I know that in many ways, Americans can be quite conservative, but even this surprised me: as CBS News reports, according to a recent poll, 51% of Americans believe wholly in creationism -- that God was entirely responsible for creating humans in their present form:

Americans most likely to believe in only evolution are liberals (36 percent), those who rarely or never attend religious services (25 percent), and those with a college degree or higher (24 percent). White evangelicals (77 percent), weekly churchgoers (74 percent) and conservatives (64 percent), are mostly likely to say God created humans in their present form.

This actually represents an “improvement” since November 2004, when 55% of Americans polled said that they believed wholly in creationism. However, I should note that it is certainly possible to be “liberal” or “progressive” while still being religious and even believing in creationism (i.e., certain Protestant denominations such as the United Church of Christ).

Maybe this is just an example of how academics like us whose lives center on the “ivory tower” do sometimes live in an insular world, where we sometimes do seem to be out of touch with “mainstream” (or at least majority) American society, values, and beliefs.