Religion, or making peoples' jaws drop
I'm actually a rather God-fearing young man. My wedding was in church - the church in which I was baptised and spent my younger days squirming in ecstasies of tedium; I attended a long course of marital instruction at the Brompton Oratory (my own damn fault for marrying a left-footer I suppose); I am, in short, as rigorous a believer as you can be while putting 'C of E' on all your forms.
A 2005 poll by the Pew Research Center found that 42% believe that "humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time." Another 18% believe that "a supreme being guided the evolution of living things for the purpose of creating humans and other life in the form it exists today." Only 26% endorse the view that "humans and other living things have evolved due to natural processes such as natural selection."
Going back to PJ, what the fuck? I mean what the fucking fuck? Only 26% of Americans believe that human beings evolved? I hope that this is indicative more of the failings of polls than of America.
posted by Tim J at
11:40 am
2 Comments:
Some analysis has been done on these findings - and similar ones in the past - and it seems that people really don't understand the question. They will happily affirm a statement that directly contradicts a previous statement they have made.
We are constantly being informed that the majority of Americans don't believe in evolution in any form. This is ascribed to their religious fundamentalism. Poppycock. The vast majority of American Christians belong to churches that don't ascribe to creationism: Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists and even a goodly chunk of Baptists.
Dose of salt required.
That's a relief at least. I have to say that my reaction was one of alarmed disbelief.
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