33 percent of Americans reject evolution

by Simon 33 Replies latest social current

• 

  ilikecheese

  I tend to go to churches that are a bit more conservative about their faith, even though I am totally not haha, and most of the under-40 crowd believes in theistic evolution. I think if you take away the older religious folk, the number would be much lower. At least I think so. Most Christians don't take the Genesis account literally these days.

  If you are a Christian and happen to say that you believe in evolution to a super-literal Bible thumper, though... Watch out! You will learn how much "Satan is working on your mind."
• 

  never a jw

  Pretty amazing! I was disappointed, surprise and puzzled by that fact two years ago. The greeks (presocratics) 2,500 years ago were a lot smarter, knowledgeable and open minded than those superstitious 1/3 of America today. I am glad the other 2/3 of Americans are carrying the load to advance science and human knowledge even for the benefit of those superstitious people
• 

  snare&racket

  Scary...... But it has improved drastically, it was nearer 50% ten years ago.
• 

  DS211

  No, its simple. Theyd rather have someone tell them what evo is and not read it for themselves...to many reading what evokution really is may prove a boring task.

  I struggle with it but with patience it helps. Many americans are not patient.
• 

  designs

  It is a disturbing number. Thank the Fundamentalists for keeping ignorance alive and well...
• 

  Pistoff

  It's worse than you think:

  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/bigphotos/21329204.html

  Yes, that's right, we are ahead only of Turkey on acceptance of evolution among democracies.

  Almost 1/2 of Republicans reject evolution, a number that is going up.

  From Pew Research:

  " There also are sizable differences by party affiliation in beliefs about evolution, and the gap between Republicans and Democrats has grown. In 2009, 54% of Republicans and 64% of Democrats said humans have evolved over time, a difference of 10 percentage points. Today, 43% of Republicans and 67% of Democrats say humans have evolved, a 24-point gap."

  This is not a good sign for the GOP.
• 

  Phizzy

  I think there must be considerable difference between education in the U.S and here in the U.K

  During the mid-1960's I was taught in High School that Evolution was an established Scientific Theory. Our Science Master though did grudgingly say that most authorities of the time still believed that God originated the Universe. I got the impression that he personally did not believe that, by the way he said it.

  I don't think any of my contempories left my School with any doubt about the factual backing for Evolution. It may have been different in Faith Scools, and other Schools, but I think in the main it was taught accurately, and that was half a Century ago, you Yanks have some catching up to do !
• 

  Simon

  Although our high school students seem to learn a number of scientific factoids by the time they greaduate, the do not understand the fundamentals of how science works and how we know what we know. Until we fix that problem, examples of ignorance will pop up all over the political spectrum.

  I agree - the western education system seems to focus on an ability to recall and recit facts rather than truly understand how things work and how they can be manipulated and controlled.

  The result is people who can pass exams (the goal of the education system) but who don't really have in-depth understanding of science or any passion for it.
• 

  Simon

  The UK is very secular. The biggest difference being that in the UK you are probably unelectable if you believe in god but in the US you are definitely unelectable if you say you don't.
• 

  BU2B

  Jeff T- I find it amazing that you seem to know what constitutes scientific ignorance and what does not. You listed things, some of which have merit and some that do not, but to put all of those things, Anti-Vac, Flouridation opponents, and animal rights activists, all under the umbrella of ignorance is troubling. I suppose if you believe anything, supported by studies or not, that conflicts with the establishment view, than it is ignorance?