Previously, I examined the major premise behind the oft-repeated, never-examined claim that “Vocal atheists are bad for evolution”, by examining whether evolution was really on the decline at all. To do so, I used Gallup polling data that showed belief in Creationism steady at 44% of the population, Theistic Evolution steady at 36% of the population, and Atheistic Evolution on the rise at 15% of the population, versus 9% at the start of the polling data.
Jonah Lehrer has an even better chart. It breaks down the question of human evolution into four age groups, and shows a steady increase in acceptance of evolution as you move toward the young end of the chart.
There’s greatest support for evolution in the 18-26 crowd. These are precisely the people who were born into a post-Selfish Gene world. They grew up in a world that has always known Richard Dawkins and other vocal atheists like Dan Dennett as public figures.
And they overwhelmingly accept evolution.
Myth: Busted!