Most Americans accept the theory of evolution and actually favor teaching evolution over creationism or intelligent design in public school science classes, according to a new study conducted by a coalition of scientific societies, including the National Academy of Sciences, National Science Teachers Associations and the American Institute of Biological Sciences.
This runs contrary to studies through the years, which showed Americans backing creationist accounts to the findings of evolutionary biology. But this new study, which surveyed 1,000 likely U.S. voters, gives new hope that maybe Americans are getting better at reconciling faith and science. Or maybe Americans always did prefer evolution and results depended more on how the question was worded than on actual beliefs, as the Skeptical Inquirer suggests in its July/August 2008 issue. (”Likely Voters Prefer Evolution over Creationism” by Greg Laden.)
The survey asked half the respondents whether they believed “all living things” evolved over time, of which 61 percent responded “yes.”
The other half of respondents were asked only whether “humans and other living things” evolved, to which 53 percent said “yes.”
Support for creationism was pretty tepid in this poll. Only 28 percent believed “all living things” were created in their present form, and 31 percent believed “humans and other living things” were created in their present form.
When it came to questions on who should teach science to the public, 88 percent said they want to learn science from a scientist, and specifically, 77 percent want to hear about evolution, creationism and intelligent design from a scientist.
Finally, the survey also found a link between scientific literacy and attitudes about teaching evolution versus creationism in public schools. Not surprisingly, the scientifically literate respondents – so identified because they answered all of the survey’s test science questions correctly – showed the most support for teaching evolution.
That just leaves me wondering: How many of those science questions would members of the Louisiana state legislature answer correctly?
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