A recent survey conducted by the British Council and marketing research company Ipsos MORI looked at the reactions of 10,000 individuals from ten different countries to Darwin and his theory of evolution. Among the questions the team asked were whether individuals had heard of Charles Darwin, whether they believed there was scientific evidence for evolution, whether a person can believe in both evolution and God, and how the universe was created.
The graph above shows the results to the question of whether one can believe in God and evolution simultaneously. As it shows, in most countries far more agreed a person can believe in both than disagreed. India showed the most overwhelming agreement to the statement, while Egypt showed the strongest disagreement. It is helpful to remember, however, that the question did not imply belief in the Christian interpretation of God.
The same survey also found that 43% of the Americans, South Africans, and Indians surveyed believed life on Earth was created in its current form by a divine creator. Conversely, a majority of those surveyed in China, Great Britain, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, and Russia believed that life evolved over time through natural selection without God playing a part. China showed the most overwhelming support for this view, with 67% of those surveyed in agreement. Only India showed a majority support (50%) for creation through evolution that involved God.
While surveys are not always accurate representations of a larger population, the results of this study offer some interesting ideas about the international debate over religion, evolution, and origins. The full data is currently available via Google Documents, and a more general press release can be found on the British Council’s Darwin Now Web site.
posted July 2, 2009 at 11:06 am
I have never had dificulty believing in both God and evolution.
posted July 2, 2009 at 7:42 pm
And I sure don’t have a problem accepting both.
posted July 3, 2009 at 6:25 am
From my personal perspective it depends upon not filling the mystery with my projections. I find that many traditions attempt to define God and provide a frame to make comprehensible the incomprehensible. Sitting in silence, struck dumb, I am unmade moment by moment. This is intimate and potent, beautiful and terrifying, present and transcendent.
Like a rusting mirror polished, “i” fall away until nothing remains of the mirror, no frame, no self.
When God is made in man’s image, egoic attachment to the idols displaces what is primary. When lovers gaze, form yields to presence. When the “religious” set aside their “god” to unconditionally embrace what is in itself, they free themselves from shackles of hope and fear, returning to the naked state which is unadulterated inspiration. From such a place, science does not require reconciliation, it is a part, a method, an expression, and not an immutable frame. Becoming empty of my prejudices is the key, and that is terribly challenging.
posted July 3, 2009 at 6:03 pm
10,000 people out of 6 billion on earth is a JOKE. please try to survey a few billion people through an email survey. those results may be alot different!
posted July 4, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Agapecs, You should do a bit of research about random sampling in surveys. With proper controls it is entirely possible to get some good results on a survey of this size. It would cost at least millions of dollars to a study as large as you want, and it still would be biased, because it would only survey people with email and only people who felt like responding. Please do some research into the statistics of sampling. It’s an interesting subject.
posted July 8, 2009 at 10:00 am
It really does not matter how God did it. He did it. I have long since stopped trying to fit God into a frame of my understanding. If he made everything in seven days, that is how long it took. We break days into hours. We do not have the luxury of understanding eternity as God does – yet. Darwin obviosly had some issues. Sometimes we tend to make a small discovery and try to fit all of life into our tiny idea of how existance came to be.
posted July 8, 2009 at 10:34 am
Faith tells me Who did it; science tells me What He did and How He did it; philosophy tells me Why He did it.
posted July 8, 2009 at 12:53 pm
A long as we start with the existence of life on Earth and move forward, then, Evolution makes a lot of sense, as we move backward, however,Evolution makes less and less sense. Because material matter comes into existence and goes out of existence, so, at one time, there had to be no physical matter. This, however, is a absolute vacuum and therefore a scientific impossibility.Some non material entity had to exist in the beginning,in order to bring matter into existence.
posted July 9, 2009 at 12:32 pm
I often hear of Darwin’s links to Evolution. In his studies, he was merely stating that species evolve to adapt to their surroundings, and did not specifically state that humans had evolved from apes, or any such thing. He used the example of moths in England. The darker-colored moths had a much higher survival rate, as they blended in better with the tree bark, and therefore less likely to be eaten by birds. The genetic predisposition of the darker-colored moths was then passed on, which eventually all but eliminated the others. It really has more to do with adaptations to environmental conditions, than it has to do with humans ever being anything else but as we are now! I am a Christian, and will always believe that we were created in the divine image of God, as it is written. I think it is just important that the whole study of evolution by presented in it’s proper context.
posted July 9, 2009 at 1:37 pm
I think God created evolution. If nothing more than to get people talking about him. I remember when I was in school we had discussion on creation vs evolution. Iam sure this particular topic would not even be hinted at in this day and time. I always belived in creation because of the way in which I was raised. I guess whom ever choose to belive in evolution they do so because of the way in which they were raised. I do not try to convince people to believe in my beliefs I accept people for who and what they are.
posted July 9, 2009 at 7:56 pm
It would be interesting (maybe this is in the full data) to see how many of those who disagreed (took a position of incompatibility) in each country were Christians. Or, alternatively, a breakdown of this answer between believers and atheists/agnostics. It is my impression (but real data would be better) that the dogma of incompatibility between evolution and faith is much more widespread among U.S. Christians than among Christians in other developed countries, like the U.K.
posted July 10, 2009 at 5:45 pm
The question of choosing between ‘God’ and ‘Darwin’ is never really the issue at the cultural level.
The specific issue really always comes down to ‘Darwin’ vs. ‘Religious/Denominational belief about God’.
Most specifically it usually ends up on the battle ground that has Bible literalists as one of the participants.
So the battle really is Darwin vs Judeo Christian Scriptures.
I don’t understand why this vague question of God vs Darwin is always put forward when it is about religion vs Darwin.
posted July 13, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Raymond,
Darwin did believe that humans and apes share a common ancestor. He even wrote a book called The Descent of Man. I think some of the blog postings and articles here on biologos.org explain some of the evidence for this.
posted July 14, 2009 at 1:30 am
If these figures are accurate the people of India should take a bow. Simultaneous beliefs in God and evolution do not contradict each other and therefore it is possible to believe in both. Science can neither prove God or disprove God. An interesting scientific fact is that the human brain is “wired” for God. The unmistakable truth for evolutionists is that natural selection has permitted this advancement to occur. Natural selection has decided that this enhancement is an accurate reflection of the environment.