Creation Moment 6/22/2015 - Polling Deeper

"Recently, Dr. Jonathan Hill, professor of sociology at Calvin College, ...the results of his national survey of 3,000 American adults to study the beliefs of Americans on issues related to human origins. The summary of his research is entitled “The Recipe for Creationism.” His research was done to see if previous surveys done by Gallup and others over the past few decades were giving us an accurate picture of what Americans believe.
Those other studies, the most recent published by Gallup in June 2014, have indicated consistently over the past 30 years that

• about 45% of Americans believe that “God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so,”
• about 35% believe that “human beings have evolved over millions of years from other forms of life and God guided this process,”
• about 20% believe that “human beings have evolved over millions of years from other forms of life but God had no part in this process.”

Unlike Gallup’s one-question survey, Hill took his respondents through a series of questions focused on 15 statements related to the Bible, science, and human origins. As a result, he gives a far more nuanced picture of what Americans think about this controversial subject. He grouped people into one of three categories defined by their view of human origins: creationists (which included young-earth and old-earth creationists who believe that God specially created humans), theistic evolutionists (who believe that God was somehow involved as humans evolved from earlier primates), and atheistic evolutionists (who believe that God had no part in human evolution). Hill wanted to see not only what people believed about human origins but also how firmly they held those beliefs...

Hill’s study found that there are “substantially smaller proportions” of creationists (both old-earthers and young-earthers), theistic evolutionists, and atheistic evolutionists in American society: 37%

creationists, 16% theistic evolutionists, and 9% atheistic evolutionists (compared to Gallup figures of 42%, 31% and 19% respectively). The rest of the survey respondents were unsure on the question. But of those who said they were “very or absolutely certain” of their position, percentages were lower still: 29%, 8% and 6% respectively. Hill attributed these lower numbers to his survey having more questions with more possible answers than the Gallup surveys.
But in further distinguishing old-earth creationists from young-earth creationists, Hill concluded that only 8% of Americans “affirm the main points of young-earth creationism” (both a literal, six-day creation a few thousand years ago and the supernatural creation of Adam and Eve).

What are the most important factors in causing 6% of Americans to become convinced atheists? Hill says the most important factors are the following:

• Not having a religious identity (including those who identify as atheist or agnostic)
• Praying infrequently
• Belief that the Bible contains at least some errors

In other words, an atheist will likely be produced if a person doesn’t grow up in a religious family and doesn’t actively participate in the religious group, seldom prays, and thinks that the Bible is not completely trustworthy. But what is a major reason that people think the Bible has errors? As the research shows, it is the teaching of evolution and millions of years.

Hill describes theistic evolutionists as “a broad category” of people who acknowledge “God's involvement in the creation of humans while accepting scientific evidence for evolution. Apart from this there are no additional beliefs that reliably distinguish this view.” His study also notes that “the theistic evolution position does not come with a high degree of confidence for much of the population.” AIG


Thus says the Lord:
Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool.
Isaiah 66:1