Well, color me surprised. It’s depressing in so many directions that the GOP rejects evolution overwhelmingly, but I’d be lying if I said this was really “news” to me.

A Gallup poll released Monday said that while the country is about evenly split over whether the theory of evolution is true, Republicans disbelieve it by more than 2-to-1.

Republicans saying they don’t believe in evolution outnumbered those who do by 68 percent to 30 percent in the survey. Democrats believe in evolution by 57 percent to 40 percent, as do independents by a 61 percent to 37 percent margin.

The poll also said that those who go to church often are far likelier to reject evolution than those who do not.

I’m just aghast that barely over half of Democrats believe in evolution. This number should be huge, the American population should be almost universally agreeing that we evolved from lesser beings. Assuming that the country is fairly even between Democrats and the GOP, with third-party voters in a small minority, it’s a safe bet that more than half of the American populace rejects evolution. More than half.

Want to know why American education standards seem to be dropping? It’s because we have a populace that considers a “scientific theory” be on par with wildly unfounded claims and personal opinions.