jhine, I didn't mean that the "British religious groups only accept evolution just because Darwin was British". I meant that maybe a higher percentage the population of England and the UK came to accept than maybe elsewhere because Darwin was British. I agree with you that JW and SDA religions both spread from the USA. Is the USA really the only country where the argument is raging? Even in countries where it is not raging, do some of those countries have at least 20% of their population believing in some nonevolutionary form of creation/creationsim (even if not a 7 day form and even if not a biblical form)? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creationism_by_country says the following.
'In recent years the teaching of creationism has become a subject of debate in a variety of countries including Germany, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Serbia.[29][30][31][32]
Creation science has been heavily promoted in immigrant communities in Western Europe, primarily by Turkish Islamic creationist Adnan Oktar.[29] On October 4, 2007, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted The dangers of creationism in education,
a resolution on the attempt by American-inspired creationists to
promote creationism in European schools. It concludes "The war on the
theory of evolution and on its proponents most often originates in forms
of religious extremism closely linked to extreme right-wing political
movements... some advocates of strict creationism are out to replace
democracy by theocracy... If we are not careful, the values that are the
very essence of the Council of Europe will be under direct threat from
creationist fundamentalists."[33]
... Speaking at the British Science Association's British Science Festival at the University of Liverpool in 2008, Michael Reiss estimated that about only 10% of children were from a family that supported a creationist rather than evolutionary viewpoint.[50] Richard Dawkins
has been quoted saying "I have spoken to a lot of science teachers in
schools here in Britain who are finding an increasing number of students
coming to them and saying they are Young Earth creationists."[51]
... Some private religious schools in the UK teach creationism rather than evolution.
[47] The
British Humanist Association
and leading scientists campaigned to make creationism illegal in state
funded schools from 2011 onwards. In 2014 they achieved their goal when
the Department for Education updated the funding contracts of Academies
and Free Schools to this effect, and at the same time, clarified that
creationism being taught as science contravened existing 'British
values' requirements.
[54]... Currently in Egypt, evolution is taught in schools but Saudi Arabia
and Sudan have both banned the teaching of evolution in schools.[57][58] In recent times, creationism has become more widespread in other Islamic countries.[59]
... Following the 1980 Turkish coup d'état,
the military leadership and subsequent governments promoted Islamicism
to promote national unity, which eventually included translation and
distribution of materials from the US Institute for Creation Research and creationist high-school textbooks.[29]
A survey published in 2008 found that about 25% of people in Turkey
accepted evolution as an explanation for how life came to exist.[61] In 2008, Richard Dawkins' website was banned in Turkey;[62] the ban was lifted in July 2011.[63] As of 2009, creationism had become the government's official position on origins.[56] ...
In 2017, Turkey announced plans to end the teaching of evolution
in Turkish schools, with chairman of the Board of Education, Alpaslan
Durmuş, claiming it was too complicated and "controversial" a topic for
students.[70] '
I think that all public (government run) schools in the USA teach evolution (largely due to USA Supreme Court rulings), but maybe some of them might try to make a disclaimer about evolution or try to teach creationism or Intelligent Design along side it. In fundamentalist church run schools and in fundamentalist homeschooling (of the kind which meets the qualifications for getting a government recognized diploma or degree) the textbook sometimes teaches creationism and Christianity along with naturalistic evolution. Those books (for religious schools and for home schooling) thus properly inform students what the accepted scientific view is about evolution is, but they also present Christian rebuttals to it. But creationists don't always get their creationist view from school.
I don't recall the grade school (kindergarten through 8th grade) I attended ever teaching me evolution (but maybe it made a passing reference to it in some course), but it certainly never taught me creationism. The high school I went to taught evolution in the biology textbook and in the prehistory section of one of the world history textbooks, and none of my high school courses taught creationism. But, the JW religion I was raised in taught JW creationism in much of its literature and taught against evolution (against macroevolution, but not against microevolution). Likewise many people in the USA who became creationists got their creationism from their religious instruction (such as in church and/or from their parents) and not from public school courses.
