A rather stunning (to me, anyway) poll from Gallup.  The whole run-down is worth a read, but here’s some highlights:

• 53% of Americans believe that “creationism, that is, the idea that God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years” is either “definitely true” or “probably true.”
• 68% of Republicans do not believe in evolution.
• 41% of Americans believe that creationism is true and evolution is false.
• 28% of Americans believe that evolution is true and creationism is false.
• 24% of Americans, apparently not bothered at the contradictory natures of creationism and evolution, believe that both creationism and evolution are either certainly true or probably true.

My reactions are three fold:

First, it’s rather stunning to see such a broad embrace of creationism and rejection of evolution across the ideological spectrum.  People talk about Republicans and their inability to grasp science, but that problem seems to extend well beyond the GOP.

Second, I’m struck by just how out-of-the-mainstream I am with my beliefs on religion and evolution.  I not only don’t seem to fit in my party, if the results of this poll are to be believed, I really don’t fit in with the rest of Americans either.

Third, we should remember that the sort of people who respond to polls like this seem inordinately dumb.  According to polls, 31% of Americans don’t know who the Vice President is.  Only 24% of Americans could answer who the Sec. of State, Speaker of the House and President of Russia were.  Only about 25% of Americans could name two Supreme Court Justices, while about 75% of them could name two of the Seven Dwarfs.  So maybe these results aren’t so much indicative of the nation as a whole but just indicative of the people who a) still have landlines and b) are willing to give cold-call pollsters the time of day.