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| 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
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. 3 Some 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:
| Overview of evolution and creation science |
| 3 conflicting world views, and many individual belief systems |
| Beliefs held by various faith groups |
References used:
- Johnathan Moore, "What do Americans believe about the origin of species," Public Religion Project, 1998-OCT-12.
- George Bishop, "The Religious Worldview and American Beliefs about Human Origins" The Public Perspective, 1998-AUG.
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"Most Kansans for evolution: Majority polled think kids should study, be tested," Associated Press, 1999-NOV-9.
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News item in ReligionToday for 1999-DEC-29. They quoted the Conservative News Service. Original source of data was not specified.
- Newsweek magazine, 1987-JUN-29, Page 23.
- "What do you believe about creation or evolution?," Focus on the Family poll, at: http://www.focusonthefamily.org/
- "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.
- Frank Newport, "Evolution Beliefs," Gallup Organization, 2007-JUN-11, at: http://www.galluppoll.com/
Copyright © 1995 to 2008 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Originally published on 1995-NOV.
Last update: 2008-JAN-13
Author: B.A. Robinson
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