Posted on 10/23/2005 12:06:32 AM PDT by GretchenM
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--A majority of adults support the biblical account of creation according to a new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll -- the latest in a series of polls reflecting Americans' tendency to reject secular evolution.
In the poll, 53 percent of adults say "God created human beings in their present form exactly the way the Bible describes it." Another 31 percent believe humans "evolved over millions of years from other forms of life and God guided" the process. Twelve percent say humans "have evolved over millions of years from other forms of life, but God has no part."
The poll of 1,005 adults, conducted Sept. 8-11 and posted on Gallup's website Oct. 13, is but the latest survey showing Americans tend to reject a strictly secular explanation for the existence of life:
-- A Harris poll of 1,000 adults in June found that 64 percent believe "human beings were created directly by God," 22 percent say humans "evolved from earlier species" and 10 percent believe humans "are so complex that they required a powerful force or intelligent being to help create them." In another question, only 38 percent say humans "developed from earlier species."
-- An NBC News poll of 800 adults in March found that 44 percent believe in a biblical six-day creation, 13 percent in a "divine presence" in creation and 33 percent in evolution.
"Nobody starts out as a Darwinian evolutionist," said William Dembski, professor of science and theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and the author of "The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions about Intelligent Design."
"You start out with a wonder of creation, thinking that there's something beyond it. And then it has to be explained to you why there really is no wonder behind it."
The Gallup poll was released amidst a trial in Harrisburg, Pa., over whether Intelligent Design can be taught in a Pennsylvania school district. Intelligent Design says that patterns in nature are best explained by pointing to a creator (that is, intelligence). Supporters of the theory of Darwinian evolution have opposed Intelligent Design, saying it is not science. Evolution teaches, in part, that humans evolved over millions of years from apes.
But despite the fact that public schools are teaching evolution as fact, Americans are not buying it. A November 2004 poll of 1,016 adults found that 35 percent said evolution was "just one of many theories and one that has not been well-supported by evidence." Thirty-five percent said evolution was "well-supported by evidence," while 28 percent didn't know enough about evolution to answer. In addition, a February 2001 poll of 1,016 adults found that 48 percent said the "theory of creationism" best explained the origin of human beings while 28 percent said the "theory of evolution" made the most sense.
Reflecting the argument Paul makes in Romans 1, Dembski said the "beauty" and the "extravagance" of creation -- the "beautiful sunsets, flowers and butterflies" -- points to the existence of a creator.
"Unless you're really indoctrinated into an atheistic mindset, I think [the beauty of creation] is going to keep tugging at our hearts and minds," he said.
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, called the Gallup poll findings "incredible" and said they should be "encouraging" to conservative Christians. ...
Said Dembski: "The secularized education system ... is not being executed as effectively as the secular elites would like. So that's something that we have to be thankful for -- that a lot of schools are not implementing it and forcing it down kids' throats. But it's still happening, and as far as it happens, the indoctrination can be quite effective."
For example, Dembski said, there is little public outcry over PBS programs such as "Nature" that are publicly funded and regularly present evolution as fact. Also, Americans themselves seem conflicted over what to believe. An August Gallup poll found that 58 percent said creationism was definitely or probably true and 55 percent said evolution was definitely or probably true -- meaning that many of those surveyed saw no conflict between creationism and evolution. And the Harris poll that found only 22 percent of adults believing humans evolved from earlier species also found that 46 percent believe apes and humans have a "common ancestry."
Americans, Dembski said, often try to take a middle road by believing God guided evolution. Nevertheless, he said, the poll numbers are promising for Intelligent Design proponents who are making their case in the public square.
"I think anybody who is on the God-had-something-to-do-with-it side -- whether it's through a direct act of creation or through some sort of evolution process -- is likely to give Intelligent Design a second look,” Dembski said. “We have a great pool of people that we can appeal to.
Darwin theorized that what may appear to be useless organs may eventually become useful. The implication would be that at some future time in human history, the appendix will be important. I guess time will tell.
Can you make a dollar too? I need more change:).
LOL!!!
From Darwin -
"Instances could be given of similar varieties being produced from the same species under external conditions of life as different as can well be conceived; and, on the other hand, of dissimilar varieties being produced under apparently the same external conditions. Again, innumerable instances are known to every naturalist, of species keeping true, or not varying at all, although living under the most opposite climates. Such considerations as these incline me to lay less weight on the direct action of the surrounding conditions, than on a tendency to vary, due to causes of which we are quite ignorant."
Even he admits there is a lot he doesn't understand and of course weakens his theory.
Thanks - will ping the list later.
The poll did not ask enough questions. There is also a significant number of people who do not believe in evolution but also may not believe in strict Biblical creation either. The religion of evolution has many secret non-believers!
Darwin theorized that what may appear to be useless organs may eventually become useful....
What about that little tail I have growing out?:)
Just keep it covered until you find a use for it!
I searched for a Biblical position on subatomic particles.
Sadly, the Bible doesn't support a unit of measurement below the cubit.
"Darwin theorized that what may appear to be useless organs may eventually become useful. The implication would be that at some future time in human history, the appendix will be important. I guess time will tell."
That isn't what Darwin or evolutionists in general mean when they speak of vestigial organs. A vestigial organ is one that isn't doing what it's original function was; it may have no detectable function now, but that isn't a requirement to be vestigial. The appendix can have a function now involving the immune system, but it's original function was the digestion of cellulose in ancestral organisms. Another obvious example are the wings of flightless birds. They no longer function for flight but have a use in balancing the bird and so on. They are still by Darwin's definition vestigial. Darwin specifically said that a vestigial organ can have a function now; it doesn't haven't to be useless at all.
Just keep it covered until you find a use for it!
Guess I can't hang around then:).
Amen!
A vestigial organ is one that isn't doing what it's original function was.
Aaaahhhh, finally a reason why I'm not as smart as I used to be. :)
I happen to believe that the answers, if we ever get any here in this life, will come from physicists and not geneticists. All the biologists can demonstrate absolutely is a kind of progressive interrelatedness of life. Then they draw all kinds of unjustified conclusions from that interrelatedness. The trouble with biologists is that they can't be satisfied with the useful thing they've accomplished, and want to play priest. But once you start thinking about time and Who masters it--none of the other stuff matters.
But once you start thinking about time and Who masters it--none of the other stuff matters.
You have good points. Yes, who masters it matters. The "how" of the process is something that nobody can explain fully.
Thanks.
Because, of course, truth is determined by polls...
Well, at least the creationists think it is, they keep turning to polls to "prove" that they must be right.
Scientists, on the other hand, think that truth is better determined by a careful examination of the vast amounts of evidence from the real world, and countless validation tests performed in every conceivable way in order to find out which explanations actually fit the facts and actually work when applied in reality.
Who's more likely to actually find truth?
It has been shown that people without the appendex have a much higher infection rate. So it is not as useless as we guessed.
Just because we do not understand something does not make it useless, it just makes the ameoba that invented it smarter than the evolutionist.
Imagine a flower "evolving" an appendage that matches the female parts of a bug that is not otherwise interested in the flower, when it does not have eyes to see the bug.
Now that takes faith...
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