Nearly Two-thirds of U.S. Adults Believe Human Beings Were Created by God

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris%5Fpoll/

Nearly Two-thirds of U.S. Adults Believe Human Beings Were Created by God
Opinions are divided about evolution theories

Earlier this year, the State Board of Education in Kansas reignited an old debate – whether or not creationism should be taught in public schools – and shone the spotlight on a new theory, intelligent design. While many in the scientific community may question why this issue has been raised again, a new national survey shows that almost two-thirds of U.S. adults (64%) agree with the basic tenet of creationism, that "human beings were created directly by God."

.....

These are some of the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 1,000 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone by Harris Interactive® between June 17 and 21, 2005.

Other key findings include:

A majority of U.S. adults (54%) do not think human beings developed from earlier species, up from 46 percent in 1994.
Forty-nine percent of adults believe plants and animals have evolved from some other species while 45 percent do not believe that.
Adults are evenly divided about whether or not apes and man have a common ancestry (46 percent believe we do and 47 percent believe we do not).
Again divided, 46 percent of adults agree that "Darwin’s theory of evolution is proven by fossil discoveries," while 48 percent disagree.
Factors such as age, education, political outlook, and region appear to guide views on this debate.

In general, older adults (those 55 years of age and older), adults without a college degree, Republicans, conservatives, and Southerners are more likely to embrace the creationism positions in the questions asked.
Those with a college education, Democrats, independents, liberals, adults aged 18 to 54 and those from the Northeast and West support the belief in evolution in larger numbers. However, among these groups, majorities believe in creationism.
Despite the significant numbers who believe in creationism, pluralities among the demographic subgroups examined still believe all three concepts (evolution, creationism, and intelligent design) should be taught in public schools.

<</SNIP>>

[Squatch]

1. Me, too.

God created humans through evolution.

[ICantBelieve]

6. It's good vs. evil

You believe people are inherently good. You believe God is nice. You believe that God wouldn't make it look like evolution in order to trick us.

You're such a liberal weinie!!!

BTW, I like your God a lot better than theirs. If there is a God, I certainly hope he's like you envision him and not like they do.

[Squatch]

12. The God I believe in is nothing but good

who allows evil to occur through the free will of men and women. He/She does not direct the actions of people, but upon their deaths, calls for them to attone for their actions.

And, I do believe that people are inherently "who they are" and become good/bad depending on their social situations.

I believe that God created this universe and gave it such complexity that mysteries of its creation and evolution will astound us for millenia. There is no simple explanation for why we're here or how we got here, certainly not an explanation that can be captured in a chapter of a 4000-year old book.

Anyways, I certainly hope and believe there is a God.

[manic expression]

41. "God" is not to blame for individual's actions

it is because people forget that "God" is within and around them and everything else in the world that injustice and wrongs occur. Also, people are held accountable to their actions through like reactions against themselves, because to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and no one can escape their own responsibility.

That's what I believe.

[BurtWorm]

28. That's not what they were asking.

They were asking if God created human beings as a separate species or are humans the descendants of other species. Maybe a majority of those who were asked misunderstood the question, too, and maybe that is why so many people are willing to cut "intelligent design" some slack.

[Liberal Veteran]

2. Hmm...and here I though mommy and daddy did a bad thing and....

....9 months later, I was born.

:shrug:

[ET Awful]

3. Interestingly enough, a simultaneous poll showed that nearly 2/3 of US

adults don't read or engage in independent thought.

[Double T]

21. Might be some kind of correlation, what do you think????

And then we wonder why bush is president.

[unhappycamper]

4. I prefer to get my science in school & religious teachings in church.

IMHO, mixing them makes no sense.

[InfoMinister]

22. I Agree

I'm a Christian and I don't believe religion needs to be taught in school. There is so much debate and so many denominations even within the Christian faith it wouldn't even work to begin with. Even if a Christian group succeeds in getting religion fully into schools with prayer and teachers discussing religion you'll have people arguing over baptisms and whether they're needed to get into heaven and all sorts of other crazy things. I know this for a fact since a lot of teachers I had tended to break the rules and start discussing their religious beliefs. That very debate came up during that class. It caused a wildfire to erupt in that classroom when she talked about baptisms. I'm pretty sure that after that she may have gotten some complaints from parents.

[trotsky]

5. Is it any wonder that Repukes get elected?

Ugh, I weep for my ignorant country.

[rainy]

7. Nature is my God, perfect in every way.

[Walt Starr]

8. No wonder we have a moron for president

we have precisely the government we deserve for our collective ignorance.

[InfoMinister]

23. Were The Founding Fathers Ignorant?

They were deists. They believed in a god.

[Walt Starr]

25. Actually, yes, they were ignorant

but their ignorance is understandable as they di not have access to the data and evidence we have today. they were not WILLFULLY ignorant.

This is not the case with a majority in this nation today.

We remain ignorant on many things today, but much af that ignorance is willful.

[InfoMinister]

29. So Clinton and Kerry Are Ignorant? Einstein?

Not to mention every single US president. Those people believed in a supreme being as well.

[SaintLouisBlues]

33. At least they claimed to believe. Can't get elected otherwise

This 66 percent dovetails with the percentage that believe in angels from a mind-boggling survey from a few years ago.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/459/909572.html

Survey: Vast majority of Americans believe in angels
Scripps Howard News Service
December 20, 2001 ANGL20



Americans overwhelmingly believe in the angels that heralded the birth of Jesus 2000 years ago and think they still walk the Earth in these modern days.

One out of every five Americans believes he or she has seen an angel or knows someone who has, according to survey of 1,127 adult residents of the United States conducted by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University.

Seventy-seven percent of adults in the poll answered "yes" to the question: "Do you believe angels, that is, some kind of heavenly beings who visit Earth, in fact exist?" Another 73 percent believe angels still "come into the world even in these modern days."

[sonicx]

35. Um, this poll is not about believing in God..

It's about evolution and creationism. Clinton and Kerry believe in evolution.

[jsw_81]

36. Clinton and Kerry are politicians

It would be political suicide for them to admit being skeptical of the various myths that the voting public holds so dear. I suspect that Bush (or at least his father) falls into this category as well. I can assure you that just as there are and have been many, many closeted gays in public office -- state legistlators, congressmen, even a governor or two -- there are also many closeted atheists.

As for Einstein, he didn't believe in an afterlife or anything even remotely resembling the god of the Bible. He merely made a few passing references to the mystery of the universe, references that were not surprisingly taken out of context following his death.

[dad]

38. Einstein was an atheist!!!!

So no, he was not IGNORANT!! Clinton and Kerry both could stand to smarten up though.

[Walt Starr]

40. Every human being on the face of the earth is ignorant

The difference is between willful ignorance in accepting the fact that humans evolved from other species and ignorance about things which you have no way of knowing the answer given current evidence.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

9. The beginning of the Death of the Age of Reason

And the return to the Divine Right of Kings. :eyes:

I need to get out of here.

[gollygee]

10. They're mis-using the results of this poll

if they wanted to know how many people wanted creationism taught in public schools, they should have asked, "Do you believe creationism should be taught in public schools." Not, "Do you believe god directly made human beings." Those are two very different questions and people might very well answer them differently.

[JHBowden]

11. Good point!

:think:

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. They also asked

"Regardless of what you may personally believe, which of these do you believe should be taught in public schools?"

Evolution only: "Evolution says that human beings evolved from earlier stages of animals." (12%)

Creationism only: "Creationism says that human beings were created directly by God." (23%)

Intelligent design only: "Intelligent design says that human beings are so complex that they required a powerful force or intelligent being to help create them." (4%)

All three (55%)

Neither (3%)

Not sure/Decline to answer (3%)

(I presume they take 'neither' to mean 'none of them')

[wtbymark]

13. How can they come up with 64% of americans

when they only polled 1,000 people, is the margin of error 100%? what a joke

[theboss]

14. I believe in God and Evolution

I have no problem thinking that there is a watchmaker God who put everything in place and then stood back to see what happened.

This issue is getting muddier everyday.

[rman]

15. where the heck does this "Two-thirds" come from?

at best i can see a little more then half *of those polled*.

i mean it's not like we don't know that polls can be selective.
and 1000 is really to small a sample to get a reliable result.

[nickine9]

16. if i remember correctly....

there was also a poll some time ago that showed a majority believed in alien abduction etc. If you assume that the creationists do not believe in alien abduction (although im not an expert in either field i dont recall little green, or grey, men in the bible), the two surveys combined represent 100% of the population.

So if between them the two surveys cover all the USA population which camp do you fall into?

[OxQQme]

20. I feel this will be rejected as hooey, but

also, I feel the need to open your collective head and pour some info in and allow y'all to chew on it and see for yerselves whether it is tasty.

http://www.rael.org/rael_content/rael_summary.php

<snip>
"We were the ones who designed all life on earth"
"You mistook us for gods"
"We were at the origin of your main religions"
"Now that you are mature enough to understand this,we would like to enter official contact through an embassy"


THE MESSAGES

The messages dictated to Rael explain that life on Earth is not the result of random evolution, nor the work of a supernatural 'God'. It is a deliberate creation, using DNA, by a scientifically advanced people who made human beings literally "in their image" -- what one can call "scientific creationism." References to these scientists and their work, as well as to their symbol of infinity, can be found in the ancient texts of many cultures. For example, in Genesis, the Biblical account of Creation, the word "Elohim" has been mistranslated as the singular word "God", but it is actually a plural word which means "those who came from the sky", and the singular is "Eloha" (also known as "Allah"). Indigenous cultures all over the world remember these "gods" who came from the sky, including natives of Africa (Dogon, Twa, etc.), America, Asia, Australia, and Europe.

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. Not so much 'info', more 'claims without evidence'

and in this debate, I'd like to see some evidence for what children get taught. Yes, it makes as much sense as claiming that the Christian god is doing the intelligent design; but neither claim has any evidence for it. You could also build up claims that all the earth gods the world has had are based on beings who live underground.

[ClintonTyree]

17. Wow....

until this final frontier of superstition is overcome we're doomed to live on a planet slowly decaying into oblivion. We keep relying on some heavenly father figure to keep everything in order. He must be napping.

[KittyWampus]

18. An Intelligent Thread Might Go On To Discuss What "God" Means

to those people.

God does not mean, to all people, an individual Being or even a collection of Beings.

[Mari333]

26. sigh. Yes, it is now a fact

that to be literate is to be in the minority in this country. No wonder Dimson is in power, he reminds people of their own stupidity.

[Deja Q]

27. And evolution is a part of creationism. Seriously.

All things evolve. Except for brainless fundy idiots, of course - but there is always the exception to the rule and they are it.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

30. A poll in the '70s showed 72% thought the Bill of Rights was

"Communist inspired" when it was read to them without identifying it as part of the Constitution.

[jsw_81]

39. How about the one about free speech?

Something like sixty percent of high school seniors felt that the government should be able to silence any and all dissent.

[porphyrian]

31. That's a meaningless statement.

The definition of "God" is vastly different for those claiming to believe this, and there is no concession given for the degree of belief in it.

[ComerPerro]

47. Well, and it also doesn't indicate what people believe

Maybe many of that group believes that God created the universe, and therefore created man by extension, but believe in big bang theory and everything science has suggested (and NOT intelligent design).

[ollie79]

32. Crazy

God told me to vote for the Chimperor. I was talking to some girl who is working temporarily in our office, and she said that my husband and I prayed about it and God told us to vote for the chimp.

Aggggh! The Chimp is out of control. He is a right wing monster on a power hungary grab! :grr:

[jsw_81]

34. I'm not at all surprised given the sorry state of science education

There are cities, towns, and even states where it's all but impossible for science teachers to even mention the word evolution -- a theory for which there are literally mountains of supporting evidence -- without facing something akin to a riot from the Bush-votin' fundamentalists who seem hell-bent on taking us back to the Dark Ages.

If you want to see an interesting poll result, consider the fact that our elite scientists (i.e., members of the National Academy of Science) are overwhelmingly atheists or agnostics. Yes, there was a recent and widely publicized poll that said that a majority of doctors were believers, but these top scientists are truly the best of the best. Their education goes FAR beyond the training that doctors receive. That our best scientists are almost unanimously non-believers while the masses -- most of whom can't even find Mexico on a globe-- cling to their simple "faith" really says a lot.

As for the whole "God made evolution" angle, keep in mind that evolution is an incredibly violent, brutal process that has resulted in literally oceans of blood being spilled over billions of years. The pain, suffering, and death that comes with evolution is just staggering to behold. I just can't swallow the idea that there is some sort of benevolent father figure controlling the whole process from some magic castle in the sky. Along with Richard Dawkins and the late Carl Sagan I think it's far more likely that we humans -- funny little apes who have been around for less than one percent of the earth's history -- just invented the various god/creator stories so we could avoid facing certain facts.

[darkism]

37. AEPAE

All Educated People Accept Evolution

And this story proves it!

[sintax]

42. Vice Versa- MAN created GOD

We need a return to the matrilineal.

The paranoid all knowing BIG GUY in the sky keeps the sheep in a state of fear. Get 'em on their knees at an early age and they'll believe anything no matter how preposterous.

Easier to control them that way.

[nolabels]

49. Without man who would care for God(s)

There might be lots of things I have never seen or ever will see but should that worry me?

America Growing More Secular

According to CUNY's definitive American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), the number of "Nonreligious" American adults more than doubled between 1990 and 2001 while the number of "Religious" and "Christians" declined. The "Nonreligious" are now the fastest growing segment of the population.
1990* 2001**
NONRELIGIOUS 8% (14.3 million) 14.3% (29.4 million)
Religious 90% 81%
Christian 86% 77%
Mormon/LDS 1.4% (2.5 million) 1.3% (2.8 million)
Jewish 1.8% (3.1 million) 1.3% (2.8 million)
Muslim/Islamic 0.3% (0.5 million) 0.5% (1.1 million)
Refused to reply 2.3% 5.4%

Regarding religious affiliation, the authors note

"Often lost admidst the mesmerizing tapestry of faith groups that comprise the American population is also a vast and growing population of those without faith. They adhere to no creed nor choose to affiliate with any religious community. These are the seculars, the unchurched, the people who profess no faith in any religion.

". . . the present survey has detected a wide and possibly growing swath of secularism among Americans. The magnitude and role of this large secular segment of the American population is frequently ignored by scholars and politicians alike."
(snip)
http://www.ffrf.org/timely/ARISsecular.php

[bribri16]

43. I am among the 2/3. Not ashamed to be either. But the God I serve

must not be the same as the God Bush claims.

Can someone explain the origin of man without God at the center?

[BurtWorm]

48. Yes. It's called evolution by natural selection.

Whether or not it was "God's plan" to "create" human beings, it is not necessary (or even helpful) to invoke God to explain how the human species came to be.

[GeekMonkey]

44. If there was a god, ignorance like this would be a distant memory

[Zhade]

45. I don't care what unproven myths people believe in...

...as long as they don't try to use those beliefs to legislate my life.

[ComerPerro]

46. 80% of six year olds believe in the Tooth Fairy

Why isn't the concept of a Tooth Fairy taught as part of a hygiene lesson in public schools for kindergartners and first graders?