The Teaching of Biological Evolution: is it essential to the scientific progress? Heslley Machado Silva Federal University of Minas Gerais, University Center of Formiga, University of Itaúna, Brazil. E-mail: Daiana Evilin Gibram University Center of Formiga, Brazil Graça Simões de Carvalho CIEC, Institute of Education, University of Minho (UM), Portugal Abstract Nowadays the teaching of biological evolution faces the creationist movement that claims this theme has no scientific evidence and that it could be excluded from the educational system. A challenging question about whether the exclusion of the teaching of Darwinian Evolution would harm the scientific progress was asked to a Brazilian population sample. In general, the results showed a rejection of the above question. Among the religious respondents, Spiritualists were those showing higher acceptance of the proposed statement whereas the Evangelicals were those less agreeing with the proposed question and with a considerable percentage of disagreement; Catholics were in a median position, agreeing with the question and a few rejecting it. The more educated the respondents were the higher acceptance of the question. The present study revealed that even the inquired creationists recognize that the teaching of biological evolution is essential in modern science. 1. Introduction Supported by a large body of evidence, the topic of biological evolution has become a major pillar of modern science. Indeed, it is hard to find a student that has not been in contact with the Darwinian Theory in his/her academic path anywhere in the world [1]. There is a network of evidences leading to concepts that underpin the evolutionary theory, which in turn sustain theoretical models allowing predictions. Such predictions when confronted by new empirical results may or may not generate changes in the models. Much of Darwin's contribution to science was just to be able to gather a series of observations coming from different fields and synthesize them to explain the common ancestry [2]. Berkman and Plutzer [3] claim the importance of the teaching of biological evolution in the curriculum, especially in secondary school, due to its unifying role in biology. These authors also emphasize the role of Darwinian Theory to show students how modern science works and how it is essential to the understanding and progress of biological areas such as genetics, agriculture and health, among others. In 2009, a series of celebrations for the anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the release of the most impactful book "The Origin of Species" took place. Since the publication of this book the issue of Darwinism and the teaching of evolution was in vogue both in scientific and lay media [4]. On the other hand, there has been a strong reappearance of creationist movements, being initially limited to the United States, but currently echoing around the world, and most notably in Brazil [6]. This rebirth of the creationist view may come from a reaction to the confirmation of the importance of Darwinism, especially in the educational field [3], but may also be related to more fundamentalist religious view, highlighting the biblical text as the only reliable source of knowledge and moral stance [5]. Copyright © WCE-2014 Published by Infonomics Society ISBN 978-1-908320-37-7 82