Mummelmann said: Because its not in the bible. And the bible is true because it says so in the bible. Problem? (Insert trollface).

That's not trolling, that's pretty much what it boils down to.

Catholics have accepted evolution. Many forms of Christianity still haven't, however.

Coming from a very religious background, and having struggled with this personally in the past, the reason is usually twofold:

1. A genuine ignorance concerning what we know about evolution.

2. An unimaginative perspective in regards to evolution, preventing such people from getting past any of the perceived "holes" in current evolutionary theory (ie, the specifics behind the evolution of bisexual reproduction), causing them to denounce the theory as a whole.

A person with no biases initial regards to evolution would generally have an opinion like, "Well, we have ample evidence for evolution in general, and while I have yet to see a proper explanation for X, one probably exists, and maybe it's *spur of the moment, amateur theory*." On the other hand, a person with ideological reasons to not believe in evolution (Creationists, etc.) will go, "Ok, you have evidence for A, B, and C, but what about for X, huh? Evolution can't work without that!"

I've made a slow journey from an evolution-skeptic Catholic to an evolution embracing atheist over the past two years, and I'm still part of a family that disagrees with me quite strongly on many of these issues. I have much experience with these types of people.

Having lived in Texas most of my life, I can definitely say I was in the minority for agreeing with evolution and human influenced global warming. Worldwide, I suppose most Christians agree with evolution, but definitely not where I am from.

Hm.. seems like you answered your own question, "some Christians" actually do believe in Evolution.

In a Religion with ~2 billion believers (out of which a lot are just too preoccupied with trying to live another day to think deeply about how we came into existance) there are bound to be differences in what the people actualy believe and you seem to have witnessed those who do not accept Evolution (although they had the time and education available to them), that's bound to happen as well.

To conclude from that experience, that the majority of Christians are actually against (to be against sth you must atleast have heard about it) this "theory" or other popular scientific theories is wronging a whole lot of people, which is probably why there are so many responses here, although I expect video game forums to be largly "atheistic" (which in my opinion isn't true either, as not few seem to pick up console manufacturers or certain games as their substitute religion).

Most kids are born and raised in second/third world countries and (as I hinted at earlier) they and their families dont have the leisure time to think about any of these things, so I guess you are coincidentally right with your assumption, that most Christians and most religious people (no matter of which faith) dont believe in any of the pretty well documentated theories scientists came up with, but are they really against them?

Now, I have used the word "theories" a lot here to point out, that there are uncertainties to Evolution and even way more so to the "Big bang" and so on and thats GOOD, because uncertainty means that there is room to adjust these (or "evolve" them if you want ;) ) when there are more/new findings. In all Religions (or at least all that I know of) there are only "facts", which is why they are convenient. I don't mind the majority of people "sticking to the facts", if they let room for the people who are into uncertainties.

Hm. I may create an Evolution 101 thread out of a reformatting of an e-mail I sent some family members awhile ago, providing a general overview of what we currently know about evolutionary theory, examples of evolution scientists have observed over the past 50 years, and things like that.

the question here should be how may americans actual know what the theory of evolution is?

To vaguely paraphrase some quote I heard a while ago "Each transitional fossil we find is a travesty - it adds two new holes to be filled on either side of it"

Essentially it's impossible to get a truly complete evolutionary chain because evolution is a continuous not a discrete process, in addition to that fossilisation is an uncommon process that only occurs in certain conditions so a large part of what once lived on this earth simply no longer has fossils (and another part has fossils that have yet to be found). This means that the evolutionary chain can never be 'complete' and no scientist will ever claim it can be, however much can be extrapolated from what we do know.

However some chains of evolution are remarkably complete - for example the evolution of the horse or of modern humans.

not sure if that was directed at me, but i have said i believe in evoltuion, but the proof is simply not there for a 100% verification that that is what happened to humans. Its a sound and thought out theory we simply can't proove withh 100% certainty at this point in time. So for me that makes it easier for me to understand how some people can not believe in it. That is all.

personally, i think its good to always question what some consider to be established knowledge. too many people create little bubbles for themselves with things they "know" when they either have no idea about anything or really shouldnt limit their thinking like that.