Belief in Creationism is Widespread in Britain, According to New Survey

To go back to that remark by Adrain Gill that “It would be nice to see the argument for intelligent design given a separate programme” on Television. To take that remark seriously, Gill’s essay comes not long after an opinion poll reported at the end of January in the DailyTelegraph, 31 January. The caption in the Daily Telegraph said, “Poll reveals public doubts over Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution
Belief in creationism is widespread in Britain, according to a new survey.”
It was “By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent.” Said Wynne-Jones, “This year marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species.” It was the next statement that surprised me: “More than half of the public believe that the theory of evolution cannot explain the full complexity of life on Earth, and a “designer” must have lent a hand, the findings suggest. And one in three believe that God created the world within the past 10,000 years.” After all the publicity given to Darwinism in publications and over the airways? Well, I thought of Adrian Gill’s comment above in the Sunday Times where he says, “It would be nice to see the argument for intelligent design given a separate programme, . . .” Said Wynne-Jones in the Telegraph, “The survey, by respected polling firm ComRes, will fuel the debate around evolution and creationism ahead of next week’s 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin.”
Now consider this finding in the poll: “Asked whether it was true that ‘God created the world sometime in the last 10,000 years’, 32 per cent agreed, 60 per cent disagreed and eight per cent did not know.” Translate that into population figures for the UK and that amounts to around 20 million people who trust more in the Creation story of the Bible than in the Darwinian theory!
Needless to say the report included a comment from Professor Richard Dawkins to the effect that he found the report very disturbing. The report then goes on to say that, “A recent poll of science teachers found that one in three believe creationism should be taught in science classes alongside evolution and the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe.”
So the big question, why is there the resistance to Adrian Gill’s suggestion that “It would be nice to see the argument for intelligent design given a separate programme”? And I should add, that it be presented by someone who believes in the Intelligent Design theory!
If the opinion poll suggests that 32% of the population believe in the creation story, despite the imense media coverage in favour of evolution, what might the outcome be if similar media coverage was given to the Intelligent Design and Creation theorists? Despite the ID/Creationist lobby only having the Internet where they can freely express their views, they appear to have been very successful according to the statistics! What if they were given fair coverage in the public media? The attack on the Christian church by the band of ‘new atheists’ suggests to me there would be an awful lot for them to lose if the evolution lobby was to let the Christian church have proportional representation in the public media - to allow a right of reply! From the THEOS report I would think the media would attract quite an audience!