Poll: Majority of Canadians Believe God Had Part in Creation

By Doug Huntington, Christian Post Reporter Friday, July 06, 2007

A recently-released Canadian Press-Decima Research survey revealed that 60 percent of Canadians believe that God had a role in creation.

Out of 1,000 respondents to the poll that was taken June 21-24, only 3 out of 10 people expressed that evolution occurred without the help of God.

The results are surprising for a nation that is normally thought to have favored a more scientific view of life void of religion.

"These results reflect an essential Canadian tendency," said pollster Bruce Anderson according to the Canadian Press. "We are pretty secular, but pretty hesitant to embrace atheism."

Respondents were basically given three creation categories to choose from: completely God (that humans were created by God within the last 10,000 years), God through science (that God led to human development under some process such as evolution), and only science (that evolution occurred without help from God).

The results revealed that the largest portion of people (34 percent) believed in God through science. The next highest was the strict evolutionists with 29 percent, and strict creationists had 26 percent of the total.

The poll expectedly showed that conservatives were less likely to believe that God had no part (22 percent) than liberals (31 percent). Some conservative areas, however, did show low levels for strict creationist models such as Alberta, regarded as the birthplace of social conservatism, which had the lowest number out of all the provinces at 22 percent.

According to the survey, less educated people were also more likely to favor creationism models. 37 percent of respondents without a high school diploma believed humans were created within the last 10,000 years compared to 15 percent of those that held a college degree.

Rural areas were also more likely to be strict creationists, which the Canadian Press credits as part of being less educated.

The overall results do not necessarily prove that Canucks are religious, however. In most cases, people do not want to make up their mind about God.

"It's more as though for many, these feelings are unresolved," added Anderson. "We believe in a higher being, we know what we don't know, are comfortable not knowing, and choose not to press our views upon one another."

According to a poll taken by Newsweek from March 28-29, nine out of ten Americans believe in God and about half reject the theory of evolution. 82 percent of the respondents also identify themselves as Christian.

The Canadian Press-Decima Research survey is considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times in 20.