According to the BBC, Turkey is adamant that church and state be kept separate:
[Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal] Ataturk was determined that this mainly Muslim nation would be a modern, secular country, and he introduced wide-ranging reforms, including the emancipation of women, the introduction of western dress, legal code and alphabet, and the abolition of Islamic institutions.
Turkey’s ruling elite and the powerful military have seen it as their job to protect what Ataturk set up.
Even politically Islamic parties maintain a secular government:
The [Justice and Development] party has its roots in political Islam, but insists it respects the secular principles of the constitution.
…
The staunchly secular elite of Turkey believes a president whose wife wears an Islamic headscarf would have Ataturk turning in his grave.
Ok. That’s all well and good.
Can someone please explain, then, why Turkey is the only nation worse than us in this survey of people’s attitudes toward evolution?

It’s hard to believe religion is so pervasive in the Turkish culture to the point that evolution is regarded as false by over half the population… and yet the people would vote to elect representatives who maintained secular values.
[tags]atheist, atheism, BBC, Turkey, church, state, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Muslim, Islam[/tags]
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