The data on what Americans believe about evolution and creationism is disturbing, at least to me. This is going to be the topic of my next few blog posts and probably my next video. Gallup polls on the issue have collected some interesting, and not always easy-to-interpret, data. Here are just a few “teaser” points that I hope to explore more deeply in forthcoming posts:
About a third of Americans report they believe the Bible to be literally true word for word.
Another 47% believe that the Bible is inspired by the word of God.
Less than 20% believe that the Bible is a collection of ancient myths.
Around 40% of Americans believe that God created humans in their present form less than 10,000 years ago, and that evolution played no role in our development as a species.
Less than 20% of Americans believe that humans evolved from other life forms over millions of years without the input of God.
Nearly three quarters of Americans think that a presidential candidate’s views on evolution are irrelevant.
There is more, but I’ll save it for later.
The thing that surprised me the most about these Gallup statistics is that they haven’t changed much in the past thirty years. I am sure that I was not aware of the widespread rejection of evolution in the early 1980’s, but in 1982 only 9% of the population believed that humans evolved without the help of God, and 44% believed that God created humans in their present form less than 10,000 years ago. The fact that I had just earned my undergraduate degree in Biology in 1981 and started medical school that same year probably accounts for why I thought “everybody understands evolution”.
We might actually be inching towards a wider acceptance of evolution, but I wouldn’t suspect that based on the voices getting the most attention in the mainstream media.
Why is this important? I think understanding evolution reflects the overall level of education in a given society and thus their (our) ability to think rationally about all issues.
In upcoming posts and videos I’ll review a study that looked at the relationship between beliefs about creationism and measures of morality in various countries, including America.
References:
1. Evolution, Creationism, Intelligent Design – Gallup Polls
2. One-Third of Americans Believe Bible is Literally True
Monte