Vol.:(0123456789) Cultural Studies of Science Education https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-021-10097-x 1 3 FORUM Categorizations of the interface of evolution and religion Rachel S. A. Pear 1  · Shoaib Ahmed Malik 2 Received: 14 November 2021 / Accepted: 23 November 2021 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022 Abstract This piece responds to the article by Arif Rachmatullah, Soonhye Park, and Minsu Ha “Crossing borders between science and religion: Muslim Indonesian biology teach- ers’ perceptions of teaching the theory of evolution,” in which the authors are among the frst researchers to explore the views of Indonesian science teachers regarding evolution instruction. This new context is important for furthering a global perspective on evolution education. However, the authors use preexisting taxonomies for their analyses that were developed in studies executed in mostly Christian contexts. In this response, we argue that investigations into new geographical and religious milieus, such as the teachers in the study by Rachmatullah and colleagues, could instead be used to develop more attuned catego- rizations for the burgeoning research area of the interaction of Islam, Judaism, and other traditions with evolution. We refect upon experiences from our own work in studying Jew- ish and Muslim views of evolution, as well as on alternative taxonomies developed regard- ing Islam and evolution; we close with a brief rationale for a current initiative to create a researchers’ network for those who study the interface of science, religion, and society in the Middle East and North Africa. Keywords Islam and evolution · Judaism and evolution · Taxonomies on the interaction of science and religion This article addresses issues raised in the article “Crossing borders between science and religion: Muslim Indonesian biology teachers’ perceptions of teaching the theory of evolu- tion” by Arif Rachmatullah, Soonhye Park, and Minsu Ha. It is a jointly authored article in which the individual voices of each of the two co-respondents are preserved to some extent. I (Rachel) invited Shoaib to join me in this piece because as much as exploring the similarities and diferences between my primary feld of research, Jewish engagement with evolution, and the interaction of other faith (and non-faith) traditions with evolution are compelling, I believe it preferable to partner with someone who specializes in the religion Lead Editor: Michael J. Reiss. * Rachel S. A. Pear RachelSAPear@gmail.com 1 University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel 2 Zayed University, Academic City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates