Posted on 10/23/2009 8:18:13 PM PDT by john in springfield
After spending time on some of the recent discussions here at FR about Young Earth Creationism (YEC) and other points of view (which I will call Old Earth Creationism (OEC) and Naturalistic Evolution), I found myself wondering: how many FReepers (and how many Americans) hold each particular view?
Obviously, there aren't any statistics on FReepers. But there are on Americans as a whole, and on certain groups of Americans.
The best general resource I've found so far on people's viewpoints is located here. I will summarize some of those here.
(Note: This page uses slightly different terms for a couple of these viewpoints, but as far as I can tell, they mean the same thing.)
About 45% accept the Young Earth Creationist viewpoint, about 37% accept the Old Earth Creationist viewpoint, and around 12% to 14% accept the Naturalistic Evolution viewpoint.
This has held fairly steady over the past 25 years or so. The percentage who believe in NE may have increased slightly, but overall, the numbers have held fairly steady.
A CBS News poll gave a bit different percentages: YEC 55%, OEC 27%, NE 13%.
Observations:
There are a lot of people who believe in young earth creationism, and there are also a lot of people who believe in old earth creationism as well.
The vast majority of Americans believe in God.
The majority of Americans believe in evolution.
The numbers change significantly among the college-educated:
YEC: 25%
OEC: 54%
NE: 17%
It is interesting to me that most - a full 54% - college-educated Americans accept the Old-Earth Creationist (or theistic evolutionist) view.
Note also the effect that a college education seems to have: With a few exceptions, people who go to college don't stop believing in God. However, quite a few do seem to shift from YEC to OEC.
This graph also means that an awful lot of people who don't go to college believe in YEC rather than in either OEC or NE.
Note that while this poll is nearly 20 years old, based on what we know from some other polls, overall beliefs do not seem to have changed greatly during this time.
YEC: 5%
OEC: 40%
NE: 55%
Note: The word "scientist" seems to be very vague in this poll, which apparently includes a lot of people with professional degrees in fields completely unrelated to biology, geology, etc.
In any event, a majority of "scientists" don't seem to believe that God was involved in the development of life on earth. It's not a very large majority, though. "Scientists" are divided as to whether God was involved. Most of those who think He was believe that this involvement included the process of evolution.
However, given that only 5% of "scientists" support YEC, the under-1% figure may well be true. I just don't know. Nor do I have access to the original 1987 Newsweek article to see exactly how they got their information.
If there's another poll or two out there on this, it might be interesting to know about.
A 2007 Harris Poll showed the following percentages of Christians who accept the theory of evolution:
Catholics: 43%
Protestants: 30%
"Born-Again Christians": 16%
Finally, a 2005 CBS Poll stated that a full two thirds (67%) of Americans believe that it's possible for one to believe both in God and in evolution.
Its already resolved.
To date, each and every piece of physical evidence discovered on Earth demolishes the foolish idea of evolution, and that is in perfect agreement with God’s word, thus there is an ideal situation; the scientific method is affirmed by God’s word.
Now all we need is for the evos to stop wasting our time and money.
Is this another game?
What do you mean by “what were these creatures?”
They are God’s creation, as are all the still living creatures.
So you think the fossils represent extinct animals?
Certainly some represent extinct animals, IMO.
Obviously some of them represent many animals that are still reproducing in sufficient numbers that we recognize them. Then there are those that we once thought extinct but recently found otherwise (like the snail that lives along the shores of the Dead Sea that was once used to make blue dye for clothing).
Very impressive, AG! Are you still practicing?
If so, after reading this mush (What Pragmatism Is) I don't think I would call upon him for anything involving clear thinking and definitions.
What were all of these animals, and why did they completely die off?
He doesnt have to practice it, he knows it!
If you look around, you’ll see that all life is steadily dying off. Earth is headed for the judgment.
Many species were wiped out during the Genesis judgment; the majority of them being (unsurprisingly) marine life. That is what a massive eruption of super heated water and lava from below the Earth’s crust (the “fountains of the great deep”) will tend to do.
Its amazing how many people use the term ‘pragmatism’ as though it were just a benign descriptor. They can’t seem to grasp that it is the ugliest idea that has ever been put forth: “The ends justify the means.”
And it describes the promotion of evolution in the school room perfectly.
(don’t tell NL, he’s so busy being proud of himself)
So according to the hypothesis, in the judgment, God killed off something like 99.9% of the animals he made. And it is only the ones who made it into the ark that survived. The same goes for plant life too. Presumably all of the land vegetation that survives today was saved by Noah in the ark? Would you say this is accurate?
Why don’t you break down and read the Bible?
Then you could really know for yourself.
I was curious about something else that I could not find in Genesis. Where does oil come from?
I don’t know that any percentages are known or given and there would be no need to take plants aboard the Ark if they could regenerate but other than the fresh olive leaf brought back by the dove I think the bible is silent on the matter of plants and the Ark.
Well I think Noah would have had to have brought most of land vegetation onto the ark because they wouldnt survive being underwater for too long. There are many species of plant that will be too badly damaged after being submersed in H2O for extended period of time. Or maybe he just collected the seeds? That would have saved a lot of space.
From methane.
In Genesis 6:19-21, it is written: And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
Its the "every" that is bothering me. From the fossil record, it would seem that most animals were not on the ark at all. Am I missing something?
I am talking about the stuff they drill in Iraq and Texas. That comes from methane? Could you elaborate?
Seeds can float, and be carried by currents.
Obviously vegetation had begun to re-grow before the ark was opened.
Google it.
There are lots of papers on it.
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