Acceptance of Evolution???

[jk750]

The United States has a smaller proportion of people who accept evolution than any other country except Turkey, according to a 34 nation survey done by researchers at Michigan State University...

WTF? Why is that???

Well, could it be that... “American Protestantism is more fundamentalist than anybody except perhaps the Islamic fundamentalist, which is why Turkey and we are so close,” said study co-author Jon Miller of Michigan State University.

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiol..._evo_rank.html

[bush]

Because Americans is stupid.

[Choco]

even though science is responsible for everything we know about the world, its just not right in this case.

[bomma]

That's just plain scarey, 50% of Americans don't accept evolution ...

So presumably they believe in their all powerful invisible friend who's never helped 'em out or done anything for them.

Ok, more seriously, I dont know why, but I have the impression that in the US you have a lot of slightly 'off beat' religious cults that pander to peoples weakness and frailty and kindof 'suck them in' and make them feel they belong there.

..perhaps ...?

[TheSollyLama]

Mostly because we have been dumbing down our kids for years. We rank not only so low in belief of a scientifically proven fact, but in most scholastic ratings as well. And the trend continues.

We have a population that also largely believes in alien abduction, Bigfoot, psychics, ESP, and ghosts. Look at the popularity of dipshits like John Edwards.
Even supposedly credible journalists buy into woo woo claims hook line and sinker. We all know Larry King is an idiot, Glenn Beck is a dufus, and Katie Couric couldn't think her way out of a wet paper bag. It feeds the total lack of critical thinking displayed by Americans.

You have the loudmouth morons like Ann Coulter that has never even cracked open an evolutionary biology book in her pathetic life (quick, someone give that dingbat a sandwich, I've seen better fed ethiopians). But dipshit kool aid drinkers like her have a forum. People actually buy he books and believe her uninformed rants somehow hold any validity whatsoever.

It doesn't help to have a jesus freak president. If the GIC (Guy In Charge) is in the thrall of a medieval superstition- and bends the constitution to push his mythology- it's an uphill battle to champion science and reason.

As much as I defend Bush for his stance on national defense, in virtually every other regard he's worthless as tits on a boarhog.

The simple fact is that LEARNING SCIENCE is hard. Believing in some unseen hand that is responsible for all things is easy. We are, as a population- lazy as fuck. People care more about what moron won on some reality tv show more than the reality of the world around them.

Add to this the amazing- AMAZING- ability for people to totally dismiss bizarre claims about one thing- yet totally believe equally fantasical claims about their sacred cow- the self delusion is there fo all to behold. (hence the second quote in my sig line)

People are scientifically illiterate in the US. It's pathetic. Part of it is the sheer laziness of people more wrapped up in tivo'ing the latest episode of 24, than actually educating themselves.
It's a direct corrolation that the more eduated about science one is, the less religious one tends to be. And it's no coincidence that the bible thumpers are attacking the SCIENCE in the schools by pushing their goofy creation myth. The more you can dumb down the people about science, the easier it is to make them believe whatever goofy claim your making.

Part of it is the fact that we have an administration that is simply hostile to science because it's little more than a theocracy.

The end result is a largely ignorant, superstitious population dimwitted compared to countries we think of as backward.......

To quote Dr. Phil Plait (the Bad Astronomer): "The only cure for this sort of thing is knowledge"

Here's a good article you might enjoy: http://www.davehitt.com/2005/whatyear.html

[Sibling]

I posted this a few months ago and funnily enough it started a nice argument from a few people who did not think evolution was true because they were missing middle species. So I present before the argument even starts proof that evolution is SCIENTIFIC FACT. I give you the horse which has almost complete fossil record of its evolution from a dog like creature to the full horse of today.

[jk750]

Originally Posted by bomma

That's just plain scarey, 50% of Americans don't accept evolution ...

When you include people who say they are 'not sure', it is around 60% that don't accept evolution. Only 40% accept it.

[ped]

scientists is stupid

[BurnMyHeartDown]

ya know, everytime some fuck face scum bag high school mormon bitch tries to tell me that evolution is stupid I ask how life came into existence. Then I explain that scientists have had amino acids spontaneously form proteins in an lab-created environment extremely similar to the one on earth found billions of years ago. Then they tell me that evolution is just a theory. Then I have to explain that it is a theory that is widely accepted and backed by DNA evidence, fossil evidence, historical evidence, and empirical data, as well as carefully designed scientific experiments. Then they tell me I'm making stuff up and that they are going to be a kindergarten teacher or some shit and I have to explain that I'm a senior and I'm majoring in biology and minoring in chemistry and that they have no ground to stand on......and on and on. It happens EVERY time.

Solly hit the nail on the head with the correlation of education/intelligence and religious vulnerability. I say vulnerability because massive fright mongering institutions that control your entire life by playing on your fears and controlling your perceptions are an attack on all of our freedom to think logically.

Damn I'm really tired. I have Endocrinology, Genetics, and Organic Chemistry II in the morning. I hope god makes sure he set my alarm.

[DEMIAN1970]

Sheep believe whatever the pastor tells them to believe.
Why do you think they refer to their congregations as "The flock"?
I have a bumper sticker I'm dying to put on my car, but down here it'll probably get it keyed and the tires punctured.
It says, "You don't pray in my schools, and I won't think in your churches."

[Ershank]

Where can I get that bumper sticker?

[bush]

Originally Posted by BurnMyHeartDown

ya know, everytime some fuck face scum bag high school mormon bitch tries to tell me that evolution is stupid I ask how life came into existence. Then I explain that scientists have had amino acids spontaneously form proteins in an lab-created environment extremely similar to the one on earth found billions of years ago. Then they tell me that evolution is just a theory. Then I have to explain that it is a theory that is widely accepted and backed by DNA evidence, fossil evidence, historical evidence, and empirical data, as well as carefully designed scientific experiments. Then they tell me I'm making stuff up and that they are going to be a kindergarten teacher or some shit and I have to explain that I'm a senior and I'm majoring in biology and minoring in chemistry and that they have no ground to stand on......and on and on. It happens EVERY time.

Solly hit the nail on the head with the correlation of education/intelligence and religious vulnerability. I say vulnerability because massive fright mongering institutions that control your entire life by playing on your fears and controlling your perceptions are an attack on all of our freedom to think logically.

Damn I'm really tired. I have Endocrinology, Genetics, and Organic Chemistry II in the morning. I hope god makes sure he set my alarm.

[hyabusa]

Cool, why can't we beleive in both?

[TheSollyLama]

can't believe in both because one totally invalidates the other.

Evolution is science, religion is not. Simply put.

Science is by it's nature FALSIFIABLE. Religion by it's nature is not.

Science has the ability to be wrong and corrections made. Religion has no such caveat. It is right and everyone else is wrong.

In science we use EVIDENCE. In religion you use faith, often contradicting evidence.

The two are mutually exclusive and I submit anyone that tries to reconcile the two is misguided and disengenuous.

For instance in religion, all the geological, fossil, biological, and physicial evidence can merely be cast aside with a simple- 'well god made it look like the rocks are 4 billion years old'

That isn't only NOT science, its not even critical thought. It's intellectual backflipping to make evidence fit a paradigm of belief.

Science uses evidence to draw a conclusion. With religion the conclusion is already made and all evidence is either forced to fit thru magic or simply dismissed.

Lastly- religionists, like conspiracy theorists, rely on the same hackneyed lines to attempt to 'prove' a point long after they've been debunked. Like saying there are no 'transitional fossils'. That argument stopped holding water a couple decades back yet they still use it today.....

I draw a corrolation- people that think we didn't go to the moon in 1969 still haul out arguments about no stars in the pictures.....even though 20 years ago that notion was utterly debunked. You can even do an experiment YOURSELF that shows this----but the believers will not even try for two reasons--
1) it's an experiment that requires using a scientific thought process (although all it requires is a camera with a manual FStop)
2) they could be proven wrong.

number two is the reason they wont engage in anything that might approach a standard of fasifiablility. They have a sacred cow to protect and no one is going to take a chance on invalidating their entire belief structure.

It's a logical fallacy called confirmation bias- restricting yourself to complimentary evidence and ignoring contradictory evidence.

Religion in itself relies on a tautology based line of reasoning that is self affirmative.

How do you know the bible is correct? Because the bible says so........

That is not even sensical to critical thinkers.

Virtually every line of reasoning religionists use is a well defined logical fallacy.
From argument from ignorance (I can't explain how the universe works so it must be god) to argument from authority (religion is right because important people say so) to argument from incredulity (I just can't believe the universe is random) to wishful thinking (god has a plan).

Religionists often don't even make an argument FOR their beliefs but rather rely on nit-picking someone elses to claim theirs is superior. This is called a False Dicotomy. If you are wrong I must be right.

Well that ignores the millions of other possibilities. Even supernatural ones like maybe Hindu's are right, or the Vikings had it right, or aliens invented us.

Virtually no argument yet used in defense of religion has any basis in logical debate or progressive thinking.

Simply put it is an inferior method of determining reality just as believing that Penn and Teller are actually in command of magical forces simply because they appear to be.

Religion and science are oil and water, and for very good reason. One seeks to understand the world around us- the other attempts to force the world to comply with whatever people WANT to believe.