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I've seen this claim several times in the atheist community, as a pragmatic counter to the idea that belief-in-evolution is incompatible with Christianity.

But is it true?

Note that by "evolutionist" I specifically mean a person who believes changes in allele frequency have accumulated for hundreds of millions of years, resulting in adaptation, speciation, and generally modern life-forms as we know them. Someone who believes in an old earth, in "macroevolution", but not necessarily in abiogenesis. And by "Christian" I just mean someone who self-identifies as that.

Answers with variations on those definitions are fine, but please call it out.

Also note that there's two parts to the claim:

  1. Of the people who identify as Christian, do more than 50% say "Yes" when polled on whether they believe in biological evolution?

  2. Of the people who say "Yes" when asked if they believe in biological evolution, do more than 50% identify as Christian?

Craig Gidney
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    Are you asking this on a world-wide basis? – DavePhD Mar 07 '17 at 19:48
  • @DavePhD That's what I had in mind, but given the focus on Christianity it's possible the claim was about the United States specifically. **Either is fine as an answer.** (I'd link an example of the claim, but I only remember hearing it in videos. Makes it very hard to find.) – Craig Gidney Mar 07 '17 at 19:50
  • You can ask for demographic data of Christians on http://christianity.stackexchange.com/ –  Mar 08 '17 at 15:11
  • Related topic: [Does the Catholic church accept evolution?](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/q/16414/2703) – ChrisW Mar 08 '17 at 23:48

2 Answers2

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Yes, on both counts. This is based on a newer version of the same Pew survey DavePhD used (his was from 2007, mine from 2014). The new version directly provides numbers for the first question rather than having calculate it from other numbers.

For the first question, the percentage of Christians agreeing with the statement is as follows (for humans):

  1. Humans evolved due to natural processes: 21%
  2. Humans evolved due to God's design: 29%
  3. Humans evolved, don't know how: 4%
  4. Humans have always existed in their present form: 42%
  5. Don't know: 5%

I think this wording of the question is better than the one used in the 2007 version, since it also explicitly includes so-called theistic evolution, which is considered a belief in evolution by both those supporting evolution and those opposing it. The 2007 version was somewhat ambiguous for people who believe in evolution, but believe God guided it. Some people who still believe in evolution would likely disagree with the 2007 version because of their belief in God's involvement in evolution. I suspect this flaw was why the question was reworded in the 2014 version.

So, a majority of Christians (54%) believe in human evolution in some form, and a minority (42%) don't.

As for the second question, I can't find aggregate numbers for all versions of belief in evolution, but they do provide separate percentages for the individual beliefs. For what percentage of people who agree with the statement are Christian:

  1. Humans evolved due to natural processes: 45%
  2. Humans evolved evolved due to God's design: 82%
  3. Humans always existed in present form: 86%

So since "evolved due to natural processes" is less than half of Christians, but nearly half of those who believe it are Christian, it is safe to say more than half of people who believe in evolution in some way are Christian.

Edit: Clarified relationship with DavePhD's answer and added notes about theistic evolution.

TheBlackCat
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    your stats for the second question seem flawed, option 1 and 3 seem to be mutually exclusive, and yet the percentages of those two add up to more then 100% – dsollen Mar 07 '17 at 22:18
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    Hm, whether or not you include "Humans evolved due to God's design" in the definition of evolutionist ends up being really important. – Craig Gidney Mar 07 '17 at 22:30
  • @CraigGidney: It would also be helpful to distinguish between "evolution is a process which has created at least some of the biodiversity on this planet", versus "evolution is the primary or sole source of biodiversity", and distinguishing between affirmative beliefs that statements are true, statements are false, or statements are at present unprovable [which is different from "don't know"--since it implies a belief that *nobody else knows either*]. – supercat Mar 08 '17 at 00:20
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    I'd argue "God's design" (#2) does not count as the "biological evolution" this question is asking about. – Kevin Mar 08 '17 at 01:12
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    BlackCat, I changed my answer to be more clear that the data is from this Pew Study http://www.pewforum.org/files/2013/05/report-religious-landscape-study-full.pdf question 10c. So you may need to make you answer independent of mine. – DavePhD Mar 08 '17 at 02:45
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    @Kevin a lot of Christians would disagree with you. For example, some might maintain that biological evolution, as defined in the question, is a creation of God. – phoog Mar 08 '17 at 10:23
  • @dsollen: They are three separate groups, so they wouldn't add up to 100%. The people who responded "Humans evolved due to natural processes" were different people than the people who responded "Humans evolved evolved due to God's design". Of the first group of people, 45% of those people were Christian. Of the second group, 62% were Christian. – TheBlackCat Mar 08 '17 at 14:45
  • @CraigGidney: That is the standard "theistic evolution" position, which is considered by both the pro-evolution and anti-evolution side to be a belief in evolution. – TheBlackCat Mar 08 '17 at 14:46
  • @supercat: That was not part of the OP's question. – TheBlackCat Mar 08 '17 at 14:46
  • @TheBlackCat: A common difficulty with surveys on subjects like this is that there may be a significant portion of the sampled population with clear beliefs that don't fit cleanly into the given categories, and that population could plausibly add an uncertainty factor beyond anything the survey is trying to show. For example, if someone thinks something is *likely* true, *but* regards as a liar anyone who claims it is *proven*, such a person might either express their belief that the theory is likely true, or their opposition to those who consider it proven, and a survey which... – supercat Mar 08 '17 at 15:11
  • ...doesn't account for such people would have no meaningful way of identifying how many of them voted each way. If one sampled group expresses stronger support for a theory, but people in another group have a stronger distrust for people who regard the theory as proven, the latter group might express lower support for the theory *even if more people would regard it as likely true*. – supercat Mar 08 '17 at 15:12
  • @supercat: then that would tend to *underestimate* support for evolution, which wouldn't change my answer. – TheBlackCat Mar 08 '17 at 15:21
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This varies by country. For international information see European Christians are at the forefront in accepting evolution: results from an internet-based survey Evolution & Development, 12 (6), 537-540:

enter image description here

It was found that almost 60% of Christians believe in creationism and less than 10% believe in natural evolution.

The majority of Christians worldwide accept creation over evolution. By continent, Christians in North America, South America, Africa, Asia and Australia accept creation, while a majority of European Christians accept evolution.

OP commented that he was particularly interested in the United States.

The answer is that, no, most Christians in the United States do not believe in evolution, based upon question 10c of a Pew survey where people were asked to completely agree, mostly agree, mostly disagree or completely disagree with the statement:

Evolution is the best explanation for the origins of human life on earth

The data, considering "completely agree" or "mostly agree" to be supporting evolution, are broken down like this:

Evangelical Protestants:

Percent of population: 25.4
Percent supporting evolution: 24

Mainline Protestants:

Percent of population: 14.7
Percent supporting evolution: 51

Historically Black Protestants:

Percent of population: 6.5
Percent supporting evolution: 38

Catholics:

Percent of population: 20.8
Percent supporting evolution: 58

Mormons:

Percent of population: 1.8
Percent supporting evolution: 22

Jehovah's Witness:

Percent of population: 0.8
Percent supporting evolution: 8

Orthodox:

Percent of population: 0.5
Percent supporting evolution: 54

So overall, the Catholics and Orthodox Christians, who favor evolution by a slight majority, are outweighed by the Evangelical Protestants, Historically Black Protestants, Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses, who oppose evolution.

enter image description here

(source)

DavePhD
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  • The other half of the claim "most evolutionists are Christians" also looks doubtful with this data but perhaps you could explicitly address it. –  Mar 07 '17 at 20:24
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    @notstoreboughtdirt I come up with roughly 60% of US evolutionist being Christian. – DavePhD Mar 07 '17 at 20:38
  • Would you include that math please. –  Mar 07 '17 at 20:58
  • @notstoreboughtdirt (0.58x0.208 + 0.54x0.005 +0.51x0.147 + 0.38x0.065 + 0.24x0.254 + 0.22x0.018 + 0.08x0.008)/0.48 = 0.60 – DavePhD Mar 07 '17 at 21:17
  • And the official positions of the central authority for each of those faiths? – GeoffAtkins Mar 07 '17 at 21:23
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    @GeoffAtkins I think the official catholic position is this: http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_12081950_humani-generis.html Protestants and Orthodox don't have any single central authority. – DavePhD Mar 07 '17 at 21:29
  • @DavePhD I meant to suggest inclusion in the body of the answer. –  Mar 07 '17 at 22:02
  • @DavePhD - Most Chstians wouldn't consider Mormons or Jehovahs Winesses as Christians. Catholics wouldn't accept any of these as Christians. Neither would Orthodox Christians. – GeoffAtkins Mar 07 '17 at 22:22
  • I'm sorry, but I don't see how this follows from the data. [This](http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/views-about-human-evolution) from the Pew study indicates much higher belief in evolution among Christians. It puts mainline Protestants at >59% and Catholics at >62% for some form of evolution (of humans). [This](http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/christians/christian/) puts belief in some form of evolution at just over 50% for Christians. – KAI Mar 08 '17 at 00:23
  • @KAI The problem is that Pew is giving different data here: http://www.pewforum.org/2009/02/04/religious-differences-on-the-question-of-evolution/ but not giving a true source of the data. They are linking to different data and a broken link. So either Pew is given fake news, or my answer is correct, but based upon a differently worded question. Actually, it seems to be question number 32 of the 2008 Pew Forum Religious Landscape Survey http://jewishquestions.bjpa.org/Questions/details.cfm?QuestionID=2442 – DavePhD Mar 08 '17 at 02:33
  • @KAI This is the true source http://www.pewforum.org/files/2013/05/report-religious-landscape-study-full.pdf I will change answer. – DavePhD Mar 08 '17 at 02:37
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    @MohammadSakibArifin This is Pew's collection of different denominations' positions: http://www.pewforum.org/2009/02/04/religious-groups-views-on-evolution/ – DavePhD Mar 08 '17 at 05:21
  • @DavePhD: KAI was linking to the 2014 study. The 2009 results are from the same 2007 study as your results. – TheBlackCat Mar 08 '17 at 15:05
  • @TheBlackCat KAI and I were initially linking to the same information, but now my answer is linking to http://www.pewforum.org/files/2013/05/report-religious-landscape-study-full.pdf particularly question 10c, which is a different survey. – DavePhD Mar 08 '17 at 15:13
  • The problem with the Pew research is that I know many Christians who would completely accept an Old Earth, the fossil record and the fact of evolution, but would balk at the statement "Evolution is the best explanation for the origins of human life on Earth." – DJClayworth Mar 09 '17 at 16:00
  • @DavePhD Even using that data source, your response is fairly misleading. The top line of question 10c shows the total for Christians. 48% believe in evolution to some degree, while 45% do not (7% Don't know/refused). The plurality of Christians believe in evolution. Or, you could say that its evenly split given the uncertainties. But to answer in the negative seems overly technical and misleading given that more Christians said they believed in evolution than not. – KAI Mar 09 '17 at 20:35
  • @KAI you're confusing "total" with "Christian". The numbers you mention are for "total" which includes "Jewish", "Muslim", "Buddhist", "Hindu", "Other Faiths", and "Unaffiliated". – DavePhD Mar 09 '17 at 20:44