Nature Middle East | House of Wisdom

Saudi Arabia leads the world in evolution denial

Human evolution.pngAccording to Ipsos, a survey-based research company, a survey of 23 countries found Saudi Arabia to have the highest number of creationists in the world.

28% of respondents to the Internet-based survey referred to themselves as “creationists and believe that human beings were in fact created by a spiritual force such as the God they believe in and do not believe that the origin of man came from evolving from other species such as apes.”

Saudi Arabia, the only Arab state in the survey, lead this group, with 75% of respondents from the kingdom saying they are creationists and refuse the theory of evolution. In second place came Turkey, a stronghold of creationism for so long, with 60% replying they are creationists. Indonesia rounded up third place, with 57% of participants relating themselves to creationism.

The three countries, which are all predominantly Muslim, believe that all creatures were created ‘as is’ and there was no evolution, especially with humans. However, they do not necessarily relate to the Young Earth theory – but believe in an Earth billions of years old.

Four out of 10 of the participants from all the countries answered they are evolutionists “and believe that human beings were in fact created over a long period of time of evolution growing into fully formed human beings they are today from lower species such as apes.”

The survey, which was conducted during September 2010, was answered by a sample of 18,531, with 500 of the participants from Saudi Arabia. The sample addressed adults aged 16-64.

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