A M E R I C A N   A T H E I S T S

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  NEARLY HALF OF AMERICANS ACCEPT BIBLICAL CREATIONIST 
                              ACCOUNTS OVER EVOLUTION

A new study being published this month by a leading political
scientist shows that Americans have a significantly stronger belief in
the idea of divine creation than Europeans or citizens of other
advanced countries.  University of Cincinnati professor George Bishop
conducted an extensive cross-national study of attitudes, and
initially presented his findings at the May conference of the American
Association for Public Opinion Research.  His complete report will be
published in the new issue of Public Perspective, a journal of the
Rope Center.  He noted, "Nearly a third of college graduates in recent
Gallup polls still believe in the biblical account of creation," and
that about 45% believe that God created human beings "pretty much in
(their) present form at one time or another within the last 10,000."

"That's a lot of people," Bishop told ABC News.  "That's not like it's
some small minority position."  Other findings are equally
provocative:

* 39% believe in a form of so-called "theistic evolution," where
evolutionary processes developed over millions of years but were
"guided" by God.

* Only about 10% subscribe to evolution without any form of divine
guidance or intervention as an explanation of how life began.

* Scientists are far more likely to reject the notion that a deity was
involved in any scenario for explaining how human and life originated.
Only 5% subscribe to a literalist, biblical explanation, 40% accept
some kind of theistic evolution, and 55% hold to a strict evolutionary
explanation without any participation for a deity.

* A Gallup poll last June suggested that as many as one-third of
Americans believe, "The Bible is the actual word of God and is to be
taken literally, word for word."

Bishop compared this statistical profile with attitudes in other
countries and found some interesting results.  Whereas the percentage
of those believing in Biblical literalism has fluctuated between 32%
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and 40% in the United States, only 7% in Great Britain subscribe to
that view.  Americans also show higher level of belief in other
religious tenets such as the existence of hell, the devil, heaven and
an afterlife.

Americans also fared poorly in their knowledge about the science
behind evolutionary theory.  Respondents in Norway, Russia, German and
the Netherlands all showed a significantly lower rate of literalist
belief than those in the U.S., and Americans lagged behind 21 other
national groups in understanding the concepts behind Darwinian
evolutionary theory.  Bishop also found that those most likely to
accept a scientific evolutionary explanation were white Americans,
male, college graduates, Jews, political liberals and political
independents, and young adults under 30.  Conversely, his research
showed that those most predisposed to believing in Biblical literalist
accounts were "women, older Americans, the less well-educated
Southerners, African Americans and fundamentalist Protestants,"
according to the Cincinnati Post.  In addition, "A sizable negative
relationship exists between knowing the scientific 'fact' of evolution
and beliefs in God."

Dr.  Bishop said that he was "astounded" by the results of his
investigation.  "This is a fertile soil for such controversies to
continue to thrive," he said, referring to the ongoing culture war
issue of whether or not to permit the teaching of evolution as fact in
public schools, or introduce so-called "creationist" accounts based on
the Old Testament Book of Genesis.  "It just doesn't go away."

Bishop proposed a number of possible explanations for why Americans
display this marked predisposition to accept Christian religious
accounts of the origin of life over their European counterparts.  One
is the access that different religions, including Protestant
Fundamentalist groups, have in the American "belief bazaar."

"Think of it as a market," Bishop to the Post.  "You have many
different denominations competing for customers.  Because of that
competition, there's more active recruiting, proselytizing and other
forms of bringing people into their particular fold.  That's one
notion why this society is more religious than most developed
nations."

He also noted that "The scientific world view has thus far failed to
complete Darwin's revolution in the land of 'One Nation Under God' ...
We don't stack up well as a nation.  Religious belief tends to be
inversely correlated with what most scientists would say is simple
fact."

The Post also noted: "Another explanation for the majority belief in
creationism, Bishop said, may be that it creates a 'spiral of
silence,' a climate where people with agnostic or atheistic beliefs
are reluctant to state their views."

                              Behind The Ignorance

Why are some groups more vulnerable to believing in Biblical accounts
than accepting scientific explanations?

Critics suggest that differences in education and social expectations
may marginalize women, steering them away from careers in hard
sciences, and that ethnic minorities suffer due to lack of equal
spending for schools and other services.  Regional differences may
emerge due to varying public budgets for education; poor rural areas,
for instance, have less money to spend on classrooms, science labs and
good texts than their upscale, industrial area counterparts.  And
certain religious groups accept Biblical literalism as an important
cornerstone of their faith.  While Catholics accept a theistic
evolution at work in the universe, many Protestant fundamentalist and
evangelical sects preach a literal interpretation of the Bible.

But such explanations may mask another reason for the fact that a
near-majority of Americans rejects scientific evolution in favor a
Bible fairy tale.  Organizations which promote a creationist agenda
have honed their tactics and enjoyed surprising success in promoting
their view.  One strategy involves presenting evolution as "just
another theory," along with the claim that "other points of view,"
specifically Christian creationism, ought to be made available to
public school students.  And the creationist message is often couched
in scientific terminology, and concentrates on areas which its
supporters claim expose deficiencies in Darwinian evolution.  Ken Hamm
of the Answers in Genesis group told the Post, "I believe that when
people are taught science correctly, they see that evolution is just a
belief and not a scientific fact."

Creationists have also become active in electing sympathizers to local
and state educational agencies.  In Kansas last week, for example, the
state Board of Education voted to permit the teaching of creationism
in local public schools.

This has prompted the American Geophysical Union to prepare a "call to
arms" to member groups, encouraging them to become more involved in
local and state education issues.  Fred Spilhaus, executive director
of the AGU released a statement last week warning, "Once again, those
who value science and support the teaching of evolution but were too
busy to participate in local politics lost, and science education will
suffer as a result, as will science itself."

Spilhaus added, "Scientists would be well-advised to run for schools
boards or, at the very least, to actively support well-informed
candidates.  If scientists want to see good science taught in the
schools, they can't just participate as teachers.  They have to get
out and get into the policy making aspect of it."