Friday, June 08, 2007
Reconciling Science and Religion
A USAToday/Gallup poll of 1,007 adults conducted June 1-3, finds that a majority of Americans, 53 percent, believe that evolution, the idea that human beings developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, is true. Some 44 percent of respondents find it false.
On the other hand, 66 percent of those same respondents say creationism, the idea that God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years is true. About 31 percent disagree.
Geoffrey Layman, a politics and religion expert at the University of Maryland cited by USAToday, says the contradictory poll results indicate people are trying to reconcile science and religion.
"They might believe the science, or they might see the science as hard to dismiss, and they don't necessarily take Genesis to be literal," he says. "But they do think that God played some role in directing this evolutionary process."
To put all this in perspective, it may be useful to keep in mind that 31 percent of the American people still believe George Bush is doing a good job in Iraq.
On the other hand, 66 percent of those same respondents say creationism, the idea that God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years is true. About 31 percent disagree.
Geoffrey Layman, a politics and religion expert at the University of Maryland cited by USAToday, says the contradictory poll results indicate people are trying to reconcile science and religion.
"They might believe the science, or they might see the science as hard to dismiss, and they don't necessarily take Genesis to be literal," he says. "But they do think that God played some role in directing this evolutionary process."
To put all this in perspective, it may be useful to keep in mind that 31 percent of the American people still believe George Bush is doing a good job in Iraq.
