11.07.05
An Evolutionist’s Evolution - New York Times
An Evolutionist’s Evolution - New York Times
According to a CBS News poll last month, 51 percent of Americans reject the theory of evolution, saying that God created humans in their present form. And reflecting a longstanding sentiment, 38 percent of Americans believe that creationism should be taught instead of evolution, according to an August poll by the Pew Research Center in Washington.
51% of Americans believe God created humans in their present form. Anyone have any idea what that statistic looks like outside of the U.S.?
Penelope said,
November 7, 2005 at 11:17
I would like to know (I’m not sure how to find it) if anyone knows what the statistic is for Christians the world over. It continues to amaze me that so many people find it so difficult to believe that God is smart enough to set up natural selection, tweaking it as he sees fit with all of the “acts of God” that are built into the process (random mutations (the basis of evolution), founders effect, the effect on the population of seemingly random events like a tsunami or earthquake wiping out a large chunk of the population, etc.).
How many Christians, worldwide, believe that God created humans (and everything else) just the way He wanted them, through a process of evolution by natural selection? I’d also like to know how many humans worldwide actually understand what evolution by natural selection is, as so few seem to. Has anyone asked these questions?
Rachel Robson said,
November 7, 2005 at 18:37
Ron: “Anyone have any idea what that statistic looks like outside of the U.S.?”
Europe–tiny minority, but, distressingly, growing. Mid-East–way more creationists than there are in the U.S.–even in “secular” Turkey, evolution is forbidden even at the college level. Russia–Darwinian evolution hasn’t been widely accepted since Stalin, but they don’t accept germ theory there either, so what can you expect? Australia–like Europe. Asia–sizable minority of creationists of some stripe, but that minority is shrinking by the day.
Christians worldwide: Dunno. But here in the good ol’ U.S. of A., members of denominations that accept evolution outnumber members of denominations that reject evolution (on Biblical grounds) 2:1. Of course, plenty of American Christians haven’t read the Bible, so you can hardly expect them to know their own faith’s position on evolution.
gina said,
November 8, 2005 at 13:16
RJ-
thanks for posting that statistic. all I have to say is WOW. I really want to make some comment about how stupid these people must be, but that seems like a waste of air. What’s scary is that their kids will grow up and become the policy-makers of our government.
tim rohrer said,
November 9, 2005 at 6:46
“… members of denominations that accept evolution outnumber members of denominations that reject evolution (on Biblical grounds) 2:1. Of course, plenty of American Christians haven’t read the Bible, so you can hardly expect them to know their own faith’s position on evolution.”
Surprisingly, people are quite good at believing contradictory things–especially when they cause them no appreciable harm. The brain’s a biological system; erroneous beliefs that cause little harm are tolerable to it. I think many people find it quite possible to believe in both Christianity and evolution–but the pollsters phrase the questions to lead the witness. (ask them about whether viruses or insects evolve and I’ll bet you’ll get different numbers).
Interestingly, that same poll did probe a tiny bit deeper, suggesting that only white evangelical Christians–ie the religious right–believe that you could NOT be BOTH a Christian and think that the theory of evolution is true. Somehow, that strikes me as a little wrong: surely some of us atheistic scientific types think the same thing. Personally, I don’t think this…but because cognitively speaking people believe in all kinds of crap, and they don’t need as much consistency in their beliefs to survive as either most scientists or most theologians think they do.
But yes, I do think that the 38% that believes that we should teach creationism in science class are dangerously off their collective rockers. After all, if there is no evolution, our antibiotics should continue to work forever, right? So we don’t need students to have a background in evolutionary theory to go to do disease research, pest management research, etc.? Perhaps we could pass a bill denying the fruits of such research to the religious right….
I think a better question is how many people care about this issue–many christians don’t–and when if ever the silent majority of them who don’t will tell the anti-evolutionists to shut up and get out of science class. I’m not holding my breath in Kansas–I suspect they’ll sacrifice many of their rural school districts. While certainly sad for the majority of kids therein who will be misled; ironically, I would bet that the repression of evolution in rural Kansas and elsewhere will probably produce at least two or three top-notch evolutionary biologists twenty-five years from now.