Apr 21, 2014 03:55 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

A new poll has revealed a majority of Americans are skeptical when it comes to the Big Bang Theory, the story of the universe's creation accepted virtually throughout the entire scientific community.

According to the Associated Press, 54 percent of Americans are extremely confident a "supreme being" guided the Earth's creation. Just 21 percent had the same confidence in the Big Bang theory.

Conducted by the AP and GfK, the poll asked respondents to rate their confidence in a series of scientific statements. Americans had the most confidence in the assertion that smoking causes cancer, with 82 percent answering "extremely/very confident." Only one percent of respondents were "not at all confident" that smoking causes cancer.

CLICK HERE to see the full results of the survey.

Other survey items included global warming, mental illness, genetic code, antibiotics, childhood vaccinations and the Earth's age.

Nearly 40 percent of respondents do not believe the Earth is warming due to manmade gasses affecting our planet's atmosphere. Only 31 percent said they believed global warming is occurring.

"Science ignorance is pervasive in our society, and these attitudes are reinforced when some of our leaders are openly antagonistic to established facts," 2013 Nobel Prize in medicine winner Randy Schekman told the AP.

The poll reveals views on scientific issues are directly tied to religious beliefs and political leanings. Democrats tended to side more with science, expressing more confidence in global warming, the big bang and the age of the Earth. Republicans answered more in favor of faith-based views, like creationism, the denial of climate change and a much younger planet.

"When you are putting up facts against faith, facts can't argue against faith," 2012 Nobel Prize winning biochemistry professor Robert Lefkowitz, of Duke University, told the AP. "It makes sense now that science would have made no headway because faith is untestable."

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