If you’ve seen the news today, you’ve probably noticed that BBC programme tonight about the survey of the public’s views on Evolution, ID, and Creationism. The BBC News article can be found here.
Now, statistics can be made to say almost anything you please if you know what you’re about, but as a Taoist I’ll take a simple view.
It’s interesting to note that all entries bar Evolution are listed in descending percentage order. Which says to me that Evolution was deliberately placed last in the lists, presumably to help the story’s angle.
Now, the simplest interpretation of the statistics is that the largest single group of the 2000 people surveyed accept Evolution. If we ignore the undecideds, then Evolution is ahead of both ID and Creationism combined by a 9% margin. But, for example, this survey could be used to grind the same axe against Intelligent Design.
Interestingly, the over 55’s are less likely to accept Evolution, which gives a hint that a closer study of the younger people surveyed could reveal more insights.
I think a far more useful result would be found by a series of surveys over a period of time. A single snapshot tells us very little, what matters more is the trend.
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