Looks like the Brits are no better than the Yanks when it comes to believing daft religious stuff. A poll conducted by the BBC, for their Horizon science show, revealed the following:

Over 2000 participants took part in the survey, and were asked what best described their view of the origin and development of life:

• 22% chose creationism

• 17% opted for intelligent design

• 48% selected evolution theory

• and the rest did not know.

[…]

When given a choice of three descriptions for the development of life on Earth, people were asked which one or ones they would like to see taught in science lessons in British schools:

• 44% said creationism should be included

• 41% intelligent design

• 69% wanted evolution as part of the science curriculum.

Participants over 55 were less likely to choose evolution over other groups.

What’s wrong with 40% of the population that they feel that creationism provides a scientific account of the creation of the world. “God said, let there be light, and there was light, and God saw that the light was good” – yeah, that’s fucking scientific!

The ‘over 55s’ line has me wondering: I’d like to see a breakdown of the results by age. Given that British society (and Australian and Irish for that matter) has become less religious over the last 50 years, does that mean that the proportion choosing evolution is somewhat inversely proportional to age? Maybe increasing secularity just means that the same number of people believe in creationism/ID they just don’t see the need to worship whatever flavour of god they see as the creator.