by d 281 Replies latest members politics
I don't personally tend to give statistics that much credibility. They are too easily wrong. Depends on the questions; depends on the group asked and the variance in that group. Stats have some truth to them, probably, but I don't take them to be 'gospel', lol.
Peace,
tammy
I am not asking you for an apology. I'm asking for statistics, and why I should hold the Gallup numbers with deep suspicions.
NC
Tec---I don't know how things go in your government meetings---but here is a peek into what happens on our house floor when discussing something as important as climate change. I suppose we are overreacting when we are concerned that religion is weaving itself so insidiously into our goverment policy.
I'm telling you, New Chapter, that you are very intelligent. Very. Still, you accepted the statistic and quickly laid blame on religion. But here is a time when thinking outside the box is in order. Where is the reaction in you that doesn't blindly accept this statistic that honestly is quite farfetched. If you ask every person you meet, who is old enough to understand and has been to public school in America, how old is the earth, the answer might be an I'm not sure. A lot will answer millions or billions of years old. I just asked Julian: "4.5 billion years, but that is not necessarily true, we don't really know exactly." Unless a person has been to a specific church that drills the less than 10,000 year old number into his/her head or they watch the 700 Club, he or she probably isn't going to even know the less than 10,000 year number.
Hey, NC... believe me, I wouldn't want your politicians, lol. We tend to shake our heads a little up here, or just ignore the religious stuff and see what secular stuff is being decided. I understand your frustration. I don't know how much I get from news sources is a true representation of the people in your country, though.
Peace,
tammy
I still have AOL. Huffington Post does many of the articles for AOL. Most of them are sensationalistic. Check out AOL.com sometime and look at the stuff they crank out. They've lost their credibility with a lot of AOL users, including me, for this reason. I'm serious, look at the articles they post on any given day. Many of them are about who is missing, who's been murdered, who's been tortured. Sensationalism at its finest.
I don't know how much I get from news sources is a true representation of the people in your country, though.
Well looking at the representatives they put into office can tell you a great deal. The guy above was voted in. My state passed an amendmant that would make any law allowing same sex marriage against the constitution of our state. (Here, each state has it's own constitution---although it does not have more power than the US constitution, and our US constitution allows states to make marriage laws).
That we have elected officials that insist on redefining our history as a Christian nation. A candidate that won a lot of primaries that does not believe in separation of church and state. A party that has made birth control an issue during this critical time, which means they have a lot of faith that many Americans are on their side.
Since these are the people being voted in, I think it is safe to say that they represent the sentiment, or are at least tolerated, by a significant portion of the voting public. At a republican debate they actually asked the question 'do you believe in evolution'. What kind of question is that in a political debate? But it was asked because it's an important question to the republican party. None of the candidates believed in evolution, and I believe to have admitted such, would have been political suicide in that party.
As I said, I will no longer argue the statistic, however all I really need to do is look at the direction of government and who is winning elections to get the picture I need. There is a huge problem. It is the religious right that is hijacking the government---which means a significant portion of the US is on board with their agenda. And that is disturbing.
Oklahoma passed a law banning Sharia law. Sharia law is already unconstitutional, but the religious right stirred up fear and wasted time and resources on this. They also made it illegal to use human fetuses in food. Really? Of course, this is a sick ploy to continue the abortion debate, but they spent time and resources passing these laws. And that is because a significant portion of Americans want these issues addressed. I'm sure it makes you shake your head, but this is our reality. It is happening all over the country.
NC
Here are the numbers straight from Gallup---not filtered through huffpo.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/21814/evolution-creationism-intelligent-design.aspx
I don't take everything Gallup comes up with as hardline. They call random people and ask their opinions. They have called me before. It's a poll of a few people. Think outside the box.
