Statistics, employed to ascertain the public opinion regarding some topics, might be a debatable procedure, and sometimes the relevance of the results obtained in such a way must be considered cautiously (you can see Evolutionism, Creationism, and the U.S. people). The following study can be an example of the preceding assumption.
Kansas Board of Education members debated whether to reverse a two-year-old policy that placed less emphasis on the teaching of evolution in school science classes. In 1999, by a 6-4 margin, the board voted to change the state’s science education standards to place more emphasis on creationism, the biblical theory that God created the earth and man in seven days. However, two board members who supported that policy change failed to win re-election in November, 2000, and were replaced by candidates who supported the teaching of evolution.
The American public favors teaching creationism in schools along with evolution (68% favor and 29% oppose), but is opposed to the idea of teaching creationism instead of evolution, by a 55% to 40% margin. Further, Gallup polls conducted last year suggest that a quarter of Americans believe teaching creationism should be required of the public schools, while another 56% say creationism should at least be offered to students as a subject of study.
Employed Method:
The results reported above were based on two Gallup polls, both with telephone interviews of a randomly selected national sample of about 1,000 adults, 18 years and older. The most recent poll was conducted August 24-26, 1999, while the other Gallup poll was conducted June 25-27, 1999. For results based on sample of this size, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
Source: The Gallup Organization (www.gallup.com/poll)