A 2001 Gallup Poll showed that 82% of the public believed that life developed from God-directed causes.
I am wondering why evolution has not received more acceptance, since it has been taught in public schools for more than half a century.
Religious concepts go deep with a lot of people. However, that does not mean that a lot of people have completely rejected science either. I've been able to find a balance as have many others.
You "forgot" to mention that a lot of those believe that God used evolution in order to do it.
I am wondering why evolution has not received more acceptance, since it has been taught in public schools for more than half a century.
Because creationists have lied about it so much that a) a lot of the public has fallen for the dishonest "disproofs" or "evidence against" evolution, b) the straw-man version of evolution presented by the creationists has been mistaken by many for the real thing (just read these threads for many examples) and thus this ridiculous cartoon-version of evolution has been rightly rejected as ridiculous, and c) creationists have been trying to drum up a false "scientific controversy" so much that a lot of the public believes that there must be one, so they're reserving judgment.
In short, it's because of the creationists' "Big Lie" campaign.
In countries where creationists have not embarked on such widespread propaganda campaigns, evolution has very widespread acceptance.
Also, contrary to your implication, evolution is really not taught all that often in American schools except as a passing mention, if at all. Most of the public really has no foundation for forming an informed opinion about evolution in the first place. Those that do ovewhelmingly accept the validity of evolution. A large majority of university students accept evolution, over 90% of scientists accept evolution, and over 99% of biologists accept evolution. The more people actually learn about evolution (and not the creationist straw-man version), the more they accept the truth of it.
And do you *really* want to try to imply that the popularity of an idea determines its truth? The majority of the world's population is *not* Christian, after all.