A new study found that one in five religious Americans have a strong understanding and support for science and its practical uses but still reject certain scientific explanations for creation and evolution.

Researchers from the University of Evansville in Indiana confirmed a common assumption about people: they'll either favor a scientific or religious approach to life.

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In conducting the study, researchers looked at nationally representative data on American adults from the general social survey conducted in 2006, 2008 and 2010. They examined responses from 2,901 people to 18 questions on knowledge of and attitudes toward science and four religion-related questions

Their findings showed that 43 percent of participants held a traditional religious perspective, 36 percent favored science while 21 percent fit into the "post secular" category or those who take a "cafeteria approach" to the opposing subjects.

Americans that are part of this "post-secular perspective" tended to have high levels of education and income, study suggests.

Post seculars were found to be deeply religious and among the three groups, were most likely to take the Bible as the literal word of God but they also had a strong understanding of science. They believe in scientific findings on areas such as geology, radioactivity and genetics, but reject theories about evolution and the Big Bang.

"These people know the scientific explanation for the origins of humanity and the universe because they are, overall, knowledgeable about things like genetics, radioactivity, planetary motion and other scientific issues. However, they disagree that the universe began with a big explosion and that humans evolved from other species of animals. This indicates that it is not that they don't know the science; they just don't agree with it," said Shiri Noy, a University of Wyoming Department of Sociology assistant professor.

The findings appeared in a recent edition of the American Sociological Review.

TagsReligion, Science, evolution theory, Big Bang Theory, scientific findings, cafeteria approach, post-secular perspective