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Poll shows Canadians divided on role God played in human creation
Canadian Catholic News ^ | 07/18/2007 | Deborah Gyapong

Posted on 07/18/2007 8:12:18 PM PDT by SirLinksalot

Canadian Catholic News

OTTAWA, Canada (CCN) – A recent Canadian Press-Decima Research Poll shows Canadians are divided on the role God played – or did not play – in the creation of humans.

But that does not mean the Intelligent Design controversy raging in the United States will come to Canada.

According to the poll released July 3, 26 percent of Canadians believe “that God created human beings pretty much in their present form within the last 10,000 years or so,” while 34 percent said “human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided the process.” Another 29 percent say God “played no part.”

“These results reflect an essential Canadian tendency: we are pretty secular but pretty hesitant to embrace atheism,” said Decima Chief Executive Officer Bruce Anderson. “Our views on the role of science and spirituality lack consensus but these are not polarizing issues for the most part.”

Science journalist and author Denyse O’Leary, an expert on the Intelligent Design controversy, agrees the issues have not become politicized the way they have in the United States. “Canada is a much more secular country.”

“Recently some people have been making noises that the Intelligent Design controversy is going to be played out in Canada the same way as in the United States,” said O’Leary, author of By Design or By Chance: the Growing Controversy on the Origins of Life in the Universe. “That’s nonsense.”

American polling figures on similar questions show 20 percent more Americans than Canadians believe “God created man in his present form within the last 10,000 years or so,” O’Leary, a Catholic, pointed out.

She is more interested in the 29 percent of Canadians who answered “that God had not part in the creation or development of human beings.” In Quebec, that figure rises to 40 percent; among Bloc Quebecois supporters it shoots up to 51 percent.

But some poll figures may surprise those who assume Conservative voters would be more likely to hold religious views. The poll indicates that 31 percent of Conservatives believe God played no part, the same percentage as New Democratic Party (NDP) voters. Only 22 percent of Liberals agree, however.

O’Leary said those figures prove her contention that there is no “functional religious right” in Canada, nor do religious views dominate in any a particular mainstream political party. In the United States, Republicans are much more likely to be creationist or believers in some kind of intelligent design than are Democrats.

She also points to the much higher proportion of Catholics in Canada – about 43 percent according to the 2001 Census – and the existence of publicly-funded religious schools.

“We don’t have a government policy of aggressive secularization of the school system,” she said, noting that Americans would be astonished that Canadians in Ontario, for example, can direct their tax dollars to Catholic schools that can start the day with a “Hail Mary.”

About 77 percent of Canadians identify themselves as Christians, and an even higher number believe in some kind of God. Yet some of these people must also believe God played no role in the creation of human beings, if the Decima figures are accurate.

“There seems to be a fairly large group of Canadians who believe in a God who doesn’t do anything,” she said. “I think to some extent that’s what secularism is.”

There also seems to be a sizeable proportion of Canadians who hold the belief that God created human beings 10,000 years go. According to the poll, 29 percent of NDP and Conservative supporters support that belief, while 27 percent of Liberals do.

O’Leary pointed out the poll questions may “artificially inflate the number of people who supposedly think the earth is only 10,000 years old” – throwing them into the “young earth creationist” camp.

O’Leary said the poll questions make it difficult for a person “who thinks that God is very much hands on in human life to know how to respond,” because they don’t believe God is “merely guiding the process” but they reject the “young earth creationist” position.

Though the young earth position flies in the face of science, O’Leary points out there is scientific evidence for “a very small number of human ancestors.”

“There was never any large crowd of cave people,” she said, noting as far as Adam and Eve are concerned, there is not a “big clash” between the news coming from scientific organizations and the Bible.

O’Leary’s latest investigation concerns the nature of the human soul. Her latest book, co-authored with Montreal neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, is The Spiritual Brain: A neuroscientist’s case for the existence of the soul (Harper 2007). It will be released in August.

She notes that starting about 100,000 years ago, people started bury their dead “in a fetal position” with gifts. “I tend to think that while just exactly what happened is a mystery, that’s the point at which you actually start to get human beings.”

“Benedict XVI has been fairly outspoken about our not being some random product of evolution,” she said.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: atheismandstate; canadian; catholic; creation; crevo; god; godisdead; religiousintolerance; whereisyourgodnow

1 posted on 07/18/2007 8:12:22 PM PDT by SirLinksalot
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To: SirLinksalot

YEC - read later


2 posted on 07/18/2007 8:14:52 PM PDT by LiteKeeper (Beware the secularization of America; the Islamization of Eurabia)
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To: SirLinksalot
A recent Canadian Press-Decima Research Poll shows Canadians are divided on the role God played – or did not play – in the creation of humans.

Odd story. "Dog bites man!"

What would be the alternative to Canadians being "divided" on the role God played or did not play in the creation of humans? "Canadians all agree monolithically on the role God played in the creation of humans"? Now THAT would be an interesting story....

3 posted on 07/18/2007 8:16:19 PM PDT by Dr. Frank fan
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To: SirLinksalot

I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight until the Canadians sort this one out ...


4 posted on 07/18/2007 8:17:42 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Progressives like to keep doing the things that didn't work in the past.)
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To: Dr. Frank fan

Recent Poll shows Canadian journalists undivided on their opinion that there is no God and that all religion is bunk.


5 posted on 07/18/2007 8:20:52 PM PDT by CanaGuy (Canada the Great)
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To: SirLinksalot

Well, then I guess Canadians are like everyone else...


6 posted on 07/18/2007 8:22:28 PM PDT by americanophile
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Comment #7 Removed by Moderator

To: SirLinksalot
Though the young earth position flies in the face of science, O’Leary points out there is scientific evidence for “a very small number of human ancestors.”

Go back far enough and you will see a series of bottlenecks, with founders effects and lots of other limitations. A very small number of human ancestors is no surprise because the side branches are extinct! Duh!

Old earth and no Adam and Eve. Sounds about right.

8 posted on 07/18/2007 8:38:43 PM PDT by Coyoteman (Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.)
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To: SirLinksalot

That was a pointless poll... I guess Canada much be a real boring place.


9 posted on 07/18/2007 8:39:22 PM PDT by chaos_5 (Put the illegals on a path ... back to Mexico!)
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To: CanaGuy
After so many years if liberalism Canadians have become Godless sniveling morons.
10 posted on 07/18/2007 8:40:50 PM PDT by mimaw
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To: SirLinksalot
"Canadians divided on role God played in human creation"

Fortunately for Canadians not sure about whether or not God created them, He knows and loves them anyway and awaits for them to honor Him.

11 posted on 07/18/2007 8:42:16 PM PDT by zerosix (Native Sunflower)
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To: SirLinksalot

Canadians have become a foolish people. This is just one of the many tidbits of evidence to that effect.


12 posted on 07/18/2007 8:53:20 PM PDT by SConservative
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To: SirLinksalot

If a person believes in “a” God, and (s)he does not believe that the universe is the creation of God, did God evolve from the cosmic dust too? Or was God a byproduct of “the big bang” and if so how sure could we be that only “one God” sprang forth from that event?


13 posted on 07/18/2007 9:35:21 PM PDT by weegee (If the Fairness Doctrine is imposed on USA who will CNN news get to read the conservative rebuttal)
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To: SirLinksalot
throwing them into the “young earth creationist

By placing one's attention on God, The Creator of All - the emphasis given to 'young earth/old earth' will wane for it's, merely, a deceptive practice to battle God's Word.
14 posted on 07/18/2007 9:39:10 PM PDT by presently no screen name
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To: SirLinksalot
According to the poll released July 3, 26 percent of Canadians believe “that God created human beings pretty much in their present form within the last 10,000 years or so,” while 34 percent said “human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided the process.” Another 29 percent say God “played no part.”

These were the same options given in a poll in the US.

Who came up those stupid options?!?

None of the options represent orthodox Christian thinking.

15 posted on 07/19/2007 6:15:41 AM PDT by JohnnyZ (Romney : "not really trying to define what is technically amnesty. I'll let the lawyers decide.")
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To: weegee
If a person believes in “a” God, and (s)he does not believe that the universe is the creation of God, did God evolve from the cosmic dust too? Or was God a byproduct of “the big bang” and if so how sure could we be that only “one God” sprang forth from that event?

Let's define "God" first.

Here is how my dictionary defines Him :

"the supernatural being conceived as the perfect, eternal,omnipotent and omniscient originator and ruler of the universe and all things; the object of worship in monotheistic religions"

So, to say that you believe in God and say that (s)He did not create the universe is to redefine the word "God". Which is to say in Christian parlance -- you are creating God in your image.
16 posted on 07/19/2007 7:04:10 AM PDT by SirLinksalot
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To: mimaw

THank you so much for saying that, so that I, for once, did not have to. But I was ready!!


17 posted on 07/19/2007 8:21:04 AM PDT by twonie (Keep your guns - and stockpile ammo.)
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To: SirLinksalot
Francis S Collins, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
18 posted on 07/19/2007 9:07:24 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: Dr. Frank fan
Canadians are going to heaven like every one else. Now, the ones that aren’t are evil son of a bitches and they tell me that they like hell because it reminds them of Florida. I say to them, “Isn’t it a lot warmer in hell than Florida?” And they say to me, “Yes, but you don’t have to put up with the mosquitoes.” Well, that about says it with the Canadian mentality who are going to hell. They find out about hell from the socialists who are liars because some of the biggest mosquitoes go to hell (even according to David Suzuki). Now, I say you guys know you’re evil SOB so why worry about the bugs? And they say, “bugs are not like Bush.” So I say, “Have a pleasant trip you morons.” And they go are eaten up and look like Saddam on a good day when he is wearing a shirt so he can hide the bug bites... serves them right.
19 posted on 07/19/2007 10:26:51 PM PDT by Blind Eye Jones
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