There’s a new Gallup Poll out regarding evolution. It’s nothing but bad news. The majority of Republicans reject evolution, preferring to believe that humanity and so on and so forth are the special creation of an invisible man who lives in the sky somewhere.
Republicans shouldn’t feel too bad though because as you can clearly see, 40% of Democrats and 36% of independents also prefer ‘magic man did it’. Of course, the report also shows there’s a clear connection between faith and ignorance with only 24% of weekly church attenders accepting evolution as the answer to “where did humanity come from”.
Those who answered in the negative were also asked what their primary reasons were for not accepting evolution as a valid explanation for the origins of humanity. Their responses:
Reason Percentage I believe in Jesus Christ 19 I believe in the almighty God, creator of Heaven and Earth 16 Due to my religion and faith 16 Not enough scientific evidence to prove otherwise 14 I believe in what I read in the Bible 12 I’m a Christian 9 I don’t believe humans come from beasts/monkeys 3 Other 5 No reason in particular 2 No opinion 3
So, the top reasons are religious and the seemingly secular reasons (no evidence, Monkeys!) are probably related to religion as it’s quite common to hear creationists state something along the lines of “how dare you call my grand pappy a monkey when you can’t prove beyond a shadow of doubt that the magic man didn’t do it!”.
Faith and ignorance - they’re going to kill us all one day.
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Magic man done it
Honestly though, this is really not good news at all. I would have hoped that the Democrats would have a far better showing than they do. I’m often asked why this is an important topic, “After all, it’s only a select few that believe in creation”. If only that were the case….
No real surprise on the numbers, but the poll response options themselves have some serious issues.
“I believe in the almighty God, creator of Heaven and Earth”
A non-religious person who rejects evolution and skims over this gem might just wonder why this box wasn’t pre-checked. It presupposes not only that there is a god, but a very specific one who is “the creator”. Leaving it blank would be an admission that you reject, gasp “THE god”.
“I don’t believe humans come from beasts/monkeys”
Does anyone? Surely this dusty old straw-man of evolution isn’t the reason some people still actively reject it. That it’s phrased in the present tense just makes it that much more ridiculous sounding. Who WOULDN’T tick that box?!
Then a handful of the other form-letter responses simply don’t answer the “reason why” question they pretended to in the first place. Then again having “No reason in particular” as a valid “reason” pretty much sums up the usefulness of the whole thing.
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