Attitudes to evolution among Christians, Muslims and the Non-Religious in Britain: Differential effects of religious and educational factors

Abstract

According to poll results and media reports, Britain has a significant and growing number of creationists. However, little scholarly research has been carried out to explore this phenomenon. We present results from a national survey of 6020 individuals to give a comprehensive picture of contemporary public attitudes to evolution in Britain. Furthermore, we explore the effects of religion and education on attitudes to evolution. Unique to this study, we analyse the effects of attending a religiously affiliated school ('faith school') on acceptance of evolutionary theory. We examine these effects in the general population, and additionally, across different Christian, Muslim and Non-Religious subpopulations. Results give strong evidence that the number of creationists has been overstated previously. We find the effect of education is complex and varies between different religious groups, but that faith school attendance is associated with more acceptance of evolution for people belonging to groups that tend to reject it.

Diversification and internationalization in the sociological study of science and religion

“…Johnson et al interpret these references to Dawkins as a distinctive facet of British public debate about science and religion. Unsworth and Voas () also focused on Britian, reporting findings from an original nationally representative survey of the public and concluding that the number of creationists in Britain is smaller than previously speculated and that people who identify as having no religion report more support for evolution than those who belong to a religious group.…”

“…Other studies found that people are inconsistent in their objections to science (Evans, , ) or separate scientific knowledge from their identity and beliefs (Long, ). While polls on belief in evolution have implied that public positions on evolution and belief are clear and coherent, more nuanced recent surveys have indicated that many Americans and Britons are unsure about their position on evolution, do not have a view, or do not think having correct belief is important (Hill, ; Unsworth & Voas, ).…”

Rational engagement buffers the effect of conservatism on one's reported relevance of the theory of evolution

“…Our results support these findings from past research, and suggest future researchers explore how political conservatism and thinking styles may affect attitudes toward evolution in other countries. For example, in Turkey public acceptance of evolution is similar to US (Miller et al, ), and acceptance is negatively related to conservatism (Edis, ), whereas in the Britain, research suggests no relation between political conservatism acceptance of evolution (Unsworth & Voas, ).…”

The Dawkins effect? Celebrity scientists, (non)religious publics and changed attitudes to evolution

“…The 'Non-Religious' category comprises respondents who do not affiliate with a religious tradition, and attend religious services infrequently or never. This question followed a series of eight Likert-type scale items related to evolution and age of the earth (for details, see Unsworth and Voas, 2018).…”