Popularity of Evolution, Creationism, and Intelligent Design in American, 1993-2014

Despite this decline, trends hint that a small, fascinating change is happening among believers: Science and religion are seeming more compatible. If anything, Americans are only slightly less religious than they were a decade ago; today, 86 percent believe in God.

But people in the U.S. are pretty evenly split over how they interpret the relationship between their faith and the discoveries of science. In the survey, 46 percent of respondents said the theory of evolution is "consistent" with their religious beliefs; exactly 46 percent of respondents said just the opposite. This second group accounts for the creationism crowd; but everyone else seems willing to reconcile their beliefs about the nature of God with the nature of amoeboid development.

This is particularly interesting in the context of the poll's final question, which focused on the truthfulness of the Bible. Since 1976, Gallup has been asking people to say whether they think "the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word; the Bible is the inspired word of God but not everything in it should be taken literally; or the Bible is an ancient book of fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by man." In 2014, a new choice was added: "The Bible is the actual word of God, but multiple interpretations are possible."

When half the sample was asked to pick from among the three original answers, 28 percent said the Bible is the literal word of God, 47 percent said it was inspired by God, and 21 percent said it's just a bunch of stories. But when the new answer was introduced, the results changed significantly: 22 percent said it's the actual word of God, 28 said it was inspired by God, 18 percent said it's made up—and 28 percent said that while it may be literal, it can be interpreted in multiple ways.

There's room for ambiguity in faith these days, it seems. Science doesn't have to negate God; one man's Bible interpretation doesn't invalidate another's. As evolution gains more and more traction, it won't be a "loss" for religion; it will be just be one more change in how modern Americans are learning to believe.

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