Creationism on rise

Hi, I'm new here. I was wondering if anybody has statistical data about the rise of the popularity of creationism say in States or anywhere else in a world during the last century.
Thanks

Gallup has several public surveys that address this question. You might be able to find the survey's referenced on various sites, or you can subscribe to gallup , and have access to all their polls.

Know Your Rights
{Fixed link. There had been a blank space in the middle - Adminnemooseus}The site is certainly not friendly to Christianity, but it acknowledges the rise in creationism, falsely blaming it on the notion that some want a theocracy in America. That's nonsense. Those good folks simply want to preserve the free exercise half of the first amendment.[This message has been edited by buzsaw, 03-19-2004][This message has been edited by Adminnemooseus, 03-20-2004]

---

The immeasurable present is forever consuming the eternal future and extending the infinite past. buz

If I am not mistaken we were talking about something like this recently... I can tell you right now the USA is MUCH more relgious then the UK...

It's more or less unheard of in Ireland. I've yet to meet an Irish creationist, whether over the net or in real life... I'd almost say that it's predominantly an American phenomenon.

Well, according to the Gallup polls, which that site misrepresented, there hasn't been any significant change since 1982. The numbers are available at several sites, including http://www.unl.edu/...courses/current/creation/evol-poll.htm and http://web.grcc.cc.mi.us/mseei/related_news_and_events.htm and the question was:

quote:

---

Which of the following statements comes closest to your views on the origin and development of human beings -- 1) Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process, 2) Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process, 3) God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so?

---

(sorry about the huge space coming up, it appears to be a board bug with tables):

	Humans developed, with God guiding	Humans developed, but God had no part in process	God created humans in present form	OTHER (vol.)/No opinion
2001 Feb 19-21	37%	12%	45%	6%
1999 Aug 24-26	40%	9%	47%	4%
1997 Nov 6-9	39%	10%	44%	7%
1993 Jun	35%	11%	47%	7%
1982	38%	9%	44%	9%

And in graphical format:
{Rescaled graphic, to restore page width to normal. Getting rid of the space before the table is beyond my knowledge - Adminnemooseus}From this I draw several conclusions:

1. A depressingly large number of Americans believe in recent special creation of humans.
2. The number of Americans that believe in some form of evolution of humans and millions of years of human development (that is, all those who picked one of the "Humans developed ..." choices) is consistently slightly (although probably not significantly) greater than the number of Americans who believe in no evolution of humans.
3. The numbers of Americans believing in one or another of the choices has not changed significantly since 1982.

IOW, there is no "rise of creationism" in the beliefs of the American public. Who's infringing free exercise of First Amendment rights? (Which rights, BTW, dod not include saying anything you want wherever you wish, e.g. teaching whatever you want in public schools).[This message has been edited by Adminnemooseus, 03-20-2004]

Being actually a college student, I usually ask most of my future colleagues and profesors what they truly believe about the origins of the universe. Profesors usually believe in theistic evolution except for a couple of atheist and christians present in the faculty who believe in complete evolution and young earth creationism respectively. Students mostly do not know what to believe. Here on my campus a lot of diferent organizations give out propaganda in favor of creationism, evolution end every other in between you can think of. This has left most of the students confused and usually end up believing in neither evolution nor creationism. With the ones i have talked to mostly say they dont give a shit about that. They say that their concern is today and whats gonna happen tomorrow. I agree with this in some way but the past has always shaped the form of the future and this is the importance in my opinion of this evo-creo debate

quote:

---

With the ones i have talked to mostly say they dont give a shit about that. They say that their concern is today and whats gonna happen tomorrow.

---

I guess you don't talk to science majors much, right?And isn't it also funny that using Evolutionary theory, you can successfully predict quite a few things that will happen "tomorrow".

It is also true that the more formal education (of any kind--not just science education) an American has, the less likely it is that they will believe that Creationism is valid.

quote:

---

It is also true that the more formal education (of any kind--not just science education) an American has, the less likely it is that they will believe that Creationism is valid.

---

While statistically speaking this is true, I'm starting to doubt that it is a causitive relationship.I think this was a topic in another thread somewhere, but I'll repeat something that I have seen happen. A number of well... I mean VERY WELL... educated and highly intelligent scientists I have known, suddenly departed from evolutionary theory to become hardcore creationists.It is true that their choice was based on emotions rather than facts (only later reading facts according to emotion), but it does suggest that education and intelligence may have little to do with evo-creo positions. After all they remained highly competent and highly paid scientists (one of them unbelievably in agricultural genetics: ie breeding) despite their unhinged approach to origins of speciation.It seems like maybe degree of intellectual honesty or a lack of emotional attachment to a specific theory, is the true deciding factor where people will come down on the issue. I'd like to think formal education helps start the ball rolling in that direction, but I'm not sure if that momentum ensures anyone from rolling into a gutter.

---

holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

[qs]It is also true that the more formal education (of any kind--not just science education) an American has, the less likely it is that they will believe that Creationism is valid.{/qsWhat do you expect with every public school student having evolution exclusively force fed into their minds from kindegarten through higher education?

Nonsense, to suggest that these intlligent scientists are foolish and naieve enough to operate on emotion in their scientific fields. They've simply considered the odds and said, "Impossible," and (forbid it) applied some common sense logic to their conclusion of origins.

Is this really what happens in US schools? Educated in the UK, I recall no teaching of evolution theory, but I was forced to read Genesis at primary school (4-11 years old).

.........And here our pilgrim forbears braved the dangerous ocean to be free beginning with Bible in schools. LOL. Now not so. No Genesis at all in public school and no Bible period. Kids get the old 150 million year old dino and ape to man tales force fed all the way.[This message has been edited by buzsaw, 03-20-2004]

quote:

---

They've simply considered the odds and said, "Impossible," and (forbid it) applied some common sense logic to their conclusion of origins.

---

No they did not buz. Interesting how you can speak for what they used to make a decision, seeing as I know them and you do not.You continue to master bearing false witness.

---

holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)