The nation’s universities and the mainstream media may be promoting evolution, but a large percentage of Americans still isn’t buying it.
Forty percent of Americans say they believe “God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so,” according to a Gallup poll released July 26. It is an increase from 38 percent in 2017, the last time Gallup asked the question.
Another 33 percent believe “human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process.”
Still another 22 percent – an all-time-high – believe “human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process.”
Americans’ answers differ greatly based on their religion and church attendance. Sixty-eight percent of Americans who attend church weekly say they believe that God created humans in the past 10,000 years. Among those who seldom or never attend church, only 27 percent pick that answer.
A Gallup online analysis said the findings “have not changed significantly from the last reading in 2017.”
Gallup has asked the question 14 times since its initial inclusion in 1982, when 44 percent said they believed God created humans in the past 10,000 years. That year, 38 percent believed in a God-guide evolution and 9 percent a God-less evolution.
Although the word “evolution” isn’t used in Gallup’s three choices for answers, the text describes the evolutionary process.
“As many as 47% and as few as 38% of Americans have taken a creationist view of human origins throughout Gallup’s 37-year trend,” Gallup’s online analysis said. “Likewise, between 31% and 40% of U.S. adults have attributed humans’ development to a combination of evolution and divine intervention over the same period.”
Gallup asked Americans, “Which of the following statements comes closest to your views on the origin and development of human beings.” The three options were rotated.
The survey was conducted June 3-16 among 1,015 adults.
Related:
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Israeli Schools Largely Avoid Teaching about Evolution
Science Ponders Beauty’s Poor Fit with Evolutionary Theory
Michael Foust is a freelance writer. Visit his blog, MichaelFoust.com.
Photo courtesy: Pixabay
