According to Newsweek in 1987, "By one count there are some 700
scientists with respectable academic credentials (out of a total of 480,000 U.S.
earth and life scientists) who give credence to creation-science..."
That would make the support for creation science among those branches of science
who deal with the earth and its life forms about 0.14% 5 However,
the American public thinks very differently.
The Gallup Organizations periodically asks the American public about their beliefs on
evolution and creation. They have conducted a poll of U.S. adults in 1982, 1991, 1993 and
1997. By keeping their wording identical, each year's results are comparable to the others.
Results for the 1991-NOV-21 to 24 poll were:
Belief system
Creationist view
Theistic evolution
Naturalistic Evolution
Group of adults
God created man pretty much in his present
form at one time within the last 10,000 years.
Man has developed over millions of years
from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process, including man's creation.
Man has developed over millions of years
from less advanced forms of life. God had no part in this process.
Everyone
47%
40%
9%
Men
39%
45%
11.5%
Women
53%
36%
6.6%
College graduates
25%
54%
16.5%
No high school diploma
65%
23%
4.6%
Income over $50,000
29%
50%
17%
Income under $20,000
59%
28%
6.5%
Caucasians
46%
40%
9%
African-Americans
53%
41%
4%
1997-NOV data is little changed. Note the massive differences between the
beliefs of the general population and of scientists:
Belief system
Creationist view
Theistic evolution
Naturalistic Evolution
Group of adults
God created man pretty much in his present
form at one time within the last 10,000 years.
Man has developed over millions of years
from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process, including man's creation.
Man has developed over millions of years
from less advanced forms of life. God had no part in this process.
Everyone
44%
39%
10%
Scientists
5%
40%
55%
The "scientist" group would presumably include biologists and
geologists. But it would also include persons with professional degrees in
fields unrelated to evolution, such as computer science, chemical engineering,
physics, etc.
Political science professor George Bishop of the University of Cincinnati
published a paper in 1998-AUG listing and interpreting 1997 poll data.
"Bishop notes that these figures have remained remarkably stable over time.
These questions were first asked about 15 years ago, and the percentages in each category
are almost identical. Moreover, the profiles of each group has been constant. Just as when
these questions were first asked 15 years ago, creationists continue to be older, less
educated, Southern, politically conservative, and biblically literal (among other
things). Women and African-Americans were more likely to be creationists than whites and
men. Meanwhile, younger, better educated, mainline Protestants and Catholics were more
likely to land in the middle as theistic evolutionists." 1
A late 2006 poll by CBS showed that:
"Americans do not believe that humans evolved, and the vast majority says
that even if they evolved, God guided the process. Just 13 percent say that
God was not involved. ... Support for evolution is more heavily concentrated
among those with more education and among those who attend religious
services rarely or not at all."
Poll results:
Belief system
Creationist view
Theistic evolution
Naturalistic Evolution
Group of adults
God created humans in [their]
present form.
Humans evolved, [but] God
guided the process."
Humans evolved [but] God did
not guide [the] process.
Everyone
55%
27%
13%
The creationist view seems to have received increasing support, perhaps
because of the elderly who represent a gradually increasing part of the U.S.
population. At the same time, support for naturalistic evolution has also
increased. The nation is becoming more polarized as belief in the compromise
position -- that evolution happened , but under God's guidance -- has dropped.
8
By any measure, the United States remains a highly religious nation, compared to other
developed countries. Its citizens tend to hold more conservative beliefs. For example,
the percentage of adults who believe that "the Bible is the actual word of God
and it is to be taken literally, word for word" is 5 times higher in the U.S.
than in Britain. Church attendance is about 4 times higher in the U.S. than it is in
Britain. 1 Similarly, according to one opinion poll, belief
that "Human beings developed from earlier species of animals..."
is much smaller in the United States (35%) than in other
countries (as high as 82%).
In the spring of 2007, following an all-candidates meeting of ten Republicans
seeking the presidency, three denied a personal belief in evolution. This
promoted the Gallup Organization to ask American adults between 2007-MAY-21-24:
"Do you, personally, believe in evolution or not." This is one of the
poorest polling questions that we have ever seen, because people generally hold
one of three beliefs concerning origins:
Naturalistic evolution: Evolution happened according to purely
natural forces and processes without any divine guidance.
Theistic evolution: Evolution happened and was/is guided by God.
Creationism: Species were created separately by God.
When a person is asked if they believe in evolution, they might interpret the
question as belief in naturalistic evolution only. Alternately, they might
consider it as asking whether one believes in either naturalistic or theistic
evolution. Pollsters tend to like simple yes and no answers. Sometimes they do
not handle questions well where there are three discrete positions.
Also, some people regard evolution as covering only the development of life
forms from the first one-celled animal to the present diversity of plants and
animals. Others include the origins of the universe, the development of
galaxies, stars, planetary systems, development of mountain ranges, continental
drift, etc.
The results, for what they are worth are a statistical draw:
49% believe in "Evolution;"
48% do not;
2% have no opinion.
As expected, more highly educated adults believe in "evolution:"
74% of people with post-graduate degrees believe in "evolution," as do:
48% of college graduates
50% of adults with some college
41% of adults with high school or less.
More frequent attendance at religious services correlated with a lack of
belief in "evolution:"
24% of those who attend weekly believe in evolution, as do:
52% of those who attend nearly weekly or monthly, and
71% of those who attend seldom or never.
As expected, political affiliation reflects a difference of opinion on
origins:
Only 30% of Republicans believe in "evolution;" 68% do not.
61% of independents believe in "evolution;" 37% do not.
57% of Democrats believe in "evolution;" 40% do not.
The five main reasons why people say they do not believe in "evolution" are
their belief Jesus Christ, belief in God, "due to my religion or faith," "not enough
evidence," and belief in the Bible. 9
Beliefs among some Internet surfers:
The Christianity section of About.com conducted a poll of its readers during
2000-SEP. They listed two responses which more or less agree with the
Creationist, and Theistic Evolution beliefs. Their third response, that
Evolution is a fact, would probably have received the votes of most believers in
Naturalistic Evolution. Their final option would probably have been selected by
some creationists who believe that students should be exposed to all belief
systems, and by others who are undecided. Results were:
Belief system
Creationist view
Theistic evolution
Naturalistic Evolution
(probably)
Neutral
Group of adults
Evolution is an unproven
theory, contrary to God's revealed truth.
Evolution was simply the means
God chose to create life on this planet.
Evolution is not just a
theory, it is a fact.
Evolution may be an unproven
theory, but it is important enough to merit study in our school systems.
Self-selected
27%
15%
50%
8%
These results are based on 2904 votes. The margin of error in this poll
is ±1.8 percentage points. Needless to say, the Internet surfers
who responded to the poll are are not necessarily typical
of surfers generally, or of the general public. 7
Sponsored link:
Beliefs among conservative Christians:
In 1999-NOV, Focus on the Family, a Fundamentalist Christian
agency, concluded a poll of their web site visitors concerning their
beliefs about creation and evolution. Results were:
God created the universe, but I don't know when: 46%
God created the universe thousands of years ago: 43%
God created the universe billions of years ago: 10%
Life came into being and evolved on its own: 1%
I don't have a clue: 0.4% 6
[Author's note: The poll is not particularly well
designed; it mixes apples and oranges. The first three options concern
when the world came into existence and assumes that God created it. The
fourth response concerns evolution of life on earth. A participant in the
poll might well believe that God created the world billions of years ago
and that life evolved on its own. They would believe in two options, but
could mark only one.]
The participants in the poll are self-selected from among the visitors
to the Focus web site. They probably are mainly
Fundamentalist or other Evangelical Christian believers.
Beliefs elsewhere in the world:
Belief in creation science seems to be largely a U.S. phenomenon among
countries the West. A
British survey of 103 Roman Catholic priests, Anglican bishops and
Protestant ministers/pastors showed that:
97% do not believe the world was created in six days.
80% do not believe in the existence of Adam and Eve. 4
Why do they hold these opinions?
The Wichita Eagle and the Kansas City Star, surveyed 604
respondents on 1999-OCT-22 to 26. Kansas had been a target of much
interest and some ridicule after the state Board of Education dropped the
necessity of teaching evolution in its public schools. 3Some
interesting comments by Kansans were published. As always, beliefs seem to
be derived from people's fundamental interpretation
of the Bible:
Auctioneer Gary Corwin said: "I believe that the Lord God
created everything, just like the Bible says, I don’t think we came
from apes." [Author's note: 95% of
scientists support evolution and have reached a consensus that humans
did not come from apes either; they believe that humans and apes have
a common ancestor.]
The National Center for Science Education, which promotes
the teaching of evolution. Spokesperson Eugenie Scott commented:
"It goes to the meaning and purpose of life. I think many
Americans believe that somehow they are less special to God if they
evolved from nonhuman animals." [Author's
note: The main alternative to evolution is found in Genesis which
states that Adam came from dirt.]
The Rev. Victor Calcote, pastor of Epworth United Methodist
Church in Wichita KS stated: "I believe there is a God
that’s in control of creation. I’ve never gotten hung up on how he
did it." He added: "I don’t appreciate some of the
caricatures of Kansans. Just because our school board voted that way
doesn’t mean we're a bunch of bumbling idiots."
A liberal religious source was not interviewed. If someone who was a
Unitarian Universalist minister or a Humanist or other secularist were
asked, they would probably comment that Genesis is a very beautiful
myth, but not a story that should be interpreted literally. The
authors of Genesis lived in a pre-scientific era and simply adopted
creation legends from their surrounding Pagan societies.
Other related essays dealing with evolution & creation science:
"Darwin makes a comeback in Kansas," at: http://christianity.about.com/
The management of this section of About.com has been changed and the poll data
was removed.
"GOP debate reveals widespread ignorance of science, startling role of how
religion is affecting politics, culture," AANews newsletter, 2007-MAY-06.