Just under half of Britons accept the theory of
evolution as the best description for the development of life,
according to an opinion poll.
Furthermore, more than 40% of those questioned believe
that creationism or intelligent design (ID) should be taught in school
science lessons.
The survey was conducted by Ipsos MORI for the BBC’s Horizon series.
Its latest programme, A War on Science, looks into the attempt to introduce ID into science classes in the US.
Over 2,000 participants took part in the survey, and
were asked what best described their view of the origin and development
of life:
- 22% chose creationism
- 17% opted for intelligent design
- 48% selected evolution theory
- and the rest did not know.
Intelligent design is the concept that certain features
of living things are so complex that their existence is better
explained by an "intelligent process" than natural selection.