Most Americans Believe God Played A Role In Human Origins

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Originally published on Religion Unplugged by Aaron Earls under a Creative Commons license.

Most U.S. adults believe human beings came about because of divine intervention, but there’s disagreement over what that involvement looked like.

A Gallup survey finds 37% of Americans believe God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so. Additionally, 34% say human beings developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life but God guided this process.

While 71% see God as having an active part, 24% contend human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life and God had no part in this process. Another 5% either say they aren’t sure or volunteer another answer.

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The numbers have not changed significantly since 2019, but the percentage who believe in God’s direct creation of humans fell to its lowest point in the four-decade history of the survey. The previous low was 38% in 2017. Also, those who say God had no role in human origins reached its highest percentage since the survey began in 1982, up two percentage points from 22% in 2019.

The percentages of the two options that believe God was involved in human origins haven’t changed drastically in the past four decades, but they are both trending downward.

Creationism reached a high of 47% in both 1993 and 1999, while theistic evolution topped at 40% in 1999. Meanwhile, the percentage of those who reject God’s involvement has grown steadily since 2000.

Factors in belief

Several factors, including church attendance, religious identification, political ideology and formal education, influence how likely a person is to hold one of the three positions.

Among those who attend religious services weekly or more, 61% believe God created human beings basically in their present form, 30% adopt theistic evolution and 3% say God wasn’t involved. Half of Americans who attend nearly weekly or monthly (50%) accept creationism, 42% hold to God being involved in evolution and 4% reject God’s involvement. For those who attend less often, 24% embrace creationism, 32% theistic evolution and 39% evolution without God.

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Politically, most conservatives (55%) hold to creationism. Moderates are evenly split between God directly creating (35%) and God using evolution (36%). A plurality of liberals (44 percent) hold to evolution without God’s involvement.

Half of Protestants (51%) believe in creationism. Almost half of Catholics (46%) embrace theistic evolution. Most religiously unaffiliated (58%) say God was not involved in the development of human life.

Among those without a college degree, 43% accept God directly creating humans, 31% believe God guided evolution and 20% reject God’s involvement. For college graduates, 26% believe in creationism, 39% accept theistic evolution and 30% say human evolution happened without God.

Young adults, those 18-34, are slightly more likely to accept evolution without God’s involvement compared to older Americans — 31% versus 22% of those 35-54 and 20% of those 55 and older. Every age group, however, is statistically just as likely to embrace either creationism (ranging from 35%-38%) or theistic evolution (32%-36%).

In a 2015 Lifeway Research study, 79% of Americans, including 43% of nonreligious adults, said the fact that humans exist means someone created us. Additionally, 72% of Americans, including 46% of nonreligious adults, said the universe’s organization points to a creator who designed it.

Creation, including humanity, can present apologetic and evangelistic opportunities for observant Christians to listen to those around them and be ready to start a conversation.

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