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A 2014 poll by Gallup seems to say that in the U.S., 42% believe Creationist view of human origins.

Is this really true? Are any of the claims from this study dubious?

Jimmy M.
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LCIII
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    Can you say how your question is different from this one? http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/9661/ – Zack Wolske Apr 21 '16 at 19:34
  • @ZackWolske I think I just question the validity of their polling results, whereas that question *presumes the truth* of Gallup's results and asks something different in light of that. – LCIII Apr 21 '16 at 19:38
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    @LCIII the 42% excludes people who believe God created humans more than 10,000 years ago and people who believe that God created humans, but they have evolved some since then, otherwise the number would be higher. – DavePhD Apr 21 '16 at 19:39
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    @DavePhD I think the OP is skeptical that the creationist numbers are that *high*. – called2voyage Apr 21 '16 at 19:56
  • @JasonR: Americans are not alone. The Amazing Randi finds silly stuff in UK and Russia, at least. – Mike Dunlavey Apr 21 '16 at 20:09
  • @MikeDunlavey Yeah, but American's are the best at it. ;) – JasonR Apr 21 '16 at 20:13
  • @JasonR- Or worst. – PointlessSpike Apr 22 '16 at 13:04

1 Answers1

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The figures are roughly confirmed by a different 2014 survey by Pew Research (Sample size = 35,071) :

33% believe "Humans and other living things have evolved due to natural processes such as natural selection"

25% believe "A supreme being guided the evolution of living things for the purpose of creating humans and other life in the form it exists today"

34% believe "Humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time"

4% believe "Humans and other living things have evolved over time" but don't know or refused answer whether this involved a supreme being

4% simply didn't know or refused to answer

The sample size of the Pew survey is 35 times larger than the Gallup survey.

DavePhD
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