One-third of Americans reject evolution, survey
December 31, 2013 Leave a comment
Updated: Tuesday December 31, 2013 MYT 10:30:25 AM
One-third of Americans reject evolution, survey
NEW YORK: One-third of Americans reject the idea of evolution and Republicans have grown more sceptical about it, according to a poll released on Monday. Sixty percent of Americans say that “humans and other living things have evolved over time,” the telephone survey by the Pew Research Center’s Religion and Public Life Project showed (Click http://www.pewforum.org/2013/12/30/publics-views-on-human-evolution/ for the full survey).But 33% reject the idea of evolution, saying that “humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time,” Pew said in a statement.
Although this percentage remained steady since 2009, the last time Pew asked the question, there was a growing partisan gap on whether humans evolved.
“The gap is coming from the Republicans, where fewer are now saying that humans have evolved over time,” said Cary Funk, a Pew senior researcher who conducted the analysis.
The poll showed 43% of Republicans and 67% of Democrats say humans have evolved over time, compared with 54% and 64% respectively four years ago.
Among religious groups, white evangelical Protestants topped the list of those rejecting evolution, with 64% of those polled saying they believe humans have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.
“This has been a staple of evangelical Protestantism for nearly 100 years,” said Alan Lichtman, anAmerican University history professor and author of White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement.
A quarter of those surveyed told Pew that “a supreme being guided the evolution of living things.”
The survey of 1,983 adults in all 50 states was conducted from March 21 to April 8. The margin of error was 3 percentage points, meaning results could vary that much either way – Reuters.
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