ID.Plus

According to a survey of 1000 British students publicised by the Guardian newspaper: ‘more than 12% questioned preferred creationism… to any other explanation of how we got here. Another 19% favoured the theory of intelligent design…’[i] Overall then, a little over 31% of British students actively embrace an origins theory other than evolution. Moreover:

Opinion-panel Research’s survey of more than 1,000 students found a third of those who said they were Muslims and more than a quarter of those who said they were Christians supported creationism. Nearly a third of Christians and 10% of those with no particular religion [the latter is a particularly significant point of interest] favoured intelligent design. Women were more likely to choose [non-evolutionary] explanations: less than half chose evolution, with 14% preferring creationism and 22% intelligent design.[ii]

Despite the fact that 57% of third-year students support evolution compared with 54% of first-year students (whilst showing no change in their beliefs about God’s existence)[iii], these statistics mean that while British students are less likely (indeed, nearly half as likely) to endorse creationism than the British public in general (12% of students support creationism compared to 22% of respondents in a recent BBC survey), they are more likely to endorse intelligent design theory (19% of students support ID compared to 17% of respondents in the BBC survey). As in America, an increased level of education correlates with a decreased level of support for creationism and an increased level of support for ID.

# posted by Peter S. Williams @ 9:48 am