Hey Hey We’re the Monkeys

By Bill Maher

The latest Gallup poll on American attitudes about evolution is out, and it's slightly encouraging. But only slightly. Forty-two percent of Americans think God created humans in their present form, sometime in the past 10,000 years. That's the second-lowest result yet, following 2011's 40 percent (which seems to have been a bit of an outlier). For the past 20 years, that number has consistently been between 44 and 47 percent.

Only 31 percent believe humans evolved, but with God guiding the process. That’s down precipitously from its usual range of 36-40 percent. And the percentage of people who believe purely in evolution, with no divine encroachment, is at an all-time high of 19 percent. That's been steadily rising from an '80s and '90s average of about 10 percent. The rise of secularism is a little bit comforting, I suppose, but the intractability of 40+ percent of us is troubling. 

The good news? They are, in fact, dying off. In the 18-29 demographic, only 28 percent believe in this Young Earth malarkey.  

If you want to believe in God as an add-on to what we know about the world, that's fine. But people who won't accept the evidence of the fossil record, carbon dating, and our own DNA… those people are unreachable.