This probably comes as no surprise to anybody, but Gallup has shown that Republicans are much more likely to be Young Earth Creationists than Democrats. (Independents have a profile very close to that of Democrats, giving some weight to the claim of Republicans that Independents are just Democrats that are embarrassed to admit it.)
Gallup has been doing this poll for over 25 years, and the results have been remarkably stable over the years.
60% of Republicans believe that humans were created in their present form by God 10,000 years ago!Democrats, don't be so smug, 40% of you believe this also...
Full report here.
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..because being an American SOOOOOO hangs on the worth of you believing in a young earth or evolution. You have a poor idea of what it is to be an American.
Young-earth creationism is not the same as believing that humans were created in their present form by God 10,000 years ago. (Young-earthers do believe that, but so do some old-earthers.)
Kylopod, thanks for setting the record straight - you're correct and I wasn't completely accurate with my terms (oh well, I'm in good company - wikipedia made the same characterization mistake!) Indeed, Gallup has gotten some criticism for the way in which the poll questions were worded and the limited options available to the pollees.
Nevertheless, it is my unscientific belief that you'd still find a similar Republican/Democrat breakdown with young earth vs old earth believers.
There may even be people who accept evolution in full but agree with the statement "God created man in present form 10,000 years ago" on the grounds that ensouling an ape was God's method of creation. It's a stretch, but some respondents could have had that answer in mind.
That's one of the commonest problems with polls like these. There may be a disparity between the way the pollster interprets the question and the way respondents do. It's hard for me to understand how Gallup has been conducting this same poll for years and never thought to ask directly, "Do you believe the earth/universe is 10,000 years old or billions of years old?"
My guess is that the Gallup people lack familiarity with the varieties of creationism. The poll seems to recognize just three categories: (1) Creationists (2) Theistic evolutionists (3) Secular evolutionists. The young-earth/old-earth distinction is really irrelevant to them.
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