40% Of Americans, Majority Of Republicans, Reject Evolution

Doug Mataconis · · 43 comments

A new Gallup poll provides some fairly distressing news about the state of knowledge in America:

PRINCETON, NJ — Four in 10 Americans, slightly fewer today than in years past, believe God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago. Thirty-eight percent believe God guided a process by which humans developed over millions of years from less advanced life forms, while 16%, up slightly from years past, believe humans developed over millions of years, without God’s involvement. A small minority of Americans hold the “secular evolution” view that humans evolved with no influence from God — but the number has risen from 9% in 1982 to 16% today. At the same time, the 40% of Americans who hold the “creationist” view that God created humans as is 10,000 years ago is the lowest in Gallup’s history of asking this question, and down from a high point of 47% in 1993 and 1999. There has been little change over the years in the percentage holding the “theistic evolution” view that humans evolved under God’s guidance.

Along with the rather obvious differences in opinion on this subject that one might expect based on education and religion, there’s also a striking difference of opinion based on political affiliation:

That a plurality of Americans believe in fairy tales is distressing, that a majority of one of our political parties does is just insane.