Ethics

Acceptance of Evolution by Various Religions

By Ed Brayton

The Pew Forum has an interesting chart showing the degree of acceptance of the validity of evolution among various religious groups in the US. It ranges from very high among some groups (81% of Buddhists, 80% of Hindus, 77% of Jews) to very low among others (22% of Mormons, 8% of Jehovah's Witnesses). I suspect, however, that this has as much to do with educational levels as it does with religious affiliation. Buddhists and Hindus will tend to be Asian and Asian immigrants in the US tend to be very well educated, so their acceptance of evolution is not surprising.

On the other hand, the same is true of Muslims in America and they only show 45% acceptance of evolution. So perhaps I'm wrong. It would be very interesting, however, to break each of those groups down by educational level and see how that changes the results. Full chart below the fold.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on February 21, 2009 (boomark / email).