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Third of Americans, 48 percent of Republicans reject idea of evolution
A Pew Research Center survey released on Dec. 30 shows that six in 10 Americans agree that “humans and other living things have evolved over time.” And a third of Americans reject the idea of evolution, saying “humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.”
Pew, on its website, said those percentages are about the same as they were in 2009, the last time the center asked about evolution.
About half of those who expressed a belief in evolution said it is “due to natural processes such as natural selection” and 24 percent of those who expressed a belief in evolution say “a supreme being guided the evolution of living things for the purpose of creating humans and other life in the form it exists today.”
Evangelical Protestants were most likely to say humans have existed as they are now since the beginning of time and reject the idea of evolution.
By party affiliation, about 43 percent of Republicans and 67 percent of Democrats expressed a belief in evolution. The gap between partisan groups has grown since 2009 and Republicans are less inclined today than in 2009 to express a belief in evolution.
