ABSTRACT This dissertation describes and critiques the Darwinian proposal for morality constructed by Professor Michael Ruse. Chapter 1 outlines Ruse's background and Darwinian worldview while also depicting some inherent obstacles to the Darwinian worldview. Chapter 2 describes the moral anti-realism of Professor Ruse and illustrates his position as Hume updated by Darwin. Ruse's ethical skepticism denies genuine objectivity in morality, but he also rejects traditional subjectivism. Ruse describes himself as a subjectivist of a distinct kind. Chapter 3 examines the central and most controversial tenet of Ruse's moral proposal: the illusion of objectivity. Analysis and critique is offered of Ruse's proposal that objectivity is an illusion foisted upon all humans by natural selection. Chapter 4 describes how Ruse defines altruism and illustrates the fundamental problem that genuine altruism is for Darwinism. A charge is offered that Darwinism only supports pseudo-altruism and cannot successfully justify the common practice of authentic altruism. Chapter 5 concludes the dissertation and offers an argument that the nature of God serves as a far superior foundation for morality than Ruse supplies in his proposal. The doctrine of the imago dei provides a robust account of human dignity and morality.

This investigation explored scientific, religious, and otherwise nonscientific factors that may influence student acceptance of biological evolution and related concepts, how students perceived these factors to have influenced their levels of acceptance of evolution and changes therein, and what patterns arose among students' articulations of how their levels of acceptance of evolution may have changed. This exploration also measured the extent to which students' levels of acceptance changed following a treatment designed to address factors identified as potentially affecting student acceptance of evolution. Acceptance of evolution was measured using the MATE instrument (Rutledge and Warden, 1999; Rutledge and Sadler, 2007) among participants enrolled in a secondary-level academic program during the summer prior to their final year of high school and as they transitioned to the post-secondary level. Student acceptance of evolution was measured to be significantly higher than pre-treatment levels both immediately following and slightly over one year after treatment. Qualitative data from informal questionnaires, from formal course evaluations, and from semi-structured interviews of students engaged in secondary level education and former students at various stages of post-secondary education confirmed that the suspected factors were perceived by participants to have influenced their levels of acceptance of evolution. Furthermore, participant reports provided insight regarding the relative effects they perceived these factors to have had on their evolution acceptance levels. Additionally, many participants reported that their science teachers in public schools had avoided, omitted, or denigrated evolution during instruction, and several of these students expressed frustration regarding what they perceived to have been a lack of education of an important scientific principle. Finally, no students expressed feelings of being offended by having been taught about evolutionary science, and the overwhelming majority of the participants expressed enjoyment of the course and appreciation for having been taught about evolution.

M.Ed. (Science Education) / The topic of evolutionary theory is new to the South African Life Sciences curriculum, having only been introduced in 2008 to the grade 12 cohort. A great deal of controversy and discussion surrounds the teaching and learning of evolution in many countries, and since the introduction of the topic, including South Africa. The primary source of this controversy arises from the conflict that many Christian and Muslim people experience between what their respective religions teach them about the act of Creation by God and the biological theory of evolution. As a result of its recent inception into South African school, not much research has been done to explore how this topic is experienced by Hindu secondary school learners and teachers. The aim of this study is therefore to address two gaps, firstly to add to the almost total lack of information about the Hindu perspective of the topic of evolution. Secondly, to add to the knowledge base of the teaching and learning of evolution in secondary schools since the scant information available on the teaching and learning of evolution in South Africa is mainly confined to tertiary education. Literature was reviewed on various aspects relevant to this study such as the PCK, NOS, CCC, Hinduism and the teaching and learning of evolution overseas and locally. In order to investigate the lived experiences of Hindu Life Sciences teachers and learners to the topic of evolution a qualitative study with elements of phenomenology was the chosen research design. This prompted the need to use a series of focus group and individual interviews with the various role-players as laid out by the overarching conceptual framework CHAT, the lens through which this study was viewed. Triangulation of data increased the reliability and validity of this study and was obtained by interviewing a Hindu priest as well as Hindu parents of Life Sciences learners. Interviews were transcribed, coded using the coding model by Saldana (2009) and analysed according to common themes. The main finding of this study was that Hindu teachers and learners experience no conflict with the topic of evolution thus displaying a lack of major tensions linked to the CHAT model. Many Hindus are however ignorant of their religion and scriptures but nevertheless remain accepting of the theory of evolution. Their acceptance could be attributed to three major tenets of Hinduism that link to evolutionary concepts: the cyclical concept of time; the evolution of the soul during reincarnation and the idea that during times of calamity, God manifests on Earth in the form of Avatāras. Misconceptions of evolutionary theory abound among learners and to a lesser extent the parents and teachers, particularly with respect to the notion of common ancestry. The teachers had adequate PCK but their knowledge of the NOS was limited. Recommendations emerging from these findings therefore warrant greater attention to the NOS in both PRESET and INSET teacher training courses. These courses can also use the lack of tensions between the Hindu religion and the topic of evolution as a case in point to show that religion and science can exist in harmony with each other. The concept of a nearest common ancestor (NCA) should also be emphasised in these courses – thereby helping to dispel the misconception that humans descended directly from apes.

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This dissertation argues that philosophers Barbara Forrest and Robert T. Pennock fail to discredit William A. Dembski's Design Inference as a legitimate scientific program. Chapter 1 is the introduction, explaining the problem and the research methodology used in the dissertation to ascertain a conclusion. Chapter 2 is a background survey and analysis of contemporary Intelligent Design (ID) theory and Dembski's part within the overall schemata of the Intelligent Design enterprise. Particular aspects of Dembski's Design Inference framework and its corresponding "explanatory filter" are explained in Chapter 3. Both Forrest and Pennock had significant influence on the judge's final opinion in the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial, which brought serious scrutiny against ID's scientific merit. Criticism against Dembski was an important part of Forrest and Pennock's respective expert testimony against ID. Based on this trial testimony and their respective academic writings, Chapter 4 therefore argues for the legitimacy of Forrest and Pennock as influential critics when considering Dembski's scientific relevance. The chapter also surveys their substantive arguments against Dembski. Dembski's own response to the categorical criticisms by Forrest and Pennock are addressed in Chapter 5. The concluding analysis is in Chapter 6, arguing that Dembski's Design Inference maintains as viable science, despite the critiques by Forrest and Pennock. / This item is only available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. If you are not associated with SBTS, this dissertation may be purchased from <a href="http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb">http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb</a> or downloaded through ProQuest's Dissertation and Theses database if your institution subscribes to that service.

M.Ed. (Science Education) / Evolution was introduced as a new section of Life Sciences in the National Curriculum Statement in 2008, anecdotal evidence indicating that this incorporation was not welcomed by all teachers, learners, parents and schools with the same enthusiasm. For example, many Christian teachers and learners seem to have religious objections, but while there is ample research available in the United States of America and Great Britain on their views of evolution, that on the South African Life Sciences classroom is limited. Therefore, this study strives to determine the lived experiences of these teachers and learners and how they relate to the topic. The objectives were to investigate how Christian teachers of Life Sciences experience the teaching of evolution in the classroom; the knowledge and skills they have in order to teach natural selection and evolutionary biology, as prescribed by the National Curriculum Statement; and the barriers they face in the teaching of evolution and natural selection. Meanwhile, Grade 12 learners completed a questionnaire before and after receiving tuition on evolution in order to determine their lived experiences. This study is part of a trilogy within a Research Niche Area of the University of Johannesburg, with the other two researchers focusing on Islam perspectives (Yalvac, 2011) and the Hindu perspective (Reddy, 2012). This is an explanatory sequential mixed method study with an element of phenomenology. Quantitative data was collected which informed the qualitative research, the latter being used to examine the lived experiences of Life Sciences teachers, the former to determine learners’ attitudes toward evolution as well as gauging the teachers’ general understanding of the theory of evolution. Third generation Cultural Historical Activity theory (CHAT) was used as the theoretical framework through which the lived experiences of Christian teachers and learners were analysed. This is appropriate for this study as it views the teachers and learners holistically, by taking their culture and history into account, and it provides a vehicle for looking at what Pintrich, Marx and Boyle (1993) call, the “hot” factors associated with controversial conceptual change. The findings of my study show that many Christian teachers and learners experience conflict between their religion and evolution and many tensions arise in the activity system when using CHAT as a lens. These tensions mainly arise due to a lack of the teachers’ PCK and the conflict arising because of religious objections. The findings furthermore show that learners have a relative naïve understanding of evolution before tuition and have many misconceptions regarding it. A clear polarisation can be seen after tuition as learners move from a neutral stance with regards to evolution to either a more creationistic or scientific point of view. In the final chapter I make recommendations on how the teaching and learning of evolution can be improved in the South African classroom.

La problématique de recherche étudiée dans le cadre de cette thèse, émerge de diverses réflexions, données empiriques et observations, toutes liées à un constat qui a des implications importantes pour l’enseignement des sciences :le rejet partiel ou total de la théorie de l’évolution aux cours de sciences dispensés à l’école, au nom de croyances créationnistes, dans des sociétés modernes européennes où la science fait autorité.<p>La littérature scientifique qui traite de cette problématique dans le cadre de l’enseignement scolaire en Europe ,analyse les conceptions d’acteurs de l’enseignement scolaire – enseignants et/ou élèves – sur ce sujet, en étudiant notamment le lien qu’entretiennent ces conceptions avec les représentations que ces mêmes acteurs ont de la science, avec leurs parcours personnels, avec leur formation, etc. Un point aveugle observé dans cette littérature est la rareté des recherches portant sur les directives officiellement adressées aux enseignants. C’est pourquoi nous avons choisi de nous pencher sur le contenu de ces directives. <p>Cette recherche a, en premier lieu, une visée exploratoire. Elle consiste à construire et utiliser un instrument théorique et méthodologique qui permet, d’une part, d’identifier des représentations du savoir scientifique, de la croyance religieuse et/ou de leurs rapports (ou non rapports) véhiculées par les curriculums prescrits européens et, d’autre part, de déterminer des mécanismes à travers lesquels ces représentations pourraient influencer, d’une façon ou d’une autre, le rejet ou l’acceptation de la théorie de l’évolution au nom de croyances créationnistes ou encore, inversement, le rejet ou l’acceptation de croyances créationnistes au nom de la théorie de l’évolution. Pour repérer les représentations recherchées, nous utilisons la méthode de l’analyse de contenu thématique.<p>Une autre visée de cette étude est confirmatoire. Il s’agit de confirmer le postulat suivant lequel la nature des éventuelles représentations repérées au sein des curriculums prescrits au moyen de l’instrument susmentionné peut être mise en lien – lien dont la nature sera définie dans le corps de notre dissertation, sur la base de l’analyse de données sociohistoriques rapportées dans la littérature – avec les modalités de gestion de la laïcité mises en place par les politiques éducatives de différents pays européens :la France, la Grèce et la Belgique francophone. Ces pays ont justement été sélectionnés pour leur profil divergent en matière de politiques de gestion de la diversité culturelle. Pour démontrer ce lien, nous nous livrons à une analyse comparative sociétale. / Doctorat en Sciences Psychologiques et de l'éducation / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished