Nonsense.
The difference is that I have some understanding of public opinion surveying, and my expectations are informed by that understanding.
This is just a side note, the purpose of which is not to question the poll results: the Templeton foundation has in recent years become very favorable to theistic evolution, so we cannot discount bias. Many years ago it supported the work of Dembski (who did not endorse theistic evolution), but later it switched to supporting BioLogos (which did and does). And on its governing board, at least for a while, it had theistic evolutionists such as Ard Louis (also at the time a frequent BioLogos guest columnist). Again, Iâm not saying these facts corrupted any of the polling procedures or survey questions, but just wanted to note the particular leanings of Templeton, which arenât âneutralâ regarding evolution.
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Well, since we have an expert on board here, let me ask you. How would you have framed the questions to church goers in order to get a true sounding of their belief or disbelief in evolution?
Firstly, I claimed some understanding. I did not claim to be an expert.
Secondly, I doubt that the question was ever framed explicitly to church goers. As far as I know, it would have been general public survey asking people about their view of evolution and also asking about their religious view. The data about evolutionary beliefs of church goers would have come from a suitable statistical analysis of that data.
As for the framing of questions, the best practice is to test questions on a small sample audience to try to come up with questions that do not confuse people. I would guess Pew did that. Or maybe they asked the identical questions that they had used in previous years so that they could monitor trends.
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So we can put you down for âHumans have existed in their present form since the beginning of timeâ?
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Only one like me would know to select that choice because I already know to avoid any reference to evolution altogether.
Most church-goers are going to select âhumans have evolved over time due to processes that were guided or allowed by God or a higher powerâ because they would say to themselves, âIt stands to reason that we donât look like we used to (because they have seen Neanderthals all over the internet), and besides we are smarter, we are taller, we live longer due to modern medicine and healthcare, etcâ.
Speaking frankly, they get sucked in with a baited question that throws them into an unwitting evolutionary-believing category.