“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.
Click image to enlarge it
It seems that more Americans have become doubters from both camps over the last 20 years:
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.
This could be possibly due to demographic changes. Immigrants who have come to America who don't believe in evolution to children being taught at home by parents who are ignorant when it comes to science.
The shift of those who rejected evolution and now don't know, could be due to the Catholic church's stance that ID is crap, combined with the fact that it is impossible to watch the Discovery Civilization channel or the National Geographic channel on TV and think evolution is garbage.
There are liberal Muslims who believe in evolution, but from what I've found in my internet searches is that even though there is a broad spectrum of beliefs about evolution and an ancient earth amongst Muslims, most do not accept it. This person's comments from Answers.com are what I believe is the most popular Muslim view on evolution(I think this was written by a kid):
No, we don't believe in evolution, but we do believe the world is that old. We do believe there was life before humans, like dinosaurs and the other fossils and that the first life was in water. Noone really knows the exact time of Adam and Huwwa (Eve), but there is a rough figure from hints in the Quran and Hadith (sayings of Muhammad) of a little over 10,000 years ago. The Quran and the rest of Islam actually encourages growth of knowledge, unlike some other religions....
So it looks like Ann Coulter and Muslims do have something in common.
To my Fundy readers, if you want to learn about evolution, please check out the short movies at this site. And that goes for Ms. Coulter as well.
Ahh... there's a fuzzy little nugget in my heart for PBS.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure however that your fundementalist fans will brush the videos off as "that liberal liar TV channel" propaganda.
My guess is there is a direct correlation between the results and the level of education of those polled and the level of religious belief in those nations or at least reading skills. Note how low Japan responded false.
ReplyDeleteThe response from Israel, Iran and Canada would definitely been interesting.
This from the article is disturbing:
ReplyDelete-------------------------------
The researchers also single out the poor grasp of biological concepts, especially genetics, by American adults as an important contributor to the country's low confidence in evolution.
“The more you understand about genetics, the more you understand about the unity of life and the relationship humans have to other forms of life,” Miller said.
The current study also analyzed the results from a 10-country survey in which adults were tested with 10 true or false statements about basic concepts from genetics. One of the statements was "All plants and animals have DNA." Americans had a median score of 4. (The correct answer is "yes.")
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Pathetic. And writers like Ann Coulter only give the ignorant confidence, as if they're in on some secret knowledge the establishment doesn't want them to know.
Truly frightening.
ReplyDeleteI was discussing this with my friend, entercenter, with the blog oneofcountlessmillions.blogspot.com. The problem is the war on thought in the world.
Getting people to think is the key to the progress of civilizations.
It is the key to everything.
And *waves to Jason Bowden*
jhrhv, there is a direct link between those who believe in Young Earth Creationist being highly represented in the high school dropout crowd. I've posted on that before.
ReplyDeleteJason, Ann should keep her arguments political and stay away from science.
Red Tulips, remember though, the number of those who believe in evolution and an ancient earth are much higher than they were 100 years ago. Give it time. Facts usually prevail, but sometimes it takes a long time in certain regions to be accepted.
"Ann should keep her arguments political and stay away from science"
ReplyDeleteAre you sure we can't keep her away from politics as well?
You should see the crap we have to go through when we teach evolution in the school I teach in. You'd think we were teaching kids how to put condoms on or something- its absurd. And I work in a relatively enlightened school district, I shudder to think what its like to teach in someplace like Kansas...
ReplyDeleteRed Tulips, it's not enough to get people to think. People think about their faith. People think about ghosts and faeries and demons and devils. What we need to encourage is critical thinking and evidence based opinion forming. I recently added a small post about this on my blog asking for comments (http://choosedoubt.blogspot.com/2006/08/join-battle-against-unreason.html).
ReplyDeleteBEAJ,
ReplyDeleteOn the ID front Vile Blasphemer has a blog post about a google bomb on ID. It's worth checking out and participating in and we should probably mimic the technique on someother choice terms and phrases because it works.
I've blogged it and I guess you'll want to do the same.
Cheers :)