1. Britons unconvinced on evolution

Comment #18960 by Dr_Robert on January 24, 2007 at 2:42 am

"Out of interest; does anyone in the UK know anyone who believes in creationism?"

I know of one person who totally rejects evolution, a Muslim (very hard work, with very strange discussions!)

However a totally unscientific 'poll' amongst my colleagues reveals interesting results.
I asked several people if they believed that God created the world, the plants and the animals and the bible was an accurate record of the event, four people replied in the affirmative. I then asked the same people if they accepted evolution as the way animals adapt over long periods of time to the environment the find themselves in. The answer was not surprisingly yes. I then ask how these two apparently contradictory positions can be reconciled. Needless to say that there were no coherent explanations.

I suppose the points I am trying to make are firstly, you have to be very careful as to how you ask the question, a slight change in emphasis or even asking the questions in a particular order can potentially skew the answers.

Secondly, in the UK this is a completely unimportant aspect of many people's lives. It's strange that when you start questioning people's beliefs, as I often do how flaky their beliefs really are. As soon as you start producing evidence of the stupidity of religious belief it is surprising how many people will admit to never even giving the issues a thought.

I have to agree with previous contributors, intelligent design is a concept that is virtually unknown over here, and just to pick up on a few other comments.
I don't think it is to do with education, intelligence or ignorance, at least I do not think there is necessarily a link.

The most educated nation in the world also has the highest proportion of believers, I assume they also have a comparable level of intelligence with the rest of the world, therefore I also assume their 'ignorance' is self inflicted. I myself never attended higher education, am of what I would consider average intelligence, but reject totally the idea of creationism.

When you consider how many people in the UK still believe that God is the creator of life, the universe and everything, I find it quite heartening that 48% of respondents reject the idea in favour of evolution. This would suggest that we are on the verge of pushing the God botherers into a minority. If as commented the survey is already out of date, and Richards book has had even the smallest of influence this may already be true. A cause for celebration!