When Gallup released its 2012 data on Americans’ acceptance of evolution, we learned that 46% of Americans were Creationists, believing that God created us in our present forms within the past 10,000 years. (An additional 32% believed in God-guided evolution while only 15% accept natural evolution.)

Now, the Pew Research Center has released its own data on the matter and they appear to have slightly better news: Only 33% of Americans are Creationists!

According to Pew’s data, 24% of Americans believe in God-guided evolution while only 32% offer the response that all the evidence points to.
So why are those responses so different from Gallup? Mostly, I would think, because the phrasing of the question is slightly different in the two instances.
But here’s where it gets really weird… yet completely predictable.
In case you needed more evidence that science has become a pawn in the culture wars and that evolution is now, somehow, a partisan issue, Republicans over the past four years have become more likely to accept Creationism, from 39% in 2009 to 48% in 2013:

It’s no surprise when you consider how many anti-science Republicans sit on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. Or how even GOP presidential candidates have no problem admitting they deny basic science.
You know, there is one easy way to fix this problem: If President Obama just announced that he’s a Creationist, the Republicans would become science advocates in a heartbeat.