Survey: Evangelicals, Other Christians Split on Evolution Debate

On the issue of evolution, evangelical Protestants differ significantly from other Christian groups, according to a recent survey.
By Jennifer Riley

On the issue of evolution, evangelical Protestants differ significantly from other Christian groups, according to a recent survey.

Only 28 percent of white evangelical Protestants believe in evolution compared to majority of seculars and most other Christian groups, such as Catholics and mainline Protestants, reported the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life last week. Instead, the group supports the idea that living beings have the same form presently as the beginning of time.

Meanwhile, the national survey conducted early July on 2,003 adults found 59 percent of white Catholics, 62 percent of white mainline Protestants and 83 percent of seculars believe in evolution.

However, mainline Protestants and Catholics who believe in evolution differ among themselves on the question if evolution occurred by natural selection or through the guidance of a supreme being. Thirty-one percent of mainline Protestants believe in natural selection, while 26 percent believe in a supreme being overseeing the process. Among Catholics, a higher percentage than mainline Protestants believe evolution was divinely guided. Thirty-one percent of Catholics believe in evolution through control of a higher power while 25 percent support natural selection.

Only among seculars – who have no religious affiliation – does the majority (69 percent) accept the process of natural selection for evolution.

To read the complete report visit: pewforum.org

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