" Since 1982, between 40% and 50% of adults in the United States say they hold the creationist view that 'God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years'. "
But I still don't really buy the accuracy of these numbers for the matter at hand here. I suspect that when asked by a pollster, someone who answers affirmative to this question is doing so because their religion has told them to believe that.
The pollster probably doesn't ask a follow-up question of the form, "C'mon, really?" I suspect the answer would often be, "Yeah, not really. But the priest/minister/religion-dude/whatever says it a whole bunch, plus it's in that book we are forced to read over and over."
People like to have their pet beliefs that they know to be factually incorrect. I like to believe my taste in music is superior to just about everyone else's. But it's not.
Apologies for my sacrilege here if you are religious.
Yes, if the pollster started bullying people who answered one way, that would probably warp the results... those polls are performed by polling organizations that are well regarded because they don't try to warp their polling results like that.
The mere fact that so many Americans would answer that way, even if they didn't honestly believe it 6 days out of the week, is 1) notable, 2) disturbing.
I'm very skeptical of the idea that around half of the people around me think the existence of the earth or humans are less than 10,000 years old and I live in an extremely religious state (Utah). Mormons aren't known for being creationists though so perhaps my personal experience is unusual.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/155003/hold-creationist-view-huma...
And, more importantly, the linked poll questions and methodology:
http://www.gallup.com/file/poll/155006/Creationism_120601.pd...
So, yes, while there will be a fair bit of overlap between those who answered "created in their present from in the last 10,000 years" and those who believe the earth is less than 6,000 years old, the questions are not equivalent.
God created Adam and Eve as adults. They had an age (non zero).
The stars had light immediately shining across the sky. So this implies age (via time). etc.