Survey Shows Vast Decrease in Belief in Creationsim

A survey conducted by the Centre of Science, Knowledge and Belief in Society, working out of Birmingham's Newman University, and YouGov, the public survey organization, revealed that a meager nine percent of Britons believe in Creationism . To compare, about 15 percent of Canadians believe in the Biblical version of evolution. These figures are much less compared to the United States. 38 percent of Americans put their trust in Creationism. The UK study was a component of a much bigger global project, named Science and Religion: Exploring the Spectrum. The latter gets its funds from the Templeton Religion Trust. Over 4,000 respondents contributed to the study.

Conversely, 71 percent of all UK respondents totally accept evolutionary theory. In Canada, 60 percent have implicit faith in science. The number is only 57 percent in the United States. The results show that in other countries other than the United States, science and religion are not fighting each other to the death. Non-American believers have found a method to accept science sans rejecting their faith. Americans, at least the conservative Christian ones, think that one must pick either science or religion when it came to their evolutionary worldview. Fern Elsdon-Baker, the principal investigator of the study said, “What these surprising findings highlight for the first time is that concerns about evolutionary science aren’t necessarily based solely on individuals’ religious identity.” Baker is also the Spectrum project director.

The study found that one in five British atheists and about one in three Canadian atheists remain dissatisfied with the present scientific theory of evolution. To be more specific, they are in agreeance that the “evolutionary processes cannot explain the existence of human consciousness.”

The survey generates a number of interesting facts. If one point is to be highlighted, then it is that science not be opposed to faith. Even religious people can find a way to accept the tangible evidence of scientific evolution. The problem with the United States, as many have pointed out, that there is a real effort to sabotage education in the sciences. These are done with a nod from those having political power. Scientific-minded Americans do not simply have to compete with the numerous evangelical churches and an abundantly funded Creationist movement, they also have a government which follows an apartheid policy with science education.

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