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!
