The Creation / Evolution Debate

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Survey results and comments on this page appeared in prominent newspapers.

Evolution on it's way out ?

In a survey last month, more than 12% questioned preferred creationism - the idea God created us within the

past 10,000 years - to any other explanation of how we got here. Another 19% favoured the theory of intelligent

design - that some features of living things are due to a supernatural being such as God. This means more than

30% believe our origins have more to do with God than with Darwin - evolution theory rang true for only 56%.

Opinionpanel Research's survey of more than 1,000 students found a third of those who said they were Muslims

and more than a quarter of those who said they were Christians supported creationism. Nearly a third of Christians

and 10% of those with no particular religion favoured intelligent design. Women were more likely to choose spiritual

explanations: less than half chose evolution, with 14% preferring creationism and 22% intelligent design.

While three years of learning how to weigh evidence appears to make students slightly more inclined towards

evolution, with 57% of third-years choosing it compared with 54% of first-years, it does not appear to put them off

belief in God. As many third-years as first-years believed in creationism, although slightly fewer supported intelli-

gent design.

The Guardian....Tuesday August 15, 2006

Survey results taken recently show little shift in the opinions of the American public, with creationists and

evolutionists each making up around 40 to 50% of the population. One example is given here and another is

given here.

Creationism does seem to be on the rise in the UK, according to a recent newspaper survey of UK students

and a BBC Survey of the general public

More than 30% of students in the UK say they believe in creationism and intelligent design.

Reports show the following:

Britons unconvinced on evolution

Just under half of Britons accept the theory of evolution as the best description for the development of

life, according to an opinion poll.

Furthermore, more than 40% of those questioned believe that creationism or intelligent design (ID) should be taught

in school science lessons.

Its latest programme, A War on Science, looks into the attempt to introduce ID into science classes in the US.

Over 2,000 participants took part in the survey, and were asked what best described their view of the origin and

development of life:

22% chose creationism

17% opted for intelligent design

48% selected evolution theory

and the rest did not know.