U.S. population lags in accepting evolution

[hgc]

A study published in the journal Science ranks the U.S. 2nd to last in a survey of 34 countries in the acceptance by the population of evolution.

Article in LiveScience.com...
http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060810_evo_rank.html

Interesting statistics:

The study found that over the past 20 years:

• The percentage of U.S. adults who accept evolution declined from 45 to 40 percent.
• The percentage overtly rejecting evolution declined from 48 to 39 percent, however.
• And the percentage of adults who were unsure increased, from 7 to 21 percent.

What gives?

Maybe this?

Politics is also contributing to America's widespread confusion about evolution, the researchers say. Major political parties in the United States are more willing to make opposition to evolution a prominent part of their campaigns to garner conservative votes—something that does not happen in Europe or Japan.

 

[Achán hiNidráne]

Reason.com's Hit & Run Blog brought his one up.

 

[Blue Bubble]

What I find astonishing is that the USofA was 2nd to last, and not last.

Shame on you, Turkey !

 

[Prospero]

The Christian Right claims another victory.

 

[thaiboxerken]

Christianity, dumbing america down since before the USA was established. Thanks, christians!

 

[The Atheist]

Until USA is able to elect a President who doesn't have to suck up to the christian right, there is little chance of getting off the bottom, sorry guys.

At least Turkey is predominantly Muslim, so you can claim to be the dumbest christian nation tested.

Where did NZ rate??? Not worth testing?

 

[Wolverine]

Eugenie Scott discussed the study's results with Lisa Mullins on Thursday's edition of The World.

Direct link

 

[andyandy]

looks like (from the graph) that about 20% of Brits think evolution is false....

who are these people?!

 

[Ririon]

I would have liked to see more countries on the list. South America, Africa, Asia? Muslim countries? Israel? China? India? Brazil?

 

[Almo]

US Population Lags in Accepting Anything That Makes Sense

 

[Dave1001]

Who cares if the mainstream population believes in evolution or creationism. The tragedy is that they don't believe in fetal stem cell research using discarded blastocytes from fertility clinics.

 

[CACTUSJACKmankin]

Who cares if the mainstream population believes in evolution or creationism.

Well, we are losing our edge in the sciences. China and India are starting to kick our ass. Also from an educational standpoint, you can't really have a good understanding of modern biology without a discussion of evolution. You certainly can't pursue a career in biology without being competent in evolution.

 

[Dave1001]

Well, we are losing our edge in the sciences. China and India are starting to kick our ass. Also from an educational standpoint, you can't really have a good understanding of modern biology without a discussion of evolution. You certainly can't pursue a career in biology without being competent in evolution.

I think the study/survey showed that 60% of Americans accepted evolution? We only need a tiny handful of that cohort to actually accept and understand evolution to progress in science. Even most folks working in biology and biotech don't need to understand or accept evolution to do their job. What's important is that the masses vote the right way and donate their money the right way, in my opinion.

 

[Rodney]

You certainly can't pursue a career in biology without being competent in evolution.

Over 600 doctoral scientists from around the world have now signed a statement publicly expressing their skepticism about the contemporary theory of Darwinian evolution. The statement, located online at www.dissentfromdarwin.org, reads: “We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.”

. . . Prominent signatories include . . . evolutionary biologist and textbook author Stanley Salthe; Smithsonian Institution evolutionary biologist and a researcher at the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Biotechnology Information Richard von Sternberg; Editor of Rivista di Biologia/Biology Forum --the oldest still published biology journal in the world-- Giuseppe Sermonti; and Russian Academy of Natural Sciences embryologist Lev Beloussov." See -- http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=2732

 

[thaiboxerken]

Over 600 doctoral scientists from around the world have now signed a statement publicly expressing their skepticism about the contemporary theory of Darwinian evolution.

That is a statistically insignificant number. Thanks for sharing that info, I'm sure none of us skeptical people have ever heard of this or that site (which is sponsored by the discover institute, a creationist group.)

 

[trvlr2]

That is a statistically insignificant number. Thanks for sharing that info, I'm sure none of us skeptical people have ever heard of this or that site (which is sponsored by the discover institute, a creationist group.)

Ken- I followed Rodney's link- picked the Smithsonian guy, Googled , found he is not at the Smithsonian, due to his creationist bent. (Sternberg) has filed complaints against the S. for infringing on his rights to lunacy.....

I quit. It WAS a Rodney link, y'know!

 

[Roboramma]

What's important is that the masses vote the right way and donate their money the right way, in my opinion.

And you expect them to vote that way becuase?

If I don't understand science, I obviously won't vote or donate money in a way that takes into account a good understanding of the science behind important political issues.

So, we can try to convince people to change their voting habits (or spending habits), but until we look at the underlying cause of those habits, we won't get anywhere. What needs to be addressed in scientific ignorance.
Because while people are ignorant of science, they will vote ignorantly.

Something that the creationists seem to understand quite well (see the wedge document).

 

[andyandy]

rather depressing

A UK survey of university students.....http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,1844478,00.html

In a survey last month, more than 12% questioned preferred creationism - the idea God created us within the past 10,000 years - to any other explanation of how we got here. Another 19% favoured the theory of intelligent design - that some features of living things are due to a supernatural being such as God. This means more than 30% believe our origins have more to do with God than with Darwin - evolution theory rang true for only 56%.

Opinionpanel Research's survey of more than 1,000 students found a third of those who said they were Muslims and more than a quarter of those who said they were Christians supported creationism. Nearly a third of Christians and 10% of those with no particular religion favoured intelligent design. Women were more likely to choose spiritual explanations: less than half chose evolution, with 14% preferring creationism and 22% intelligent design.

While three years of learning how to weigh evidence appears to make students slightly more inclined towards evolution, with 57% of third-years choosing it compared with 54% of first-years, it does not appear to put them off belief in God. As many third-years as first-years believed in creationism, although slightly fewer supported intelligent design.

although it was probably schewed by all those students in sports science and media studies....

 

[Dave1001]

And you expect them to vote that way becuase?

If I don't understand science, I obviously won't vote or donate money in a way that takes into account a good understanding of the science behind important political issues.

So, we can try to convince people to change their voting habits (or spending habits), but until we look at the underlying cause of those habits, we won't get anywhere. What needs to be addressed in scientific ignorance.
Because while people are ignorant of science, they will vote ignorantly.

Something that the creationists seem to understand quite well (see the wedge document).

That's not obvious to me. Perhaps instead we should convince them that they'll burn in hell if they don't vote to support fetal stem cell research and tithe to basic biomedical research. I think that's a more modest and achievable goal than teaching scientific literacy to 120 million Americans, who are already swimming in explanations of evolution and other basic scientific theories on the internet and in the media.

 

[Dave1001]

rather depressing

A UK survey of university students.....http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,1844478,00.html



although it was probably schewed by all those students in sports science and media studies....

Three years of learning how to weigh evidence makes students slightly more inclined to favor evolution? Slightly?? What a waste of the taxpayers' dollars. I suspect we should be using Hollywood special effects to scare most of them into voting and donating their money the right way.