Updated 22 February 2010

IMAGE: The chart illustrates public acceptance of evolution in 34 countries in 2005.  The chart is courtesy of Jon D. Miller, et al. in Science

A study, investigating the belief of evolution in various countries, asked adults to respond “true” or “false” to the following statement: “‘Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals,’ [and] the percentage of respondents who believed this to be true is marked in blue; those who believed it to be false, in red; and those who were not sure, in yellow.”

According to the study, the acceptance of evolution is lower in the United States than in countries such as Japan, France, or Poland.  In fact, the United States ranks just above Turkey—a secular Muslim-majority country.

Certainly, in the United States, the Republican war on science or the politicization of science by certain Christianist groups, pundits, and politicians seems to have left the public divided. In fact, in the United States, this misinformation machine, and the use of patsies to distribute misinformation, has been immensely successful at thwarting everything from healthcare reform to energy reform and even legislation to tackle climate change.

Personally, I don’t understand what the hullabaloo is all about, because evolution is certainly observable, and theories are merely used to explain observations. Why would a religious person (i.e., a Christian or a Muslim) need creation science (which is a lie, because it’s clearly manufactured) or the slightly modified intelligent design, or any fabrication to make them feel comfortable about their existence, when there is objective science to help explain our existence?

Furthermore, surely species must adapt and evolve over time in order for life to survive, so if you’re a Christian who believes in evolution, then you’ve rationalized Christianity and evolution as being compatible, because it makes sense that a Creator God (or any creator deity) would use evolution as a mechanism to allow the continuation of life under a myriad of circumstances. From Jon D. Miller, et al./Science via RichardDawkins.net:

The concept of the evolution of humans from earlier forms of life is unacceptable to biblical literalists and causes concern even among some holders of less conservative religious views. Catholics and mainstream Protestants generally accept variations of a theological view known as theistic evolution, which views evolution as the means by which God brought about humans, as well as other organisms. Evolution is nonetheless problematic to some of these nonliteralist Christians, because it implies a more distant or less personal God (1—3). Efforts to insert “intelligent design” into school science curricula seek to retain the divine design of humans while remaining agnostic on earlier creationist beliefs in a young Earth and the coexistence of humans and dinosaurs (2, 4).

Beginning in 1985, national samples of U.S. adults have been asked whether the statement, “Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals,” is true or false, or whether the respondent is not sure or does not know. We compared the results of these surveys with survey data from nine European countries in 2002, surveys in 32 European countries in 2005, and a national survey in Japan in 2001 (5). Over the past 20 years, the percentage of U.S. adults accepting the idea of evolution has declined from 45% to 40% and the percentage of adults overtly rejecting evolution declined from 48% to 39%. The percentage of adults who were not sure about evolution increased from 7% in 1985 to 21% in 2005. After 20 years of public debate, the public appears to be divided evenly in terms of accepting or rejecting evolution, with about one in five adults still undecided or unaware of the issue. This pattern is consistent with a number of sporadic national newspaper surveys reported in recent years (6—10).

A dichotomous true-false question format tends to exaggerate the strength of both positions. In 1993 and 2003, national samples of American adults were asked about the same statement but were offered the choice of saying that the statement was “definitely true, probably true, probably false, definitely false,” or that they did not know or were uncertain. About a third of American adults firmly rejected evolution, and only 14% of adults thought that evolution is “definitely true.” Treating the “probably” and “not sure” categories as varying degrees of uncertainty, ~55% of American adults have held a tentative view about evolution for the last decade.

IMAGE: The graph illustrates the acceptance of evolution in six Muslim countries. According to Salman Hameed, “The data were gathered from 1996 and 2003, as part of a study of religious patterns in Muslim countries,” and “the number of participants for each country is given in parentheses.”

Just like certain Christianist groups in the United States, Islamists reject evolution as well. From Salman Hameed in Science (PDF):

[A]lthough the last couple of decades have seen an increasing confrontation over the teaching of evolution in the United States, the next major battle over evolution is likely to take place in the Muslim world (i.e., predominantly Islamic countries, as well as in countries where there are large Muslim populations). Relatively poor education standards, in combination with frequent misinformation about evolutionary ideas, make the Muslim world a fertile ground for rejection of the theory. In addition, there already exists a growing and highly influential Islamic creationist movement (1).

Biological evolution is still a relatively new concept for a majority of Muslims, and a serious debate over its religious compatibility has not yet taken place. It is likely that public opinion on this issue will be shaped in the next decade or so because of rising education levels in the Muslim world and the increasing importance of biological sciences.

.       .       .

Opposition to evolution is often not centered on any particular verse from the Koran, but rather on the social and cultural threat that the theory poses for Muslims. Adnan Oktar borrows his “science” heavily from the Institute for Creation Research and, more recently, from the Intelligent Design movement in the United States (2). His organization, based in Turkey, has produced antievolution documentaries, hundreds of pamphlets, and books and has made them available for download, free of cost, from his Web site (harunyahya.com). Because the idea of an ancient Earth is not controversial among Muslims, he is comfortable presenting biological creationism in a universe billions of years old. Instead, the focus of his opposition is on the social and cultural threat posed by evolution in the form of materialism and atheism.

According to a University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll, “Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals.” Furthermore, political affiliation is an important factor that illustrates whether or not—and how—an individual believes in evolution. From The Texas Tribune:

Democrats (28 percent) are less likely than Republicans (47 percent) to think that humans have always existed in their present form and more likely (21 percent to 7 percent) to think humans have developed over millions of years without God’s guidance. About the same percentages of Democrats and Republicans (40 and 36 percent, respectively) believe that evolution took place over time with God’s guidance. Democrat Bill White‘s voters were the most likely to believe in evolution without a divine hand (33 percent); on the Republican side, by comparison, only 6 percent of Rick Perry‘s supporters were in that category.

Has life on earth always existed in its present form? Republicans are more likely to agree (29 percent) than Democrats (16 percent). They’re less likely to believe that life evolved over time with no guidance from God (8 percent to 24 percent). Democrats are slightly less inclined to believe in evolution with a “guiding hand from God” (50 percent to 55 percent).

Republicans are less likely to believe that humans developed from earlier species of animals; 26 percent agree, while 60 percent disagree. Among Democrats in the survey, 46 percent agree that humans evolved from earlier species; 42 percent disagree. Perry’s voters were most hostile to this premise — 67 percent disagree.

About the same numbers of Democrats and Republicans — 43 percent — disagree with the idea that dinosaurs and humans lived on the planet at the same time. Republicans were slightly more likely to agree with the idea (31 percent to 27 percent). Perry had more voters in each group on the GOP side, but Kay Bailey Hutchison had the largest share of voters who believe in that coexistence.

Prindle says the results recall a line from comedian Lewis Black. “He did a standup routine a few years back in which he said that a significant proportion of the American people think that the ‘The Flintstones’ is a documentary,” Prindle says. “Turns out he was right. Thirty percent of Texans agree that humans and dinosaurs lived on the earth at the same time.”

More from The Guardian:

No matter how often they come up, the figures for creationism in the USA still boggle the mind. The latest poll noticed by the National Centre for Science Education, shows that among registered voters in Texas, 51% disagree that humans have evolved from earlier species of animal. Among Republicans, the figure rises to 60%. Low hanging fruit indeed.

The nearest comparable poll is a Gallup one, from 2008. This shows actually higher rates of creationism in the USA as a whole than in Texas, where the religious right is particularly powerful. But it is possible that the prominence of a “Don’t know” question in the Texas poll explains the discrepancy. I suspect myself that all these questions ought also to have a “Don’t care” axis and this suspicion is only confirmed by close study of the Gallup poll.

Two things jump out from that. The first is that creationists are less of a political force than their opponents. This at least was true in 2007, when Gallup asked whether a political candidate would attract more or less votes if they announced that they did not believe in evolution. The differences here between registered voters and all adults were trivial. I both case, more than half didn’t care; at least it would make no difference to their voting intentions (and in a follow-up question, 70% thought a candidate’s views on evolution quite irrelevant). But among those who did care, creationists were outnumbered two to one by evolutionists: 15% of the voters would be more likely to vote for a candidate who espoused creationism, and 29% less likely.

On the Net:

1. Fish Caught Evolving into Three Different Species
2. Darwin’s Finches are Evolving Again
3. “Instant” Evolution Seen in Darwin’s Finches, Study Says
4. Americans less likely to accept evolution than Europeans
5. Via Data360, Belief in Evolution By Country

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