Fewer than one in five Americans say they think humanity evolved to its current state without any input from God, according to a new poll out from Gallup -- but the stats show that number's on the rise.
According to the latest numbers, only 19 percent of Americans told the polling agency they believe man evolved on his own from the Great Cosmic Goo, completely without divine intervention.
While that’s still a significantly small amount compared to the whole, it’s more than double the 9 percent who held this view in 1982.
In fact, Gallup noted that the number of Americans who God created mankind in its present form is the lowest it’s been since the group first started asking the question in 1982.
Only 38 percent of respondents said they think God created man in his current state, down from 46 percent just one decade ago. Another 38 percent said God may have gotten the ball rolling, but that the human race slowly evolved into what it is now.
This is the first time since 1982 -- when Gallup began asking this question using this wording -- that belief in God's direct creation of man has not been the outright most-common response. Overall, roughly three-quarters of Americans believe God was involved in man's creation -- whether that be the creationist view based on the Bible or the view that God guided the evolutionary process, outlined by scientist Charles Darwin and others. Since 1982, agreement with the "secular" viewpoint, meaning humans evolved from lower life forms without any divine intervention, has doubled.
Only 21 percent of Americans with post-grad education say they believe in creationism, while 31 percent say they think mankind evolved without any help from God.
On the other hand, 65 percent of weekly church attendees said they believe God created man in his current state less than 10,000 years ago. Only 1 percent said they believe man evolved on his own.