Darwinism in America: Few Adherents
From 2012.
The Darwinists have failed in the United States. They have controlled the colleges since at least 1885. They have controlled the public schools, K-12, since at least 1925. What has it gotten them? Not much. Around 85% of Americans reject Darwinism, according to a Gallup poll. The poll’s summary:
Forty-six percent of Americans believe in the creationist view that God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years. The prevalence of this creationist view of the origin of humans is essentially unchanged from 30 years ago, when Gallup first asked the question. About a third of Americans believe that humans evolved, but with God’s guidance; 15% say humans evolved, but that God had no part in the process.
This story is all over the Web.
The central core of Darwinism is not evolution. People believed in evolution before Darwin and A. R. Wallace published their articles in 1858. What the two promoted was evolution through natural selection: no guiding hand in evolution prior to the appearance of mankind. (Wallace later abandoned faith in their jointly discovered doctrine.)
Here is the central core doctrine in the humanists’ grab-bag of ideological commitments, and after more than a century and a half, they have failed to persuade more than 15% of the American population. If that is not a failure, then I cannot imagine what failure is.
Notice that the latest poll shows an uptick in the percentage of people who hold the “young earth” position. That is a 15% increase. It is back to where it was in 2006.
Across the nation, non-Darwinists are quietly saying to the Darwinists, “We aren’t buying it.” This has bugged the Darwinists for a century. One of them cries out in agony,
Teaching creationism rather than evolution in the schools is favored by a large number of American citizens. In a CNN/USA Today Gallup poll of 1001 adults conducted in March 2005, 76% would not “be upset if public schools in [their] community taught creationism,” but only 63% would not “be upset if the schools taught evolution.” Only 22% would be upset if creationism would be taught, while 34% would be upset if evolution would be taught. Other polls yield similar statistics.In 1959, at a symposium celebrating the 100th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species, the eminent geneticist and Nobel Laureate H.J. Muller proclaimed, “One Hundred Years without Darwin Are Enough!” (Muller 1959). Fifty years later, Darwin’s theory of evolution is far from universally accepted by the American public and activists throughout the country are advancing creationist or “intelligent design” alternatives to explain the origin, diversity, and adaptation of organisms, seeking that these “theories” be taught in the schools. Our educational system and society as a whole are best served when we teach science, not religious faith masquerading as science, in the classrooms. It is pathetic that at this point in history we need to proclaim that 150 years without Darwin’s Origin of Species are enough.
As online education grows in popularity, the Darwinists’ #1 arena of indoctrination will decline in influence.
As the K-12 public schools continue their long decline of academic performance, the Darwinists will lose their leverage. They have bet the farm on the public schools. This bet has failed to pay off, decade after decade. The Darwinists have used confiscated tax money from anti-Darwinists to get control over the minds of American children. They have failed on a scale that is historically unprecedented. They have no fallback position.
The reason why it has never bothered me that Darwinists control the public schools is simple: When you place your faith in government-run anything, you will lose the war. Darwinists have become reliant on an institution that is getting inevitably worse. They like to imagine that they have scored victories by keeping rival views out of the public schools. They control the steering wheel of the Titanic. But some of the passengers are moving toward the lifeboats: the Internet.
How many K-12 home school curriculum programs are based 100% on Darwinism? The next one will be the first.
Continue reading on gallup.com.
_______________________
Published on September 27, 2012. The original is here.
Update: as of 2019, 40% of Americans accept biblical creationism. About 33% think that God guided the evolutionary process. Those who believe in Darwinism total 22%. The report is here.