Monday, February 16, 2009

Mormons and rejecting evolution

From Which religious groups are Creationist?  by Razib at scienceblogs.com runs some numbers from Pew Research.

After a chart showing Mormons having the 2nd lowest acceptance of evolution among major religious groups, Razib states:

The main surprise here are Mormons. I knew that they had become much more Creationist over the past 3 generations due to their identification with conservative Protestants, but I didn't know that it went this far. In The Creationists Ronald L Numbers states:

In 1935 only 36 percent of the students at the Mormons' Brigham Young University denied that humans had been "created in a process of evolution from lower forms." By 1973 the figure had risen sharply to 81 percent.
A series of charts compare members of religions' rejection of evolution with the following:
  • rate of conservativism
  • percentage of post-graduates
  • importance of religion
  • acceptance of scripture as the word of God
Mormons are at or near the far end of the charts, in each instance showing both a high rejection of evolution while at the same time a high rate of conservatism, low percentage of post-graduates, consider religion important in one's life, and a high acceptance of scripture as the word of God.

The charts can be viewed here.

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