About Me

My photo
I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Four out of five Britons repudiate creationism.


By Ian Sample for The Guardian


Monday 2 March 2009


The east of England may be the most godless region of the UK, according to a "belief map" published by a theology thinktank today. Almost half of adults there believe the theory of evolution makes God obsolete, and more than 80% disagree with creationism and intelligent design, which propose that humans were created by God in the past 10,000 years, and that life owes its complexity to divine intervention.


The map was drawn up by the thinktank Theos following a survey of 2,060 people across the country who were chosen to be representative of the adult population. The survey, which was conducted to mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, found that nearly half of the British adult population could not name the country's greatest naturalist as the author of On the Origin of Species, the 1859 book that introduced evolution through natural selection to a sceptical Victorian society.



The poll also revealed some extraordinary views on more recent writings, with 5% of adults thinking Darwin wrote A Brief History of Time, a bestseller on the science of spacetime, which was written by the Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking and is widely regarded as the most popular science book never to be completed by its readers. A further 3% of those surveyed thought Darwin wrote The God Delusion, by the arch-atheist and Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins, while 1% thought Darwin was the author of The Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver. The study found only 15% of people knew that Darwin was a self-described agnostic towards the end of his life, with a fifth believing he was an atheist. Nearly half thought evolution challenged Christianity but said it was possible to believe in both.


The survey suggests there is a widespread lack of religious sentiment across Britain. National average figures revealed that less than a third of adults see evolution as part of God's plan, 89% dismiss intelligent design and 83% reject creationism as plausible explanations for the existence of human life. The survey reveals a relatively high proportion of people in London who believe in creationism. "Whereas the national average is 17% who believe that human beings were created by God in the last 10,000 years ... in London, that figure is 20%. That may well be due to the growth of Pentecostal churches in London, which are growing at an extraordinary rate," said Paul Woolley, director of Theos. According to the survey, Northern Ireland has the highest proportion of people who believe in intelligent design (16%) and creationism (25%). "The research clearly indicates there is a great deal of confusion about what people believe and why they believe it," said Woolley. "There are two lessons in particular that we can learn from Darwin. The first is that belief in God and evolution are compatible. Secondly, in a time when debates about evolution and religious belief can be aggressive and polarised, Charles Darwin remains an example of how to disagree without being disagreeable," he added.


[Interesting – though I find it rather disturbing that as many as 17% of Britons still believe that humanity is less than 10,000 years old.]

5 comments:

dbackdad said...

Just be happy that the UK as a whole has a clue. I'm scared to even think what our numbers over here are.

Laughing Boy said...

...nearly half of the British adult population could not name the country's greatest naturalist as the author of On the Origin of Species...

Was this the same half that thought evolution made God obsolete?

The research clearly indicates there is a great deal of confusion about what people believe and why they believe it.

This is true, it seems, of people on either side of the issue.

CyberKitten said...

dbackdad said: Just be happy that the UK as a whole has a clue. I'm scared to even think what our numbers over here are.

Makes two of us! Thank God for the Atlantic ocean [laughs]

LB said: Was this the same half that thought evolution made God obsolete?

Quite possibly [grin]

LB said: This is true, it seems, of people on either side of the issue.

Ignorance abounds it seems. But at least most people seemingly accept the fact that both the Earth and humanity have been around much longer than 10K years so they have a tighter grip on reality that the other 17%.

Maybe we just need to 'up our game' a bit in Science class? That might whittle down the 17% to a more reasonable figure.

Foilwoman said...

At least in the U.K. the majority of people do reject creationism. I live in the U.S., and those same people get elected to high office -- and perhaps not-too-coincidentall belief in crap like "soulmates".

CyberKitten said...

FW said: I live in the U.S., and those same people get elected to high office -- and perhaps not-too-coincidentall belief in crap like "soulmates".

Hey, FW. How's things?

Religion is a really big deal 'over there' isn't it? If a politician here said s/he was a creationist s/he'd pretty much be unelectable!

I used to believe in 'soulmates' too.... The crap you believe as a teenager..... [rotflmao] Thankfully now I'm much more realistic and pragmatic!