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June 1st, 2012
03:46 PM ET
Survey: Nearly half of Americans subscribe to creationist view of human originsBy Dan Merica, CNN (CNN) - Forty-six percent of Americans believe that God created humans in their present form at one point within the past 10,000 years, according to a survey released by Gallup on Friday. That number has remained unchanged for the past 30 years, since 1982, when Gallup first asked the question on creationism versus evolution. Thirty years ago, 44% of the people who responded said they believed that God created humans as we know them today - only a 2-point difference from 2012. "Despite the many changes that have taken place in American society and culture over the past 30 years, including new discoveries in biological and social science, there has been virtually no sustained change in Americans' views of the origin of the human species since 1982," wrote Gallup's Frank Newport. "All in all, there is no evidence in this trend of a substantial movement toward a secular viewpoint on human origins." The second most common view is that humans evolved with God's guidance - a view held by 32% of respondents. The view that humans evolved with no guidance from God was held by 15% of respondents. Survey: U.S. Protestant pastors reject evolution, split on Earth's age Not surprisingly, more religious Americans are more likely to be creationists. Nearly 70% of respondents who attend church every week said that God created humans in their present form, compared with 25% of people who seldom or never attend church. Among the seldom church-goers, 38% believe that humans evolved with no guidance from God. The numbers also showed a tendency to follow party lines, with nearly 60% of Republicans identifying as creationists, while 41% of Democrats hold the same beliefs. Republicans also seem to be more black-and-white about their beliefs, with only 5% responding that humans evolved with some help from God. That number is much lower than the 19% of both independents and Democrats. According to Newport, a belief in creationism is bucking the majority opinion in the scientific community - that humans evolved over millions of years. "It would be hard to dispute that most scientists who study humans agree that the species evolved over millions of years, and that relatively few scientists believe that humans began in their current form only 10,000 years ago without the benefit of evolution," writes Newport. "Thus, almost half of Americans today hold a belief ... that is at odds with the preponderance of the scientific literature." The USA Today/Gallup telephone poll was conducted May 10-13 with a random sample of 1,012 American adults. The sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points. |
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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This survey is a good reason to reconsider poll tests.
What kills me is that the same people that believe this are constantly complaining about how American kids are falling behind in science because of the liberal self esteem movement... yeah, that's the problem. Not a culture that tells its children science is a satanic liberal deception.
Welcome to America, where we rank 25th in math and 21th in science out of 36 countries(2010 survey) Even if I use the wrong survey i know we rank middle to bottom in math and science. However America have a plan to counter this, I heard that Christianity is growing in China, soon China will be as dumb as us. Now all we need to do is implant Christianity in all those country and we can be number 1 again.
If you think the Creation myth is meant to be read literally, then you do not understand the nature or power of myth. I reccommend reading Joseph Campbell, one of the best researchers and writers on the subject of mythology.
people who make creationism use it to fight evolution. It was never a myth, but religion people trying to counter-act evolution, but evolution destroy the bible. Creationism was recently make less than a decade ago, and was try to be force into school. There was a whole supreme court cast about it and therefore ban from school. However I am not sure if the bible state's school are secretly teaching creationism in their school, but creationism is not a myth, but some crazy idea make by religion.
To Etalan – I don't think you understand the concept of a myth. Read Joseph Campbell's "The Power of Myth" it is very enlightening.
Wow... How depressing that such a high number subscribe to that nonsense.
That's right. You believe in evolution so it must be right. How can anyone disagree with you? Wah wah wah!
Roab has not heard of science or evidence? Shocking.
@Roab
Of course evolution is right. We have the evidence to back it up. Much unlike creationists that make up stuff to create and continue their farce.
You'll have to ask yourself – what has intelligent design actually discovered as of late to really get to the bottom of how foolish your creationism is.
"Of course evolution is right. We have the evidence to back it up. Much unlike creationists that make up stuff to create and continue their farce. You'll have to ask yourself – what has intelligent design actually discovered as of late to really get to the bottom of how foolish your creationism is."
Firstly, there is no evidence for evolution (macroevolution that is). And actually, we are discovering things that show irreducible complexity, i.e., things that couldn't have evolved piece by piece such as the blood clotting system.
Roab – we PROVE evolution daily. now whether or not you believe we evolved from earlier primates is your choice. But it is a fact we evolved from SOMETHING. evolution happens daily to every species
My how stupid. They vote Republican too.
I wonder how many of these people know that a catholic priest was the origin of the Big Bang theory and the pope accepted it, meaning, the universe could not be less than 10k years old. Although I've heard that more catholics accept evolution.
Most Catholics are more sane than the backwoods American protestant crazies
as an atheism, i think we are a christian country, even is we suppose to be a religion-free, and i think christian create creationism or i can be wrong, it hard to tell the different between those religion.
Well, I'm very skeptical of the idea that we evolved from lower life forms, no matter what the science says.
But on the other hand, I have no problem believing in bleeding statues, and I'm sure that image I saw in some tree bark is a vision from God.
It's hard to see sarcasm on the internet but yours... I can see it. Well played.
Wow, now we know for sure that 46% of people in the U.S. are retarded. LOL.
That's like saying 48% of Americans are Taliban.
Bear in mind this 46% of Americans not only rejects evolution, but thinks the world itself is 10,000 years old or less. That's denying more than just Darwin, but geology, astronomy, thermodynamics...I just can't understand how those pagan Chinese are pulling ahead of us Godly Americans.
To me, this shows the sorry state America is in. The only logical explanation is the scientific one, that humans evolved over millions of years from lesser life forms. The amount of scientific evidence for this is staggering. On a personal note, I also do not believe in any deity, let alone that one in particular has guided evolution throughout the years. In fact, believing that God guides evolution is sort of contradictory to natural selection, evolution's main mechanism.
Josh, its just more evidence of the decline of America towards an Idiocracy. how sad.
Well said Josh, but the "missing link" hasn't been found. Yes, we evolve as a species, that is clear, but our true origin is still a mystery.
I always thought a good scientist does not believe in absolutes, doenst believe in difinitive answeres, believer in definite conclusions, but is always open to new ideas, new possibility, and the idea that our entire outlook on life be completely shattered by new findingss. Apparently Evolution is the exception to that scientific ethic. We can challange every known "fact" and be open to new ideas except the new idea of evolution not being true. Not even on the table of up for discussion. Fascinating.
Well it might be on the table for discussion if some other theory could better explain the existing evidence. Creationism, unfortunately, does no such thing
You're wrong. It has simply withstood the "challenges" and the "questions" .
On the other hand, creationists will never be satisfied with any answer that science gives that contradicts their dogma.
Science has no agenda. It goes where the evidence takes it.
In Creationism, the effort is to find evidence that point to the desired result.
Facinating.
Are believers open to the possibility that all gods are man made and none really exist ?
Well written argument Rev. but it does not sway me. It actually saddens me that someone who is clearly intelligent, can be so wrong. I've studied the origin and "evolution" of religion, and its clear its just a tool used by those in power to control populations. Also, the story of Jesus Christ is seen in MULTIPLE societies religious myth structures before Christianity burst onto the scene. The Council of Niza created Christianity to unite its pagan worshipping people. You are a misguided soul Rev, please see the light and use your natural instincts to do good in another forum.
Hope this reply goes to the right person this time: You expect people to act as if creationism is a new concept that science won't consider? There aren't words for this level of illogical, irrational, ridiculous thinking...You'll say anything to defend your stance, won't you? This kind of desperate clinging to ignorance is what's truly sad. How about religion considers something newer than bronze age thinking once in a while, huh?
Evolution and creation are on the table, but facts HIGHLY support evolution. No facts support creation. And the 10k year theory died long, long ago. Is it possble humans were created? Sure it is, but the evidence suggests it's more likely that if we are created, then GOD or GODS created the infrastructure. We have no evidence beyond myth that miracles exist. But we have not been able to create life, and we can't explain it scientifically. What lies beyond our universw, an endless void? That makes little sense to a scientist. There should be endless "universes" – our definition is this collection of stars created by the BBT. We've only seen the one.
All religion can be traced to the Sumerian tale of creation, which reads like a science fiction story. In that story, humans were created by an alien race, by mixing DNA from the aliens with a "monkey princess," as slaves to mine gold, a resource the aliens needed to save their home planet's atmosphere. Crazy, huh? So, the creationists are right in a way, but replace "supernatural white bearded man" with an "bald alien." ** Sumer, or what is now modern day Iraq, was the first civilization. They were called the Sumarians **
Are you trying to suggest that George Gershwin plagiarized "Summer-Time" ??
Starelder, you've been imbibing too many internet conspiracy theory websites. Zeitgeist has been refuted many times, so stop believing that crap.
well almost half the country are dumb and are below the average intelligence levels.. whats new there.. 🙂
PLEASE read "The Language of God".
I did and do, it's called the Bible. Francis Collins has a nice little prose also.
I wonder what portion of that 46% also believes that global warming is a hoax, that tax cuts cause revenue to rise, that Saddam had WMDs, that the American government was involved in 9/11 (or the Oklahoma City bombing), that someone other than Lee Oswald killed JFK, that the moon landing was fake, that President Obama was not born in Hawaii ...
The poll is more proof that we, as Americans, are getting dumber. No wonder the tea party gains such easy support.
can't believe it...that's a sad news
Is it any wonder American young people are falling so far behind even 3rd world countries in science? We are becoming the ignorant primitives, and the laughing stock of the industrialized/post-industrialized world. Our ignorance shows in our politics, our unwillingness to challenge corporate polluters...after all, Profit is more important than life since Jesus is returning soon and will take (only the Xtians) everyone straight to heaven. Who cares about equal rights or the right to have dominion over your own body? This is really sickening.
Wait, you expect people to act as if creationism is a new concept that science won't consider? There aren't words for this level of illogical, irrational, ridiculous thinking...You'll say anything to defend your stance, won't you? This kind of desperate clinging to ignorance is what's truly sad. How about religion considers something newer than bronze age thinking once in a while, huh?
Darnit, reply went to the wrong person
.......Get real Conservative Christians.............Where does it say that "A DAY IS BUT A 1000 YEARS".........and "GOD created man in hs own image"..............................That means GOD works not in our time frame, and that evolution is GOD's way to make man into his image. GOD also gave man a brain that separates us from the other animals on this Earth. USE IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I easily can believe GOD IS REAL, and that evolution is the way GOD has made us.
total, total fail
The lowly human psyche that can't tolerate the straight up facts that we aren't created. It's so funny watching these morons grovel and deny our ancestry. We are stardust. We were descendants of change – from single cellular organisms that evolved to be multi-cellular – to aquatic fish then to our primitive ape brethens. We aren't special in any way – we are just prolific in our survival.
1 day = 1k years x 7 days + 10k years still only equals 17k years. Why didn't he say 1 day is as 1billion years? Then it would be marginally more plausible.
Nice fairy tale... do you have any proof?