Russians Reject Evolution in Numbers Similar to U.S.

Meanwhile, over in Russia, Interfax-Religion reports that over 40% of Russians polled support creationism. The author writes:

In particular, Darwin's evolution theory is supported by 55% of residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg, 54% of atheists, and 45% of highly educated respondents, while creationism by 50% of rural residents, 48% of people believing in God, and 50% of undereducated people.

The poll has shown that most Russians do not absolutely share either the creationism or Darwin's evolution theory postulates. As many as 63% of those polled acknowledge Darwin's idea of permanent development of the living world and natural selection and 71% are convinced that the Earth's age is at least several billion years.

At the same time, 48% of Russians are inclined to believe that man was created by God, 49% that the world was originally perfect and has become more chaotic with time, and 62% that all major changes on the Earth have been caused by global disasters, one of them being the Deluge.

The poll has not been posted online at the site yet and I am more than a bit curious how the questions were constructed and what the sample size was. I will try to follow up on this. On the surface, it is very disheartening since it seems that, despite an acceptance of an old earth, many of those polled just can't get past the concept of biological evolution. I know little of the Russian educational system so I am not sure where the breakdown is. Nor do I know what the extent of creationism "importing" is going on.

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