Polls & Surveys on Creationism/Evolution

If you pay attention at all to the creationism/evolution struggle, then you know that (in the United States) there is a great group dedicated to furthering good science education while battling the attempts of creationists to push their extreme religious & pseudoscientific flummery into public schools.  That group is the National Center for Science Education, and now the NCSE has another tool to use in the fight.  NCSE has put together a great webpage which tracks polls & surveys on the issue…

Polling the creationism/evolution controversy

NCSE is pleased to announce a new section of its website that provides information on polls and surveys relevant to the creationism/evolution controversy. You’ve seen the alarming statistics:

• Evolution is accepted by 97% of scientists in the United States, but by only 61% of the public.
• Among thirty-two countries surveyed, the United States was next-to-last for its public acceptance of evolution.
• One out of eight high school biology teachers in the United States presents creationism as scientifically credible.

Now you can find it all in a single spot — NCSE’s coverage and links to external resources — organized in the categories of general polls, international polls, polls on creationism, polls on evolution, polls on religion, and scientist, student, and teacher polls.

Specifically, all of the polling & survey information is broken down and sorted into a variety of very convenient categories for your perusal…

General Polls are polls of the general public on a national or state level on evolution, creationism, or some combination of the two.

International Polls collects all polls from outside the United States

Polls on Creationism contains all polls relating to a supernatural origin of life

Polls on Evolution are polls looking at public perception, understanding, and acceptance of evolution and science

Polls on Religion look at opinions on the compatibility of science and religion, or perception of evolution by religion

Scientist Polls, Student Polls, and Teacher Polls look at polls of specific audiences.

So the next time you need to reference a poll when in the midst of a discussion of the creationism/evolution issue, you have a great resource.  In addition, I just want to give a general shout-out to the NCSE because they are, in my humble opinion, the go-to folks for dealing with creationists.  In fact, I encourage you to support them by becoming a member!