A regular poll from Gallup has revealed that most Americans (71 percent) still believe that God played some role in creation, despite the number of those who believe God played no role increasing throughout the years. The poll has been conducted since the 1980s, with the last one taking place in 2019. The poll offered respondents three views of creation and asked which they identified with: “1) Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process, 2) Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process, 3) God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.”

The poll found that the biggest share of Americans (37 percent) would be considered “creation purists,” those who believe God created humans in their current form without the use of evolution and without the span of millions of years. Thirty-four percent believed that humans evolved but that God guided the process, while 24 percent believed God took no part in the process. Despite remaining the majority, “creation purists” has dropped to its lowest number ever since the poll began, peaking in 1999 at 47 percent.  The number of those who believe God played no role in creation has tripled since 1999.

Protestants are more likely than Catholics (51 percent vs 32 percent) to believe in creationism and those who attend church services weekly or more are the highest group to believe in creationism (61 percent). Politically, conservatives (55 percent) are more likely than moderates (35 percent) and liberals (18 percent) to believe in creationism. Combining God-guided and naturalistic evolution, the majority of Americans believe the world was created through evolution through some means (58 percent). Gallup’s Megan Brenan wrote how the poll showed that the increase in support for strict evolution without the intervention of God has coincided with less Americans identifying as religious. “As Americans have become less religious over the past four decades, their beliefs about the origin of humans have shifted, with fewer now saying God created human beings in their present form and more saying humans evolved without God’s help from less advanced forms of life over millions of years.”