About the Polled
Preliminary report
In this chapter we will analyze the people who answered the questionnaire to acertain what part of the population they represent.
Age of Respondents
The age (Question 1) of those polled was something of a surprize. We had expected a more even distribution and certainly not one as top heavy as is shown.
This same distribution holds true for each of the sub-groups.
In this preliminary analysis the Evolutionists apear younger as a group than the others, the Creationary Evolutionists are older, and the Creationary Catastrophists the oldest.
This age distribution may reflect that the subject of Creationism verses Evolutionism is mostly of interest to the middle aged (and older) population. However, this sampling of 200 may not represent the full population of those interested in this topic. Another influence that may affect the results is that the questionnaire is only available on the internet. But, most High School and College age students should have more internet availability than the general population yet they have not made a significant contribution to this poll. Then again, we have not been able to advertise extensively except on some email lists and Usenet Newsgroups and the questionnaire has only been on-line for 2 months so far.
Education Levels
Not only has the age of the respondents been a surprise, but the level of schooling and it's distribution across the groups was unexpected. Just take a look at the following charts.
It is interesting to note that while the Evolutionists and Creationary Catastrophists have adherants in the lower levels of education, but that the Creationary Evolutionists do not appear to have any. This may very well be due to the sampling. However, In R. Numbers book "The Creationists: the Evolution of Creationism," there are several accounts of Creationary Evolutionists telling of their 'conversion' from Creationary Catastrophism during or after being involved in higher education. Perhaps, this is reflected in the chart above.
One thing that is very obvious is that all of the groups are highly educated. Sometimes it is claimed that one group or another is insufficient in their education. These charts show otherwise.
Academic Majors
The following charts illustrate the distribution of majors taken by those polled.
All three groups display nearly the same pattern of distribution across range of studies. Again, this illustrates that each group is equally educated.
Grade Point Averages
Here again we see remarkable correlation across the groups. Everyone appears to not only be well educated but they also did very well academically.
Who understands Science?
Sometimes it is claimed that one group or another doesn't understand science. In Question 110 we asked if the respondent understood the meaning of science. The chart below illustrates their responses.
Just to see if this was not idle boasting, we asked to see what kind of college level classes they had taken.
There is a very similar pattern across all three groups. More than 70% of each group has taken Chemistry and/or Physics and nearly 50% of each group has taken Biology. Only 25% to 40% of each group has taken geology classes and no one group seems to hold a majority position. This chart verifies the claims that the respondents do understand science.
Continuing Education
In order to keep up with the progress of knowledge in is imperative that one keep their education up to date. Therefore, we asked the question about how much reading the respondents do.
The chart shows that most of the respondents do alot of reading. True, we don't know exactly what, but a reading mind is an exercised mind.
Sex
And lastly we'll look at the split between male and female.
There is an obvious disparency between male and female in the respondents. This may be simply a sampling shortage, but it could be that women may not consider this of interest. But it is also obvious that none of the three groups shows more equality than any of the rest. Ladies, we need your responses!