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Many people still reject Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution

Many people still reject Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution

Nick Spencer is quoted in The Economist for his comments on Charles Darwin and public disbelief in the theory of evolution. 12/02/2019

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The Economist quotes Nick Spencer in an article entitled, ‘Many people still reject Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.’ The quotes are taken from a comment piece penned by Nick Spencer on Darwin Day, in response to an opinion poll on evolution beliefs in the U.K. The poll, commissioned by Puffin Books to promote a children’s edition of ‘The Origin of Species’, suggests that Britons are turning away from the theory of evolution.

“Nick Spencer of Theos, a think–tank devoted to religion, notes that whatever is making young people cautious about accepting Darwin, the main factor cannot be messages they are receiving in places of worship (which very few attend) or the influence of fundamentalist schools, which form only a tiny segment of British education. In the Catholic and Anglican schools which account for a much bigger sector, Darwin’s ideas have been fully accepted for many decades: any teacher who deviates from that line will attract controversy, but the number of such cases is quite low, in Mr Spencer’s view.”

Read the Economist article in full here.

Nick Spencer

Nick Spencer

Nick is Senior Fellow at Theos. He is the author of a number of books and reports, including Magisteria: the entangled histories of science and religion (Oneworld, 2023), The Political Samaritan: how power hijacked a parable (Bloomsbury, 2017), The Evolution of the West (SPCK, 2016) and Atheists: The Origin of the Species (Bloomsbury, 2014). He is host of the podcast Reading Our Times.

Watch, listen to or read more from Nick Spencer

Posted 12 February 2019

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