By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
Only a few months before the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species, which introduced the theory of evolution to the world, a newly released poll shows that the American public overwhelmingly reject his theory in favor of intelligent design.
According to a press release by The Discovery Institute, which commissioned the poll, when asked if they believed life developed “through an unguided process of random mutations and natural selection,” which is the standard definition of Darwinism, only 33 percent said yes. Fifty-two percent said they believed “the development of life was guided by intelligent design.”
“In the Year of Darwin, these figures must represent a terrible disappointment to Darwinian advocates,” commented Stephen C. Meyer, Ph.D., director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute. “Darwin’s greatest accomplishment was supposed to be the refutation of intelligent design, yet more than a century later the public has grown increasingly disenchanted with Darwin’s claims.”
In response to the great controversy over whether Darwin’s theory of evolution should continue to be the only theory taught in the nation’s schools, 78 percent said biology teachers should present all the evidence, both for and against, evolution.
Fifty-four percent also said they strongly believed students and teachers should have the academic freedom to discuss both the strengths and weaknesses about evolution, with only 11 percent of respondents strongly disagreeing.
Dr. Meyer suggested the polling data may reflect a growing awareness of recent scientific developments which are documented in his new book, Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design.
He writes: “It’s only in the past decade that the information age has finally come to biology. We now know that biology at its root is digital code. Having advanced to this level of digital technology ourselves, in computer science, we can at last begin to appreciate what is going on inside the cell: the nested coding, digital processing, distributive retrieval and storage systems, the whole operating system in the genome. The cell is doing the same thing a computer’s operating system does, but with far, far greater efficiency.”
Dr. Meyer believes it is no coincidence that the public remains fixed in its skepticism of standard evolutionary theories as scientists learned more about the enigma of DNA and its origins: “Undirected evolutionary processes cannot explain what science is revealing. Intelligent design can. Americans are catching onto this.”
Zogby International conducted the omnibus telephone survey of 1,053 likely voters earlier this year, which marks the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth as well as the anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species.
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