Thabet points me to this interactive map which breaks down attitudes to Creationism in the United Kingdom by region. Refreshingly the sentiment in favor of Creationism is far lower than the United States. Below the fold I’ve reformatted the data for easier viewing and comparison.
Below is a map with the regions labeled. Wales is blue because it is the only region where theist evolution is plural majority (all other areas have atheistic evolution as the majority position).
What’s going on here? Wales & Northern Ireland fit our expectations as relatively more religious regions within England. Sectarian strife has given rise to robust Fundamentalism in Northern Ireland, while Wales has rural regions which we can expect to be socially conservative. The pattern within England is strange. London has a large number of Creationists. Why? I suspect is the vibrant multicultural nature of the city. Though the proportion of Christians is far lower in the rest of the United Kingdom, the number of those with “No Religions” seems the same, if not lower, than other regions.
This is a map of Muslims by region. I think this group is important to focus on since it is known to be a relatively Creationist segment in the United States, and there are anecdotal reports of anti-evolutionist antagonism from Muslims students in the United Kingdom. A diverse society naturally leads to diversity of opinion and world views. Evolution is a science was the product of white male hegemonic structures, and has historically been aligned with an atheist materialist sensibility which has marginalized the Other. Naturally that would result in some suspicion toward its “Truth” claims from those who evaluate assertions with non-Western heuristics and frameworks. There is more to the world out there than white European atheistic materialism, and as the percentage of peoples of color increase in Western nations naturally one would see a revival of Other Ways of Knowing which rely on culturally contextualized Truth Frames.*
* The caveat here is that most East Asian people are more materialistic than white Europeans, on average. But most immigration to Western nations is not from East Asia, so as the number of West & South Asians & Africans increases in Europe the proportion of believers will also increase.
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