Faith and Darwin: Harmony, Conflict, or Confusion? A survey by Caroline Lawes Commissioned by Theos and conducted by ComRes
An amazing research paper on creationist beliefs, well worth a look. This is the Forward by Nick Spencer of Theos:-
The debate around Darwinism is dogged by uncertainty and confusion. How many people are evolutionists? How many creationists? How many advocates of Intelligent Design? What are the characteristics of each group? Is Intelligent Design a religious phenomenon? Are the majority of creationists Christians? Are they Muslims? Have they any religious affiliations? Do any of these groups have distinctive demographic, political or educational characteristics that might help us understand better the present intellectual landscape?
Research into these questions, at least in the UK, has been very limited. In January 2006, Ipsos/MORI asked the general public whether they believed in the “evolution theory”, the “creationism theory” or the “intelligent design theory”. Six months later OpinionPanel asked university students the same question.
Useful as such questions can be, they force respondents into distinct, pre-existing categories, assuming that everyone who ticks evolution or creationism or ID does so with the same degree of conviction and consistency.
The survey that forms the basis of this report is different. Commissioned by Theos and conducted by ComRes it asked over 2,000 UK respondents more than 25 questions: about Darwin, Darwinism, creationism, Intelligent Design, science, science education, purpose, design, God, prayer, humanity – and a range of other topics. The idea was to probe respondents from a number of different angles, exploring not only what they believed but how consistently they believed it and whether or not it correlated to other beliefs.
In particular, the survey focused on the perceived relationship between theistic belief and evolution. Were the two linked in people’s minds and, if so, in what way? Were they deemed compatible or incompatible, in tension or in harmony?
The results, which are précised in the Executive Summary and detailed in the body of the report, are interesting and, as one might expect, complex. The manner in which people engage with, adopt or reject evolution is varied, and people are not as consistent in their opinions as earlier single-question-based surveys had suggested.
Sizeable minorities were committed and coherent in their adherence to evolution, creationism or ID, but many more were uncertain and inclined to hedge their bets. The fact that people are more willing to state that a particular position is untrue rather than true, and more willing to designate a position as probable than definite, is telling.
Theos is grateful to the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion for its help in drafting and redrafting (and redrafting) the original questionnaire, and to ComRes for its participation in this process, for carrying out the research with typical professionalism and for conducting such a thorough analysis of the data.
It is worth noting that all the analysis within this report was conducted by Caroline Lawes and her colleagues at ComRes as it was deemed inappropriate for Theos, whose own advocacy of theistic evolution is well-known, to scrutinise the figures or draw conclusions from them.
We hope that the data and the analysis in this report will be of interest and use to those engaged in the debate, and that it will, in some small way, help to clear up the uncertainty and confusion that dogs discussion of evolution and creationism in the UK today.
Nick Spencer
Director of Studies, Theos
Atheists are always trying to lump intelligent design proponents into one homogeneous globule, but this research shows just how flawed that simplicity of thinking really is.
The below link will take you to the research, which is a pretty hefty PDF document. The executive summary (pages 11-19) give you a very good snapshot of the findings.
Rescuing Darwin – Faith and Darwin: Harmony, Conflict, or Confusion?
by Caroline Lawes PDF
Tags: Christianity
November 25th, 2009 at 5:25 am
Sproing!! There goes another irony meter…..
You said “Atheists are always trying to lump intelligent design proponents into one homogeneous globule, but this research shows just how flawed that simplicity of thinking really is.”
Within that single word ‘Atheists’ you include people who self-identify as atheist, agnostic, rationalist, secularist, humanist, secular humanist, freethinker, pantheist, irreligionist, infidel, skeptic, non-believer, – and probably many more.
Sigh.
Religionists are always trying to lump the rest of us into one homogeneous globule, but a little thought would show just just how flawed that simplicity of thinking really is.
November 25th, 2009 at 6:24 am
OK flippertie, that’s a fair criticism.