To be exact a little under 40% believe in special creation - the mainstream Christian position (and more common even in the US) is that evolution is part of God's creation.

The US is very odd, not only in having large numbers of members of creationist churches, but also in tat a lot of members of churches that oppose creationism and Biblical literalism are quite often creationist.

The good news is that there is a downward trend in creationism.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/210956/belief-creationist-view-...

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jacquesm 4 days ago | parent [-]

That's not so odd if you take into account that a lot of US citizens trace their origins back to people that left Europe because their beliefs were conflicting with those of the established churches. And because the established churches did not have a strong presence in the United States (or actually, its predecessor) these suddenly found themselves to be the dominant religion in sometimes much larger regions than they ever could have hoped for back in the home country. And when the population boomed so did their numbers.

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graemep 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

It explains how it came about but not entirely why it persisted. It is also interesting that it has influenced the views of members of the established churches in the US.

I am not saying its unexplained, just that I do not understand it personally (I really do not understand the American culture and society at all well).

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dylan604 4 days ago | parent [-]

There are people that believe in flat-earth. Not entirely sure why it persists.

There's a difference of holding firm in one's existing belief/understanding and not just changing the beliefs as the winds change, but only with strong compelling evidence. It's entirely different when that evidence is presented in multiple forms and yet one still chooses to ignore it.

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graemep 4 days ago | parent [-]

Flat-earthers are very few. You only really see them on social media where rage bait and fake stupidity get engagement.

	▲	jacquesm 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		A close family member does not believe in evolution. No amount of evidence will suffice. People can get closed minded around the weirdest things.

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notahacker 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I think that background also helped entrench outspoken religiosity in US culture.

There's also the dynamics of having lots of variants of Christianity competing for attention (perfect for the age of televangelism) versus Europeans losing faith in established churches