This report gathers over ten years of polling data to give the fullest picture yet of the science and religion landscape in the UK. (2019)

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The ‘conflict’ between science and religion is sometimes talked up in the UK as if it were part of an emerging culture war, as it apparently is in the US.

But what is the real picture in the UK? Is Young Earth Creationism on the rise? Do religious people think more negatively about science? And if there is a conflict between science and religion, who perceives it and why?

Published to coincide with his new three–part Radio 4 documentary The Secret History of Science and Religion¸ Nick Spencer’s new Theos report “Science and Religion”: the perils of misperception gathers over ten years of polling data to give the fullest picture yet of the science and religion landscape in the UK.

Drawing on 18 major studies, the report looks at public opinion – on science and religion; evolution and creationism; scientists, scientific progress, and its moral implications – and reveals “pockets of antagonism” (rather than all–out conflict), which focus less on God or evolution, than they do the nature and status of human beings.

Nick Spencer is Senior Fellow at Theos