BC News|December 31, 2013 11:43 EST
America's Belief in Evolution Ranks Low Among Other Countries with 33 Percent of People Believing in a 'Higher Power'
A new pole taken by Pew Research Center showed the dissimilarities different Religious groups in America have on the theory of evolution.
One in three Americans do not believe in evolution, according to new survey results from the Pew Research Center. The results released in a report on Monday showed that 33 percent of Americans think, "humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time."
The analysis was based upon a national survey Pew conducted in the middle of 2013. 1,983 adults took the survey and the margin of error was 3 percentage points.
"It's an intriguing finding that is suggestive of greater polarization," Cary Funk, Senior researcher at the Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project and Social & Demographic Trends project, expressed to NBC News.
Many believed that the differences on evolution are a debate between believers and non-believers. The study taken by Pew Research showed that the dissimilarities on this subject existed within the church as well.
The distinctions on the matter by Religious Groups varied based on race and denomination. White evangelical Protestants (64%) and half of black Protestants (50%) said that humans have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.
In other religious groups, eight-in-ten white leading Protestants (78%) said that humans and other living things have evolved over time.
Three-quarters of religious people that are not affiliated (76%) and 68% of white (non-Hispanic) Catholics said they to believed humans and other living things evolved over time. About half of the Catholics that are Hispanic (53%) believed that humans have evolved over time, while 31% dismissed that idea.
Overall roughly a fourth of adults (24%) non religious and religious included, said that "a supreme being guided the evolution of living things for the purpose of creating humans and other life in the form it exists today." However, about a third (32%) said that evolution is "due to natural processes such as natural selection."
While religious groups contrast in their views about evolution overall, they also differed in their views on the processes responsible for human evolution. For example, 78% of white leading Protestants said that humans and other living things have evolved over time. The group is at odds on whether evolution is due to natural methods or whether it was guided by a supreme being (36% each).
White (non-Hispanic) Catholics also are divided similarly on the question (33% each). The religiously unaffiliated primarily hold the view that evolution comes from natural processes (57%), while 13% of this group say a supreme being guided evolution.
Of the white evangelical Protestants and black Protestants who believe that humans have evolved over time, most believe that a supreme being guided evolution.
In America as a whole, the issue of those who believed in evolution was not as black and white either because the survey showed about a quarter of the pole said they believed that a supreme being caused evolution.
Although each of the sides differentiate in their beliefs on the subject, America's view on evolution still ranks fairly low in comparison to other parts of the world.