From Article
Today, the theory of evolution is accepted by
most Americans — including most religious believers — but still resisted by a
significant minority. According to a Pew poll
in 2018, 18 percent of American adults deny the theory of evolution.
Among white evangelical Protestants (a core part of the Trump base), 38 percent
say that humans have always existed in their present form. Having 18 percent of
the adult population in the anti-evolution camp might not seem like a lot, but
it translates to roughly 37.6 million people — the population of Canada — who
reject a core tenet of modern science.
I suspect there is a lot of overlap between
anti-evolutionists, anti-maskers and climate deniers. That hostility to
science, found far more on the right than the left, makes it much harder to
deal with major crises such as global warming or the coronavirus. Ninety-five
years after the Scopes trial, the foes of science are more potent politically
than ever — and we are all paying the price.
