There's been some touting of a Gallup poll, on the anniversary of Charles Darwin's birthday, showing that only 39% of Americans say they believe in the "theory" of evolution. Gallup phrased the question: "Do you, personally, believe in the theory of evolution, do you not believe in evolution, or don't you have an opinion either way?" Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they believed in evolution, 25% did not, and 36% had no opinion. Of course if you tell someone who doesn't know enough about a concept to have an opinion about it that it's only a "theory," it's not likely they're going to say they believe it. But if you were to present them with the shocking news that it's an accepted scientific concept, perhaps they'd be more likely to give it some credence. At his Washington Post Under God blog, David Waters breaks down a Zogby poll, commissioned by the pro-creationist/"intelligent design" Discovery Institute, that claims that "support for the Darwinists' position has dropped significantly while support for teaching the controversy over evolution has risen." The Discovery Institute promotes the "academic freedom" bills I discussed in yesterday's FundamentaList that seek to require the teaching of what the Zogby polling question termed "the scientific evidence against" evolution, which, of course, isn't scientific at all. --Sarah Posner
