Jerry Coyne criticizes a study that makes a big deal of the fact that 63% of believers in the U.S. belong to religious organizations that are officially pro-evolution. Coyne rightly points out that even in pro-evolution denominations, lots of believers in the pews have creationist sympathies. He only briefly mentions, however, the fact that “This is, of course, heavily weighted with Catholics, who represent 71% of the ‘evolution-accepters.’”
Shouldn’t that be the big story here? Take out Catholics, and you realize that two-thirds of non-Catholic believers belong to groups run by creationists. This shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s followed the U.S. evolution/creation controversy closely: it’s well-known that the Catholic church hasn’t officially opposed evolution, but anyone who’s followed the issue also has plenty of reason to suspect that anti-evolutionism is mainstream among U.S. protestants. Now we have data to confirm that suspicion–and the confirmation is even stronger than it appears at first, given that megachurches weren’t counted in the data.
In fact, this data makes the Clergy Letters Project and similar efforts to convince people evolution and religion are compatible look pretty ridiculous. The main reason the Clergy Letters Project looks like a good idea to most people is that a lot of people still think of “churches” in terms of the liberal denominations that used to have a rationale for calling themselves “mainline.” This data, though, brings into focus just how much trouble these denominations are having.
The softness of this view exists on several levels:
1. The assumption that members of religious denominations subscribe to the dictates of that group. Patently incorrect. Have you been paying attention to Washington?
2. The assumption that all theists holds a common definition of God. They don’t. Just ask one to define God. Be patient.
3. “efforts to convince people evolution and religion are compatible look pretty ridiculous” is a defeatist attitude. It took the Catholic Church 350 years to absolve Galileo, but they did it and now embrace evolution as well. Anything worth doing is worth doing at all.
1. I haven’t been assuming that. We have different studies that tell us that the rate of acceptance of evolution among individuals in the U.S. is pretty low. The point of this post is something different, but equally worth knowing: that the leaders most Protestants listen to are anti-evolution.
2. What does that have to do with this post.
3. Why wait? I’d rather work on deconverting people today than hoping that various evangelical organizations will come around on evolution in 350 years.