Grouping the Respondents of the Questionnaire
(A preliminary analysis based on 200 responses)
We conducted this questionnaire to study the different positions held by Evolutionists and Creationists. Certain of the questions were designed to result in sharp distinctions between the groups. Quesiton 106 (Humanity came to be through evolution, which occurred WITHOUT the help of God.) turned out to be a watershed question. 57.79% of the subjects disagreed strongly to the statement while 36.18% agreed somewhat or agreed strongly.
We sorted out those who disagreed strongly and called them Creationists. Those left over from the original list we call Evolutionists. We also added to the Creationists some of those who disagreed somewhat to Question 106 after considering other questions which help distinguish between Creationists and Evolutionists such as #76 (Humanity came to be through evolution, which was controlled by God.) and #78 (Adam and Eve, the first human beings, were created by God.). A few others were added to the Creationary group after reviewing the Evolutionary group and determining that they would more likely consider themselves Creationists than Evolutionists (This was our entirely call and may not reflect the actual position of these subjects. However, we feel that these few responses have little impact on the overall outcome of the study). The following chart shows the responses to Question 106 according to Evolutionists and Creationists.
After dividing the questionnaire responses into the Evolutionists and Creationists we noticed that there were some very different positions held among the Creationists. For instance, in Question 76 (Humanity came to be through evolution, which was controlled by God.) 63.78% of the Creationists disagreed strongly while 29.14% agreed strongly and agreed somewhat.
The same sort of thing occurred with Question 70 (The world is between 4 and 5 billion years old.). 53.54% of the Creationists disagreed strongly while 38.59% agreed strongly and agreed somewhat.
It therefore seem advantageous to subdivide the Creationists into two groups. We therefore sorted out all the Creationists who disagreed strongly with Questions 70 and 76 into another group. Those Creationists who agreed strongly and agreed somewhat to Questions 70 and 76 we chose to call Creationary Evolutionists because they believe that God created using evolution. Those who disagreed strongly with Questions 70 and 76 also largely (91.67%) disagreed strongly with with Question 98 (The story of the Great Flood, as told in the Bible, is symbolic rather than an actual event.) so we chose to call them Creationary Catastrophists.
The rest of the analysis of this questionnaire will show the distinctions between Evolutionists, Creationary Evolutionists and Creationary Catastrophists. The following charts show the responses to Questions 106, 78, 76, 70, and 98 (used above) for all three groups. It is important to note that when comparing between Evolutionists, Creationary Evolutionists and Creationary Catastrophists, the heights of the vertical bars are relative unimportant. What is important is to compare the patterns of the bars from camp to camp. In the charts below you can see starkly different patterns.
Question 106
Question 78
Question 76
Question 70
Question 98
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