Attitudes to Evolution amongst Christians, Muslims and the Non-Religious in Britain: Differential Effects of Religious and Educational Factors
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Authors
Unsworth, Amy
Voas, D
Publication Date
2018-01-01Journal Title
Public Understanding of Science
ISSN
0963-6625
Publisher
SAGE
Volume
27
Issue
1
Pages
76-93
Type
Article
This Version
AM
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Unsworth, A., & Voas, D. (2018). Attitudes to Evolution amongst Christians, Muslims and the Non-Religious in Britain: Differential Effects of Religious and Educational Factors. Public Understanding of Science, 27 (1), 76-93. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662517735430
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.
Keywords
Christian, creationism, evolution, media and science, Muslim, Non-Religion, public understanding of science, science and religion, science education, science in schools
Sponsorship
This research was made possible through a grant (UAB018) awarded under the Uses and Abuses of Biology Programme funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation.
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662517735430
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/270475
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