Reply #3 - January 19, 2012, 08:54 PM

Exactly.

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Re: Gut instinct and not knowledge, determines acceptance of evolution
Reply #4 - January 29, 2012, 03:04 AM

It's really simple. If all animals are a bit different to their parents, eventually you will end up with animals that are very different to their remote ancestors. Really, evolution is a no-brainer.

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Re: Gut instinct and not knowledge, determines acceptance of evolution
Reply #5 - January 29, 2012, 04:16 AM

I only learned about evolution after becoming an Ex-Muslim, and before that I had never even heard of it. Went through all of my high school and for some reason this was never taught. Watching YouTube videos of Richard Dawkins really helped me understand evolution.
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Re: Gut instinct and not knowledge, determines acceptance of evolution
Reply #6 - January 29, 2012, 01:04 PM

I have ordered 3 books on Evolution, I am still no expert on Evolution but from what I have seen I don't think there is any space to use the word I BELIEVE, there is nothing to believe in evolution, I don't believe in Evolution, it is a matter of facts and u don't believe facts, you just have to accept them.
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Re: Gut instinct and not knowledge, determines acceptance of evolution
Reply #7 - February 01, 2012, 11:06 PM

theres much to learn about evolution if youre keen on it but it can be made simple for quick explanations and it isnt that difficult to grasp. Again ill point this out as tmp has above, evolution is fact something you dont believe but rather accept. People who deny it are denying truth.

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Re: Gut instinct and not knowledge, determines acceptance of evolution
Reply #8 - February 01, 2012, 11:24 PM

But isn't this alleged intuition dependent on someone's prior education and experience? If you are comfortable with following a line of logic. you will have no problem with evolution. It isn't really intuition.

And I am puzzled by this no knowledge of evolution. Never seen a dinosaur?

Birds are dinosaurs, so actually these praying crows are actually in yer face evolution!

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