One-third of Americans reject evolution, poll shows

One can only hope that there is a flaw in the poll, because otherwise, it's nothing to laugh about. It reflects horribly on the collective intelligence of this nation that a full third of the population could be so incredibly ignorant. We should be ashamed that our educational system has allowed this to happen, and it is equally bizarre that the overwhelming number of ignorant Americans who believe this tripe are Republicans. I know several Republicans, and I can't think of one who doesn't believe in evolution. Too strange.

 

Only 1/3? I actually thought it would be more than that.

 

Seriously? Then if ignorance is bliss, we must be the happiest nation on earth.

 

http://www.pewforum.org/2013/12/30/publics-views-on-human-evolution/



According to this, women are less likely to believe in evolution than men. Any ideas why this might be the case?

 

Kind of reminds me of al-Ghazali deciding that zero was the literal devil and pretty much throwing the Abbasid caliphate into the dark ages when years of science, math and philosophy were abandoned in favor of funadamentalist religion.

But it worked out fine for the Arabs...amirite?

 

america edumicashun sistem be gud at smart making

 

Fewer U.S. Republicans believe in evolution now than five years ago, with a Pew Research poll finding an 11 percentage point drop.

In a poll of almost 2,000 Americans, 43 percent of Republican respondents said they believe humans have evolved over time, a drop from 54 percent in 2009, a Pew release said Monday.

Sixty-seven percent of Democratic respondents said they believe in evolution, a rise of 3 percent from 2009.


Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/201...n-evolution/UPI-38991388442213/#ixzz2p07JT9MZ

 

Frightening...

Interesting to see that Republicans have about 20% more idiots.

 

The thing that is disappointing about this is that there is no real conflict between faith and science - the historical story about "Evil religion inquisition shuttering down science" is a giant myth, and in fact scientists in the past were viewed as truly holy - for since God created everything, does not understanding how the world works brings oneself closer to Him?

There are things which ethics ( of which religion is a subset) can answer that science cannot, and things which science can answer that ethics cannot. There is no reason the two cannot work together, but reactionaries must be as they are.

 

Horse****

 

Horse****. Tell that to Galileo Galilei.

 

The Galileo story is greatly exaggerated, largely born out of the different norms of the day. It's similar to the fact that mentioning "Dark Ages" to any respectable medieval historian today will provoke rolled eyes and sighs - I'll elaborate shortly.

The point is that there's no reason that a Christian cannot believe in evolution, which makes the results of this poll all the more depressing. As Krauthammer observed,

"How ridiculous to make evolution the enemy of God. What could be more elegant, more simple, more brilliant, more economical, more creative, indeed more divine than a planet with millions of life forms, distinct and yet interactive, all ultimately derived from accumulated variations in a single double-stranded molecule, pliable and fecund enough to give us mollusks and mice, Newton and Einstein? Even if it did give us the Kansas State Board of Education, too."

 

This is a bit of a misnomer. The Church was actually open to listening to Galileo's views. He got in trouble because he sort of attacked the Pope, as opposed to his actual scientific views.

Plenty of world-class scientists have also been unflinching believers as well. As Kojirou said, there is no fundamental reason for that to be inconsistent.

 

Belief and Evolution, the terms themselves, do not belong together. "Do you believe in evolution?" The question doesn't make sense. Do you believe in gravity? Whether you can be a believer and truly understand Evolution is very debatable. The large majority of prominent scientists are agnostic/atheist, because most of them like to see evidence to support their own views. Most that are believers, are believers because their family believed, as did their families and so on.

"We pronounce, judge, and declare, that you, the said Galileo, have rendered yourself vehemently suspected by this Holy Office of heresy, that is, of having believed and held the doctrine (which is false and contrary to the Holy and Divine Scriptures) that the sun is the center of the world, and that it does not move from east to west, and that the earth does move, and is not the center of the world; also, that an opinion can be held and supported as probable, after it has been declared and finally decreed contrary to the Holy Scripture, and, consequently, that you have incurred all the censures and penalties enjoined and promulgated in the sacred canons and other general and particular constituents against delinquents of this description. From which it is Our pleasure that you be absolved, provided that with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith, in Our presence, you abjure, curse, and detest, the said error and heresies, and every other error and heresy contrary to the Catholic and Apostolic Church of Rome"

 

Is anyone surprised by this poll?

Conservatives have been demonizing education and intelligence for years. Just look at who controls the Board of Ed in Texas. This is just the culmination of conservative thought.

 

False choice. The science community tries to present false choices like this poll because they know that their "science" will be very outdated over time -- just imagine how the science of only 200 years ago would be viewed today. So they try to tear down others for their own benefit.