The level of support for evolution among scientists, the public and other groups is a topic that frequently arises in the creation-evolution controversy and touches on educational, religious, philosophical, scientific and political issues. The subject is primarily contentious in the United States. However, it is also important in other countries where creationists advocate the teaching of creationism as an alternative to evolution , or portray the modern evolutionary synthesis as an inadequate scientific paradigm . The vast majority of the scientific community and academia supports evolutionary theory as the only explanation that can fully account for observations in the fields of biology , paleontology , molecular biology , genetics , anthropology , and others. [ 19 ] [ 20 ] [ 21 ] [ 22 ] [ 23 ] One 1987 estimate found that "700 scientists ... (out of a total of 480,000 U.S. earth and life scientists) ... give credence to creation-science". [ 24 ] An expert in the evolution-creationism controversy, professor and author Brian Alters , states that "99.9 percent of scientists accept evolution". [ 25 ] A 1991 Gallup poll found that about 5% of American scientists (including those with training outside biology) identified themselves as creationists. [ 26 ] [ 27 ] Additionally, the scientific community considers intelligent design , a neo-creationist offshoot, to be unscientific, [ 28 ] pseudoscience , [ 29 ] [ 30 ] or junk science . [ 31 ] [ 32 ] The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has stated that