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hide captionA display of a series of skeletons showing the evolution of humans at the Peabody Museum, New Haven, Conn., circa 1935.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A new national survey showing that the share of Republicans who believe in evolution has tumbled from 54 to 43 percent over the past four years comes at an inopportune time.
The Pew Research poll suggests that the GOP, already struggling with an identity crisis and facing ferocious internal battles, is out of sync on the issue with independents and young voters, who are far more likely to believe in the science of evolution than their forebears.
(The survey showed that 68 percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 29 believe that humans have evolved over time; less than half of those ages 65 and older share that belief. Two-thirds of independent voters also believe humans have evolved over time.)
But just how politically significant is the finding, which shows that the evolution belief gap between Republicans and Democrats has since 2009 grown from 10 percentage points to 24 points?
For partisan critics eager to paint the GOP as anti-science, the results feed a well-tended narrative that includes a similar and growing partisan divide on global warming. Pew survey results released in October showed that 46 percent of Republicans said there was