28. Evidence for God – Polls Say People Don’t Believe in Evolution

The incessant
Drumbeat of Evolutionism
thunders throughout American culture.

A barrage of evolutionist propaganda bombards people daily from movies, television, books, newspapers, magazines. Government schools and private schools pound evolutionary propaganda into malleable minds and hearts all day long, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. How well is it working? How effective has it been?

Most communications media assume evolutionism is true and actively promulgate its message. Americans swim in an ocean of evolutionism. Despite the difficulty, many do keep their heads above the tsunami of evolutionary propaganda.

Ever since the 1925 Scopes Trial, evolutionists have dominated education, overwhelming universities and government schools with a flood of evolutionists. In the legal arena, evolutionists have enjoyed decades of victory, winning every court case against Creationism or Intelligent Design.

And yet, the evolutionists’ 150-year propaganda crusade to convince people of molecules-to-man evolution through random processes has not been very successful. After more than 150 years of indoctrination since Charles Darwin first proposed the theory of evolution in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, at least 40% of the public continues to reject evolutionism.

With everything stacked in favor of evolutionism, why does such a sizable segment of America still reject it? Why do so many Americans still disbelieve or doubt evolutionism despite all the evolutionary propaganda all this time?

Surveys Show Lack of Belief in Evolutionism

Part of the evolutionary propaganda is, “Everyone believes in evolution.” This is false.

A recent Pew Research Center Religion & Public Life Project study reported that 40% of the American public does not believe in human evolution.

The Pew Research Center conducted a representative survey of U.S. adults March 21 – April 8, 2013. Pew’s Public Views on Human Evolution report analyzing the survey results was published Dec 30, 2013.

Contemplating: Creation or Evolution?

According to the survey, only 60% of American adults agree that “humans and other living things have evolved over time.” But 33% of Americans believe “humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.” The remaining 7% were “Don’t know” answers. (Margin of error = +/-3 percentage points)

Of those who believe in evolution, about half think it is “due to natural processes such as natural selection” (which amounts to 32% of Americans overall). Most of the remaining believers in evolution think that “a supreme being guided the evolution of living things for the purpose of creating humans and other life in the form it exists today” (24% of Americans overall).

Thus according to the Pew Research Center survey, less than a third of Americans (32%) believe in godless naturalistic evolution. The remainder either believe that a Creator was involved (57%) or are unsure (11%).

According to the survey, evolution beliefs varied by gender, age, and education as indicated in the chart below. Men believe in the evolution of humans and animals more than women do. Younger adults believe in evolution more than older ones. Those with more education believe in evolution more than those with less education.

These demographic results suggest that the educational propagandists promulgating the theory of evolution have been partially effective with students. But as people go through life, they may become less convinced of the theory.

The Pew survey on human evolution beliefs consisted of a national sample of 1,983 adults, 18 years of age or older, from all 50 U.S. states and DC. Phone interviews in English and Spanish were conducted over landline and cell phones under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International. An additional survey of 2,023 adults included questions on animal evolution.

Many other surveys over the years have reported comparable results. The Gallup organization has polled Americans’ views on creation and evolution for 30 years. During history’s most intense period of evolutionary propagandizing in government schools, colleges, and the media, Creationism has remained far and away the most popular response. Over that period, the yearly percentage of Americans who said they believed God created humanity in its present form within the past 10,000 years ranged from 40% to 47%.

How many are evolutionists? How many are creationists?

The Gallup Poll in June 2012 reported:
46% of Americans believe in creationism,
32% believe in theistic evolution, and
15% believe in atheistic evolution.

The Pew Research Center conducted a nationwide Religious Landscape Survey of a representative sample of more than 35,000 adults from May 8 to August 13, 2007. This survey showed that 92% of adults believe in “God or a universal spirit.”
(See Religious Practice in America.)

After 150+ years of incessant evolutionary propagandizing, a sizable chunk of Americans (at least 40%) are still not buying into the evolutionary worldview. And a vast majority of Americans believe God was involved.

Why have so many Americans rejected naturalistic evolution despite the propaganda drumbeat? What is behind the failure of evolutionists to convince America?

Questions to Ponder

1. Before I tell you next week how I would answer this question,
   Why Don’t People Believe in Evolution?,
   think about it yourself. Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
   I will post my thoughts in a follow-up blog,
   29. Evidence for God – Why Don’t People Believe in Evolution?
2. Why do more men (65%) than women (55%) believe in evolution, according to the 2013 Pew Survey?

Share your thoughts on these questions in the comments below. It could encourage or help another reader.

Soli Deo Gloria.

This is the 28th article in the Evidence for God series that discusses the question,
“Is There Evidence for God?”
Read the prequels:
1. Evidence for God – Can You Answer a 6th-Grader?
2. Evidence for God – Design
3. Evidence for God – Experience
4. Evidence for God – Can You Prove God Exists?
5. Evidence for God – Design Is Best Argument for God – Simple
6. Evidence for God – Design Is Best Argument for God – Logical
7. Evidence for God – Design Is Best Argument for God – Biblical
8. Evidence for God – Design Is Best Argument for God – Old Testament
9. Evidence for God – Design Is Best Argument for God – New Testament
10. Evidence for God – Stephen King & the Argument from Design
11. Evidence for God – Astronomy Quiz
12. Evidence for God – Astronomy Quiz Answers 1
13. Evidence for God – Astronomy Quiz Answers 2
14. Evidence for God – Astronomy Quiz Answers 3
15. Evidence for God – Design Convinces Scientists 1 – Ben Franklin
16. Evidence for God – Design Convinces Scientists 2 – Isaac Newton
17. Evidence for God – Design Convinces Scientists 3 – Johann Kepler
18. Evidence for God – Design Convinces Scientists 4 – Robert Boyle
19. Evidence for God – Design Convinces Scientists 5 – Albert Einstein
20. Evidence for God – Design Convinces Scientists 6 – Fred Hoyle
21. Evidence for God – Design Convinces Scientists 7 – Harold Urey
22. Evidence for God – Design Convinces Scientists 8 – Charles Townes
23. Evidence for God – Design Convinces Scientists 9 – A. E. Wilder-Smith
24. Evidence for God – Design Convinces Scientists 10 – Robert Millikan
25. Evidence for God – Design Convinces Scientists 11 – Rick Smalley
26. Evidence for God – Paul Walker & the Argument from Design
27. Evidence for God – Design Convinces Scientists 12 – John Eccles

Read the sequel:
29. Evidence for God – Why Don’t People Believe in Evolution?

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:4)
Wednesday January 15, 2014 A.D.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. (Romans 1:18-23)