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Astonishing 88% of Americans Believe in Creation or God-Directed Evolution

PHILADELPHIA, October 17, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll reveals that 88% of the US population believes that God had at least some hand in the creation of life. The poll also shows a distinct educational bias towards the atheistic view that God could have had nothing to do with the creation of life. This supports complaints by many that most institutions of higher learning are heavily biased against any religious understanding of the origins of life.

The poll says that although only 12% believe in the “random selection” theory of extreme Darwinism, college graduates are twice as likely as those with only a high school diploma to accept the natural-selection theory of evolution.

The poll was made public at a moment in the US where proponents of Intelligent Design theory - one that proposes the great complexity of the order of creation as evidence for an intelligent mind behind it – have been fighting for a reasonable footing in a public school system dedicated to the atheistic bias of pure Darwinism.

The fight is pinpointed in a Philadelphia federal trial which could decide that Intelligent Design (ID) could be presented alongside Darwinian evolution in public school science classes. The Dover Area School Board is defending its decision a year ago to require students to hear a statement on Intelligent Design before ninth-grade biology lessons on evolution. The statement says Charles Darwin's theory is “not a fact,” has inexplicable “gaps,” and refers students to a textbook, "Of Pandas and People," for more information.

Testifying for the board is biochemistry professor, Dr. Michael Behe, a leading scientific proponent of ID, and author of the 1996 best-seller, “Darwin's Black Box.” Behe, a professor at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., says that of course students should be taught evolution because it's widely used in science and that “any well-educated student should understand it.”

Behe wrote in an online article, “How can we decide whether Darwinian natural selection can account for the amazing complexity that exists at the molecular level?”

“Many scientists frankly admit their bewilderment about how (complex molecular systems) may have originated, but refuse to entertain the obvious hypothesis: that perhaps molecular machines appear to look designed because they really are designed.”

Behe wrote that he is “optimistic” that science will begin to consider ID, even if the support is “muted.” “My reason for optimism is the advance of science itself, which almost every day uncovers new intricacies in nature, fresh reasons for recognizing the design inherent in life and the universe.”

Eight families have sued the Dover Area School Board contending that ID is religious in nature and that teaching it defies the separation of church and state.

Read articles on Intelligent Design:
http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/nhmag.html

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