... or at least can't think critically about polling questions. Today USA Today/Gallup announced poll results on evolution. The "highlights":
- "Evolution, that is, the idea that human beings developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life" is probably or definitely false: 44%
- "Creationism, that is, the idea that God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years" is probably or definitely true: 66%
- 15% said that they would be more likely to vote for a candidate that did not believe in evolution.
The second question is usually taken as an indicator for acceptance of Young Earth Creationism. I’m going to lie down now. Wake me when the hurting stops.
Comments
That's really depressing (or horrifying) ...
Posted by: Michele | June 7, 2007 9:31 PM
Either something about the polling questions was weird or they polled some exceptionally stupid people, because the "total true" for both questions add up to 119%, so a good chunk of the people said both were totally true.
Posted by: Boo | June 7, 2007 10:17 PM
This USA Today story reports that "25 percent say both creationism and evolution are definitely or probably true."
Posted by: John Lynch | June 7, 2007 10:20 PM
But hey there... 66% say creationism is definitely or probably true and 53% say evolution is definitely or probably true.
Can you believe in both?
Posted by: Mats | June 7, 2007 10:20 PM
And to think these selfish, ignorant fucks are out-breeding we rational folk.
Posted by: Jeb, FCD | June 7, 2007 10:35 PM
Don't underestimate the ability to hold contradictory ideas at the same time. Or, more likely, not to think through the problems reconciling them. When you're talking about big time scales, 10,000 years vs. 1,000,000 years are significant scientifically, but the differences between them may not register easily in the imagination of someone who lives for a tiny fraction of that. So the impossibility reconciling YEC with evolution may not be apparent without some serious reflection. Also, the wording of the second question may be an issue - if they are asking about humans specifically, is it possible that some people forgot exactly when the first Homines sapientes appeared?
Posted by: John | June 7, 2007 10:59 PM
Is this study really accurate? Something's really off here. I don't understand it.
Posted by: George | June 8, 2007 12:29 AM
Posted by: Baratos | June 8, 2007 12:53 AM
The second question is badly worded, because while many moderate religious people might not believe in the young earth, they still believe that God created humans(or else they would, to some degree, have to reject their own religion), and thus making them overall more inclined to answer yes to the question.
So they might actually more be answering yes to "the idea that God created human beings", rather than yes to creationism, and the notion that they were created "within the last 10,000 years".
I think this is the answer to the odd differences in percentages, and the apparently huge creationism following.
Posted by: Tom Nielsen | June 8, 2007 12:56 AM
I can hardly believe that 66% of the populace are young-earth creationists. I suspect people might simply have blipped over the time scale given in the question.
Or at least I hope that's the reason.
Posted by: ctate | June 8, 2007 1:48 AM
From what, exactly? If you mean 'from proto-humans' you're just saying that God did something special in the last 10,000 years to make humans what they are today. Which, in turn, is compatable with the previous statement that humans developed from less advanced forms of life.
Posted by: Lucian Smith | June 8, 2007 2:26 AM
It is a pretty big universe - anything is possible right? You have to have faith that there is a God, or that there is not - either way, you have faith... And there are those of us who have been on the other side, and fence jumped a bit, and studied it out... Don't be close minded is all...
http://www.kingwoodunderground.com/topic.jsp?topicId=10121944
Posted by: idea | June 8, 2007 2:33 AM
One more random plea for peace - can anyone verify that the increase in knowledge is proportional to the increase in the number of human brains on this little planet? There are people who for a time seem a bit stubborn on both sides of the fence... We are all just blind mice trying to describe an elephant... or some enormous indescribable whatever it is... Everyone has truths... the problem is what those truths are mixed in with...
Posted by: idea | June 8, 2007 3:16 AM
@idea
I grow so very tired with the fallacious argument that atheism requires faith, and those who suggest this clearly do not understand the difference between science and faith. I guess it requires faith too, NOT to believe in the invisible pink unicorn. And I too could argue that religious people are close minded, because they are generally dismissive of the possibility that God doesn't exist.
Posted by: Tom Nielsen | June 8, 2007 3:44 AM
Perhaps the respondents merely took a broad view of humanity's place in the biosphere. We're engaged in explosive population growth, draining the Earth's resources and destabilizing the climate, and on track to wipe out 70% of living species within the century - probably including ourselves.
So as an evolutionary biologist, I must agree that "the idea that human beings developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life" *is* probably or definitely false. From the point of view of anyone who isn't human, chimps look far more advanced.
Posted by: Suzanne | June 8, 2007 8:34 AM
This looks to me exactly like the last "poll on evolution" that I saw, maybe a year or so ago. The results are nonsense, pure and simple. Eighty percent claim to be familiar with evolutionary theory? Yeah, right. At least twenty percent of respondents answered "true" to both question 1 and question 2? That's logically contradictory.
As far as I can see, this poll proves only that a lot of people think they know much more than they actually do -- the poll respondents about creationism and evolution, and the pollsters about how to write a good poll and then interpret the results.
Posted by: wolfwalker | June 8, 2007 12:00 PM
The real problem is that NOBODY has all the answers... But maybe this is not a problem; maybe this just means we all have the freedom to choose whatever we want... I try not to criticize people for their choice - possibly the issue is not about whether they have Faith in evolution or not - possibly traumatic personal events have more sway in people's mind than scientific ideas...
Posted by: idea | June 8, 2007 12:30 PM
The problem is that people with "faith" cannot grasp the concept that people don't need to "believe" in something to find it true. As far as "NOBODY having the answers" so what. Some peoples answers are just plain fucking stupid. The rational world does not need to respect these ideas. To many of us the idea of a supergawd is just as retarded as the world riding on the back of a giant space turtle.
Posted by: wes | June 8, 2007 2:12 PM