Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Importance Of Undecideds In The Evolution Vs. Creationism Debate, Seth Steinman

Senior Honors Projects

As a scientific theory, evolution has as much empirical support for its core assertions as the heliocentric universe theory or the belief that the Earth is round. Despite a unanimous consensus in the scientific community about evolution’s validity, the General Social Survey (GSS) consistently reports that 85 percent of Americans are either undecided or do not believe in evolution.

This divide between evolutionists, led by scientists, and creationists, led by religious leaders, has enormous scientific and political implications, which include funding for basic scientific research, acting to stop global warming, and what schools should be teaching our children.

The most …

Underwood Collection (Mss 58), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and selected full-text scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 58. Correspondence, diaries, papers, and genealogical materials of Joseph Rogers Underwood, U.S. Senator from Bowling Green, Kentucky, his wife Elizabeth Cox Underwood, his brother Warner Lewis Underwood, and his son, John Cox Underwood.

Mcdonald, Dan Allyn, 1905-1974 - Collector (Mss 343), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 343. Correspondence, legal papers, financial records and sundry other documents related to Eugene Scott Brown and his father-in-law, Gilbert Marshall Mulligan, attorneys of Scottsville, Allen County, Kentucky. Also includes stray Allen County court records, research notes related to the Civil War, and records about early telephone service in Allen County.

Has A New Way Of Measuring Religion Uncovered A Religious Left?, Matthew Frei

Library Research Grants

Research typically reveals that religious voters tend to be conservative and Republican. However, a new survey question used on the American National Elections Study (ANES) was recently developed to separate individualistic Christians from communitarian Christians by asking whether they try more to help others or to avoid sin. Scholars have used the question to claim that religious communitarians lean to the political left. This analysis shows that the new ANES question is correlated with partisan identification, but should not be interpreted as evidence of a religious left.

The New American Civil Religion: Lesson For Italy, Andrew Koppelman

Faculty Working Papers

American civil religion has been changing, responding to increasing religious plurality by becoming more abstract. The problem of increasing plurality is not only an American one. It is also presented in Italy, where civic identity has been centered around a Catholicism that is no longer universal. Perhaps Italy has, in this respect, an American future.