EVOLUTIONISM AND CREATIONISM MUST HAVE THE SAME SPACE IN SCIENCE CLASSES? ISABELA MARIA SILVA LEÃO (isabela.leao94@hotmail.com) HESLLEY MACHADO SILVA (heslley@uniformg.edu.br) ELAINE SANDRA NICOLINI NABUCO DE ARAUJO (elaine_nabuco@hotmail.com)

Brazil is officially secular state Brazil is officially secular state. However, there are several attempts to insert the religious education in public schools. One of the foolhardy is one that suggests that the teaching of creationism occupy the same space as in science classes is intended to evolutionary theory, injuring the principle of secularity. Know the opinion of a Brazilian sample of this proposal is the goal of this study. A total of 390 people randomly selected residents of the city of Formiga, Minas Gerais, Brazil and surrounding cities responded to the question: "On a suggestion that science classes should give the same value and use the same time to teach creationism and the theory of evolution, you.”. The answers were given in Likert scale format (certainly true, probably true, probably false, certainly false, I don’t know). Two variables were considered: Education and religion. For data analysis we used the chi-square test with significance level of 0.05. The results show that the variable religion interfered in the choice of respondents. It was noted that in general the degree of acceptance with the question was lower among atheists. However, we found a greater rejection among evangelicals compared to the followers of other religions. There are discussions that indicate some radical positions of this religious group, and because of this, it is possible to note the influence of religion in the choice of the matter, in other words, evangelicals believe, more often, that classes should give more value to the teaching of creationism in over evolution. Level of education did not interfere in the choice of respondents. However, the percentage of respondents who agreed with the statement was slightly lower among those with educational with complete and incomplete graduation. This result may be related to the acquisition and consolidation of knowledge of evolutionary theory that occurs from the middle school. With these results it is evident that much of the sample believes that the two issues should be addressed with the same degree of significance in the lessons of Sciences / Biology. It is concluded and it is feared that due to changes in the religious standard of Brazil (there is a remarkable growth in the number of evangelicals), the science classes can lose focus of scientific knowledge in the teaching of biological evolution, because of the possible interference of dogmatic religious character. This is, in fact, negative, because the school environment is responsible for teaching scientific knowledge. The theme of biological evolution is part of science, so it is essential to present this in class Science/Biology. It is noteworthy that, in today's world, it is salutary that a discussion of religions is inserted in the school environment, but that does not mean, at any time that the creationist theory should have exclusivity in the teachings for religion and even that should occupy a space equal to the evolutionary theory in science classes and biology. Thus, regardless of education level there was a high percentage of respondents who agree with that question.