La union entre Estado, Iglesia catolica y partido conservador marco la historia politica, la sociedad y la cultura colombiana. La Constitucion Politica de 1886 y el Concordato con la Santa Sede en 1887, iniciaron procesos que buscaron el orden desde perspectivas de homogeneidad, con tendencias discriminatorias y exclusiones clasistas, circunstancias que imposibilitaron la coexistencia de diferentes corrientes del pensamiento religioso, mutilando la diversidad etnica y cultural de la Nacion. La expedicion de la Constitucion Politica de 1991, acaba con el legado regeneracionista vigente por mas de un siglo, expandiendo las perspectivas hacia la construccion de una sociedad pluralista e incluyente.

Estado y religión católica en Colombia

Even though it is widely held that the theory of evolution is one of the pillars of the biological sciences, as we begin the third decade of the twenty-first century, it is alarming how little we know about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors and non-STEM majors' misconceptions about evolution in countries such as Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Greece, to name a few. The situation is even more complicated if we acknowledge that contemporary educational approaches (e.g., student-centered learning) mean that students' misconceptions are one of the multiple aspects that influence the construction of meaningful learning. Here, we present a picture of Colombian STEM/non-STEM majors' misconceptions about evolution. Participants were 547 students from different STEM/non-STEM majors (278 females and 269 males, 16-24 years old). During 5 years (10 academic semesters), data were collected from students' responses to an 11-item questionnaire administered in a Colombian university. We hypothesized that the academic semester within these 5 years in which each student completed the instrument as well as respondents' age, gender, and/or major may influence their misconceptions about evolution. Results reveal that participants had a moderate understanding of evolution. Also, we found a limited understanding of microevolution among participants. Furthermore, cross-sectional analyses of differences in undergraduates' responses across demographic variables showed that despite apparent differences, these were not reliable since the differences were not statistically significant. Implications for evolution education are discussed. 

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STEM and Non-STEM Misconceptions About Evolution: Findings from 5 Years of Data

Relationships between degree/area of academic formation and religious and Darwinian views are controversial. This study aimed to compare the religious beliefs and acceptance of Darwinian evolution between two contrasting South American scientific communities (Chile and Colombia), accounting for different degrees and areas of academic formation. In 2018, 115 last year bachelor students (surveyed as freshmen in 2014 for a previous study) from Chile, and 283 first/last year bachelor students, graduate students, and professors from Colombia, all belonging to biology, chemistry, or physics, were surveyed. Chilean students/faculty were significantly more agnostic/atheist, more accepting of Darwinian evolution, and less creationist than their Colombian counterparts. Academic degree and area differently affected these views in both countries, as only in Chile there was a clear tendency among biologists and physicists with higher degrees to hold less religious and creationist views. Marked differences between the history, socioeconomic contexts, and especially in high school and university curricula of both countries might explain these results.

Diego Martínez-Rincón

Papers

Effects of academic degree and discipline on religious and evolutionary views in chile and colombia