South Korea to remove Evolution from textbooks

A society, which was deeply influenced by Confucianism starts believing in creationism nonsense.

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Mention creationism, and many scientists think of the United States, where efforts to limit the teaching of evolution have made headway in a couple of states1. But the successes are modest compared with those in South Korea, where the anti-evolution sentiment seems to be winning its battle with mainstream science.

A petition to remove references to evolution from high-school textbooks claimed victory last month after the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) revealed that many of the publishers would produce revised editions that exclude examples of the evolution of the horse or of avian ancestor Archaeopteryx. The move has alarmed biologists, who say that they were not consulted. “The ministry just sent the petition out to the publishing companies and let them judge,” says Dayk Jang, an evolutionary scientist at Seoul National University.

The campaign was led by the Society for Textbook Revise (STR), which aims to delete the “error” of evolution from textbooks to “correct” students’ views of the world, according to the society’s website. The society says that its members include professors of biology and high-school science teachers.

The STR is also campaigning to remove content about “the evolution of humans” and “the adaptation of finch beaks based on habitat and mode of sustenance”, a reference to one of the most famous observations in Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. To back its campaign, the group highlights recent discoveries that Archaeopteryx is one of many feathered dinosaurs, and not necessarily an ancestor of all birds2. Exploiting such debates over the lineage of species “is a typical strategy of creation scientists to attack the teaching of evolution itself”, says Joonghwan Jeon, an evolutionary psychologist at Kyung Hee University in Yongin.
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The STR is an independent offshoot of the Korea Association for Creation Research (KACR), according to KACR spokesman Jungyeol Han. Thanks in part to the KACR’s efforts, creation science — which seeks to provide evidence in support of the creation myth described in the Book of Genesis — has had a growing influence in South Korea, although the STR itself has distanced itself from such doctrines. In early 2008, the KACR scored a hit with a successful exhibition at Seoul Land, one of the country’s leading amusement parks. According to the group, the exhibition attracted more than 116,000 visitors in three months, and the park is now in talks to create a year-long exhibition.

Even the nation’s leading science institute — the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology — has a creation science display on campus. “The exhibition was set up by scientists who believed in creation science back in 1993,” says Gab-duk Jang, a pastor of the campus church. The institute also has a thriving Research Association for Creation Science, run by professors and students, he adds.
Antipathy to evolution

In a 2009 survey conducted for the South Korean documentary The Era of God and Darwin, almost one-third of the respondents didn’t believe in evolution. Of those, 41% said that there was insufficient scientific evidence to support it; 39% said that it contradicted their religious beliefs; and 17% did not understand the theory. The numbers approach those in the United States, where a survey by the research firm Gallup has shown that around 40% of Americans do not believe that humans evolved from less advanced forms of life.

The roots of the South Korean antipathy to evolution are unclear, although Jeon suggests that they are partly “due to strong Christianity in the country”. About half of South Korea’s citizens practice a religion, mostly split between Christianity and Buddhism.

However, a survey of trainee teachers in the country concluded that religious belief was not a strong determinant of their acceptance of evolution3. It also found that 40% of biology teachers agreed with the statement that “much of the scientific community doubts if evolution occurs”; and half disagreed that “modern humans are the product of evolutionary processes”.

Until now, says Dayk Jang, the scientific community has done little to combat the anti-evolution sentiment. “The biggest problem is that there are only 5–10 evolutionary scientists in the country who teach the theory of evolution in undergraduate and graduate schools,” he says. Having seen the fierce debates over evolution in the United States, he adds, some scientists also worry that engaging with creationists might give creationist views more credibility among the public.

Silence is not the answer, says Dayk Jang. He is now organizing a group of experts, including evolutionary scientists and theologians who believe in evolution, to counter the SRT’s campaign by working to improve the teaching of evolution in the classroom, and in broader public life.

South Korea surrenders to creationist demands : Nature News & Comment

Christians in South Korea are extremely radical. I remember an article about one getting beheaded while trying to convert some Iraqi's.

USA has been trying to evangelize East Asia for quite some time. They have been pretty successful in South Korea which will become majority Christian in the future. These guys failed in Japan though, let's see how they'll fare in China.

It was also illegal to teach evolution in the American South in the early 20th century (see Scopes Trial and Butler Act). Such laws have since been overturned. However, this means that South Korea is now worse than the early 20th century U.S. Bible Belt


Also, why did Christianity fail in Japan but triumph in South Korea?

Just in South Korea, one of most advanced economies and successful countries of so called 'developing world'

This shows that social progress and education aren't enough to remove religious fundamentalism from the mind of people.

I hope this creationist wave don't make the Chosun to retrogess.

I think this evangelization of South Korea is a US plan to keep away Koreans, a Confucian minded people, of the sinospheric cultural zone, thus from China.

Christianity was at the forefront of Korean independence movement and has contributed greatly to modernization of Korea

Korean independence movement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Their 1st president Rhee Syng-man, and then Kim Tae-Jung who ended military dictatorship, and the incumbent Lee Myong-bak are all Christians.

Even so, the fact of Christians Koreans made contributions to modernization and independence of Korea, what they did in the past don't can to justify what they are doing now.

To remove the Evolution Theory from the textbooks contributes nothing for South Korea progress.

South Korea is quite radical in its Christianity and does a lot of evangelist activities.

So, Evolution not being taught in South Korea is not surprising!

If one blocks one's mind because of obscurantist ideologies, it will be end of the quest for knowledge and the people will wallow and rot in ignorance.

Evangelists in every religion are the harbingers of Darkness.

So, this world will have an entire country of clowns.

Half their population is atheist or agnostic. Maybe that's their saving grace.

Funnily enough only 30% of their population is Christian and they are able to influence text books this much.

why zakir naik is here , just google zakir naik exposed

The American Republican Party has colonised South Korea?

A question to Zkir Nayek.............Darwinism is a theory not fact...what proof he has that all the scriptures are fact not imagination.....

I agree your statement is a FACT.

But then the Communists also believe the same.

I am not a Communist though.

Naik is wrong. The Koran does not speak of fact. Just as an example, Adam is a hypothesis and not a fact.

His lecture is not impressive at all.

Yesterday I found a Pakistani atheist in PDF...today I found what one of the most advanced nation is doing- WOrld is a crazy place.

Zakir Naik, the Muslim evangelist, is wrong.

Like all evangelist he tries to fool the people and most of the audience are those who are either illiterates or who are deep in their belief of their scriptures being the salvation to the tormented soul!

He based his debunking on Darwin's Theory merely on the fact that he is a Doctor and on the issue of the Missing Link. That is hardly a scholarly explanation, there being no scientific data given to prove his contention. He merely used the unexplained Missing Link as his sole contention.

On God, it was all woolly 'Ram Katha'. If God is 'uncreated', that too must have some explainable rationale. Again, his diatribe was totally bogus.

On people getting sick and going to the hospital and not to Temples/ Mosque/ Churches because Faith in God being the Last Word on Existence, Naik's explanation that the Koran says that one should go to the expert and the doctor is the expert is most juvenile. On the one hand, he claims the God is all Powerful, and on the other hand, he says that the doctor is the expert because that is what the Koran says. If God is all Powerful, should be not be the expert of the experts since he created Mankind?

(That way Christianity is slicker. It says - God helps those who help themselves. That means go to the expert and help yourself and then God will come and give the helping hand!)

If the doctor is the expert and not God (as per Naik), then God surely is not ALL Powerful!

Such humbug stuff these religious hacks spawn.

Given the audience that one saw in the video, Zakir would surely be taken to be a hero. The audience seemed to be the unwashed masses!

I have followed Naik in QTV.

He is a charlatan!