Are Republicans or Democrats More Anti-Science? - Reason Magazine

Are Republicans or Democrats More Anti-Science? - Reason Magazine

On biological evolution, the survey reported that 97 percent of scientists agree that living things, including human beings, evolved over time and that 87 percent of them think that this was an entirely natural process not guided by a supreme being. Some 36 percent of Democrats believe that humans naturally evolved; 22 percent believe that evolution was guided by a supreme being; and 30 percent don’t believe humans have evolved over time. The corresponding figures for Republicans are 23 percent, 26 percent, and 39 percent, respectively.

Percent affirming	Scientists	Democrats	Republicans
Living things evolved	97	58	59
Unguided process	87	36	23
Guided by supreme being	10	22	26
Did not happen	3	30	39

On climate change, the Pew survey reported that 84 percent of scientists believe that the recent warming is the result of human activity. Among Democrats, 64 percent responded that the Earth is getting warming mostly due to human activity, whereas only 30 percent of Republicans thought so. That is truly a deep divide on this scientific issue.

Percent affirming	Scientists	Democrats	Republicans
Human activity causing global warming	84	64	30
Funding embryonic stem cell research		71	38
Favor animal research		48	62
Favor building nuclear plants	70	45	62
Think biotech foods are safe		42	48