Anti-intellectualism and anti-evolutionism: Lessons from Hofstadter

Abstract

The forces of anti-intellectualism in American life, as described by Richard Hofstadter, have been especially prominent in the battle against the teaching of evolution. Glenn Branch discusses the different aspects of anti-intellectualism that are at the root of objections to evolution and explains how creation science, which had a transparently religious motivation, eventually gave way to intelligent design, which was less explicit in its religious aims. In the face of constitutional challenges, these modes of anti-evolutionism have been largely replaced by discourse that misrepresents evolution as “just a theory” and that misleadingly portrays miseducation about evolution as a matter of intellectual freedom. Branch then suggests how, by understanding the anti-intellectual roots of objections to evolution, science educators might teach evolution more effectively.