The Theos/ComRes survey into public perception of Darwinism in the UK: A recipe for confusion

Abstract

A survey of the general public in the UK, conducted in 2008, suggested that more than half of the British population are unconvinced by Darwinism. That survey, conducted by the polling company ComRes on behalf of the theological think-tank Theos, reported its full findings in March 2009 and found them to be "complex and confused." This paper argues that the confusion identified may have been partly engendered by the way in which the survey questionnaire was constructed and that the survey itself, not simply its respondents, was confused. A source of the confusion, it is argued, could be found, first, in the definitions used for the four positions of young earth creationism, theistic evolution, atheistic evolution and intelligent design. Second, a failure to define the key terms "evolution" and "science," used in some of the survey questions, resulted in responses that were difficult to interpret.