By JERRY COYNE - WHY EVOLUTION IS TRUE
Added: Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:12:24 UTC

A survey conducted by the Christian polling organization LifeWay Research, and released on January 9, shows that Protestant pastors as a group are not only antievolution, but pretty much split on how old the Earth is. 1,000 pastors were polled, randomly selected from a list of all Protestant churches. This means that there is a mixture of liberal and conservative faiths here.

And here are the depressing data (you can download a pdf or Powerpoint presentation of the results here):

• In response to the question “I believe God used evolution to create people,” here are the responses:

Only 12% strongly agree.

• Re Adam and Eve, the survey says

In response to the statement, “I believe Adam and Eve were literal people,” 74 percent strongly agree and 8 percent somewhat agree. Six percent somewhat disagree, 11 percent strongly disagree and 1 percent are not sure.

“Recently discussions have pointed to doubts about a literal Adam and Eve, the age of the earth and other origin issues,” said Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research. “But Protestant pastors are overwhelmingly Creationists and believe in a literal Adam and Eve.”

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TAGGED: CREATIONISM, EVOLUTION, RELIGION