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Americans Stubbornly Refuse to Accept Evolution
A survey in 32 European countries, Japan and the U.S. reveals that only people in Turkey are less likely than Americans to accept the theory of evolution as a fact. Religious fundamentalism, partisan politics and poor science education have contributed to Americans’ reluctance to accept evolution, according to John Miller of Michigan State University, who conducted the survey along with colleagues. Miller found that the percentage of people in the U.S. who accept the idea of evolution has dropped from 45 in 1985 to 40 last year.
At the other end of the scale, more than 80 percent of those surveyed in Iceland say they believe that evolution is fact. The percentage of adults in the United States who reject evolution outright has dropped from 48 to 39 over that period, but the percentage of Americans who are unsure about evolution has soared from 7 in 1985 to 21 last year.
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According to a report on the survey from the publication New Scientist, "the main opposition to evolution comes from fundamentalist Christians, who are much more abundant in the U.S. than in Europe.” Miller also found that nearly two-thirds of Americans don’t believe that more than half of human genes are common to chimpanzees. In fact, Miller said, humans and chimps share 99 percent of their genes.
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