Science is losing out to the Bible in the USA, a deeply disturbing factoid in the world's most tech savvy country.

A new Values and Beliefs Survey by the polling firm Gallup, Inc. revealed that four in 10 Americans believe God created the Earth and modern humans less than 10,000 years ago.

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Only 19 percent said they believe evolution occurred without God involved.

On the other hand, scientists are almost unanimous in stating the Earth was formed some 4.5 billion years ago and that the ancestors of modern humans appeared 2.5 million years ago.

The survey also revealed that half of Americans believe humans evolved over millions of years-but most of these people said God guided the process.

It showed that religious, less educated, and older respondents were likelier to believe the Earth was created from 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, a point of view held by "creationists" who believe the universe and living organisms originated from divine creation.

In the U.S., creationism is associated with Christian fundamentalists who reject human evolution and believe in a "young Earth."

Religion was positively tied to creationism beliefs. Over two-thirds of those who attend weekly religious services believe in a young Earth compared with just 23 percent of those who never go to church.

On the bright side, the percentage of Americans who believe human beings evolved without God has more than doubled. The percentage who believe in God-guided evolution has also dropped.

The belief of many Americans in divine creation becomes understandable when one takes into account Americans have consistently reported high levels of belief in the supernatural. Some 80 percent of Americans believe in miracles while three in four persons believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, said a Pew survey taken in  2013.

Distressingly, many Americans seem to have little lust for science. A 2014 National Science Foundation study found that only 48 percent of Americans said "Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals."

The NSF study also discovered that one in four Americans believe the Sun revolves around the Earth and not vice versa.

In the survey, Gallup called a random sample of 1,028 landline and celphone users and asked them which of three descriptions most closely matched their beliefs: that humans have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process; that humans have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process; or that God created human beings pretty much in their present form sometime in the last 10,000 years or so.

Gallup has asked Americans similar questions since 1982.

TagsGallup Survey, American beliefs, Bible, Religion vs Science, Christianity