I was just checking out the stats again from Religious Tolerance.org with respect to American beliefs about evolution and the earth's beginning. Again, the most disgusting stat is that 45% of Americans believe that the earth is literally less than 10,000 years old and that evolution did not occur. Europe, by the way, has much less people believing this.
I blame poor education partly on this. 65% of high school drop outs are YECs (Young Earth Creationists), while only 25% of college grads are YECs (theology students account for a few of these yo yo's I'm sure).
I have peaked at the bibles and I find it hard myself to believe the nonsense in there and also believe that evolution of man could have occurred, or that the earth even revolves around the sun, but that is another matter.
Getting back to the survey, outside of the 10% of American Atheists, 39% of Americans believe in Theistic Evolution. Theistic Evolution by definition is that "man has developed over millions of years, but God guided this process, including man's creation." This is vague and doesn't necessarily mean that man came from a one celled common ancestor to all living animals who ever existed on earth, but it doesn't discount that idea either.
It is this 39% that need a bible rewrite. The Adam and Eve story has to be scrapped or completely fictionalized. Genesis needs a literal rewrite too. Well OK, both the NT and the OT need a complete do over.
A new religion or two is needed to branch off, so that this 39% of the population (over 100 million people) can go to a house of research and stop laughing at the nonsensical dogmas that are "forced" on them. They must feel like hypocrites in many cases.
I wish I was in that 39%, I would start this thing up myself. But alas, I am not. I have seen nothing in my life that doesn't have a scientific explanation or theory behind it. I see no evidence that God exists or ever existed. But I don't mind someone who believes in God and evolution and an ancient universe. It is unfortunate these people don't have a proper house of worship though.
In the UK, only the most fundemental of religious groups teach ID. The mainstream religions all sanction the idea that the bible is allegorical. Even Catholicism has officially said that the bible should be taught as morality fables, not truth.
ReplyDeleteIt's a start, and may explain why we are so far ahead of the US in those stats.
I just don't get why the Fundies are thriving in the USA. It makes no sense.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the secularists are really controlling the major decisions, or the USA would be in a state of chaos.