Pointless polls
pharyngula | March 26, 2010This poll misses a golden opportunity.
What do you think Sarah Palin should do next?
Run for president.
46%
Run for some other office.
5%
Continue speaking as private citizen.
10%
Something else.
40%
"Something else"? But what? I can imagine lots of things I'd like to see Sarah Palin do…like get an education, or join the circus, or get eaten by wolves.
If you answer "Something else", I think you'll just have to expand on your answer here.
pharyngula | March 25, 2010How dare the Northeast Florida CoR put up such an evil sign!
I am totally unsurprised that half the people so far find it offensive. We wouldn't want unbelievers to be anything but alone, after all.
Are you offended by the message in this atheist billboard?
Yes (54.1%)
No (45.9%)
Hmm. Those numbers might change soon. Look quick!
pharyngula | March 22, 2010Some days, I feel like the whole issue of the mention of God on our currency is trivial and stupid, and I really don't care anymore. And then I see an 'argument' like the one in this argument defending keeping "God" on our money, and I realize that…YES, I DO CARE. I care very much that people are so deeply infected with religion that they actually think this is a clever defense.
The word "God" is not comparable to an organization, a building, a philosophy or a religion. God, unlike an establishment of religion, is a concept to atheists and believers alike. The believer perceives God as the…
pharyngula | March 8, 2010There was this young child at a Catholic pre-school who was kicked out because his or her parents were lesbians. Now people are protesting, because that's not what Jesus would do (I won't quibble over their justifications — Jesus probably would have told the mob to stone the perverted parents to death — it's OK that they're doing the right thing for the wrong reasons). And the local newspaper runs a poll.
Is it valid to protest a Boulder Roman Catholic school's decision to bar the child of a lesbian couple from attending?
Yes
 43.98 %
No
 40.32 %
I'm not sure
 1.443 %
I don't care if…
pharyngula | February 28, 2010It's pointless for these loons to try and make their case with a goofy online poll, since we'll just smack it down. Here's another one.
Do you believe homeopathy is an effective form of treatment?
51%Yes
49%No
The evidence is all against it, and reason suggests there is no mechanism. Perhaps they ought to correct those deficiencies before playing poll games.
pharyngula | February 27, 2010Here's a Fox-News-driven poll for you.
Should Al Gore remain on Apple's Board of Directors?
Yes 48%
No 49%
Unsure 4%
What did Al Gore do to win this vote of no-confidence? Was he flirting with Linux, caught running Windows, abusing insider information to reap illegal profits from the booming iPhone business? None of the above. He attended a business meeting of the Apple board, and a few idiot stockholders carped about global warming. Which he ignored.
Look at the amazing reporting given by Fox News 'reporter' Gene Koprowski.
"Al Gore won a Nobel Prize and an Oscar for his film, An…
pharyngula | February 25, 2010I'm shocked that such a serious journal would find any value at all in running a web poll, but there you go. They're everywhere. How about giving them a lesson in the frangibility of polls?
Should homeopathy be allowed on the NHS?
Yes 35%
No 65%
pharyngula | February 23, 2010Those silly, harmless bus signs were the subject of the Sunday Sacrilege this week. But now New Zealanders have rejected the bus ads — and we've got a poll to see if that is fair. And we all know that polls are the perfect way to resolve ethical issues.
Was NZ Bus right to reject ads from an atheist group?
Yes, the ads are in bad taste and would distress people
23.3%
No, this is unfair and discriminatory
67.0%
The extra publicity is good for the atheist campaign anyway
9.7%
pharyngula | February 23, 2010Oh, this is a cunning ploy to foil pharyngulation: a whole page of creationist polls, thrown up like chaff to distract us so we won't slam any one of them too hard. You can still play, though, and skew them some. Here are three:
Do you believe dinosaurs and humans ever lived at the same time?
No
45,21%
Yes
39,92%
Probably not
7,84%
They probably have.
7,03%
How old is the earth?
Billions of years
47,01%
Around 6000 years
35,26%
Closer to 10,000 years
8,40%
Millions of years
7,56%
Close to 100,000 years
1,77%
Do you believe that humans were created or that they evolved?
I believe…
pharyngula | February 22, 2010I like water, but I don't think it has magic powers.
Do you believe homeopathy is an effective form of treatment?
65% Yes
35% No
pharyngula | February 12, 2010There's another billboard in Minnesota, asking if we're missing a recent American president.
No.
I look forward to the day he dies, so I can plan a trip to Texas to piss on his grave. I much prefer the alternative billboards, but even they fail to my required standard of measured vitriol for this scumbag.
There is a poll to answer the question.
Are you missing George Bush?
A billboard has appeared in Minnesota, showing a picture of George Bush and asking: 'Missing me yet?' Is it time to start feeling nostalgic about the Bush era?
31.3% Yes. We miss his firm resolve
68.7% No. You're joking,…
pharyngula | February 12, 2010
It's Charles Darwin's birthday today, I hope you all have plans to celebrate. I think I'm going to just stay home and try to get over my bad case of toomuchtravelitis, and also…CRASH A POLL! Go get 'em, everyone.
Do you accept Charles Darwin's theory of evolution?
Yes
(65%)
No
(35%)
pharyngula | February 8, 2010Dutch creationists have put up a foolish little poll — surprise them with a little adjustment.
Hoe is het leven op aarde ontstaan? (How did life arise on Earth?)
God schiep het leven in zes dagen (God created life in six days)
69.4%
Door Evolutie (By Evolution)
20.7%
Door Spontane Generatie (By Spontaneous Generation)
5%
God stuurde de evolutie (By god-directed evolution)
4.1%
God schiep het leven in langere tijd (God created life some time)
0.8%
Er is een intelligente ontwerper maar onbekend wie (There is an unknown intelligent designer)
0%
pharyngula | February 8, 2010Some guy named Gerard Alexander has an opinion piece in the Washington Post titled "Why are liberals so condescending?" I will say one thing in its favor: it gets to its point quickly and clearly in the first few sentences.
Every political community includes some members who insist that their side has all the answers and that their adversaries are idiots. But American liberals, to a degree far surpassing conservatives, appear committed to the proposition that their views are correct, self-evident, and based on fact and reason, while conservative positions are not just wrong but illegitimate,…
pharyngula | January 31, 2010On facebook, you can vote for a concept by joining a fan group…and right now, there is a group called "We can find 1000000 people who believe in evolution before June." I think they can; they're approaching the 10% mark right now. Just follow the link and click on the "Become a fan" button.
Don't get all pedantic and academic over the word "believe," either. We know that the nature of our belief in evolution is very different than the creationists belief in their god: we have a provisional, non-dogmatic acceptance of the overwhelming evidence for a powerful theory. It's just that that phrase…
pharyngula | January 30, 2010It's like they're teasing me, begging me to squish their goofy little poll.
Should the Bible be taught in public schools?
Yes 70.2%
No 29.8%
pharyngula | January 26, 2010
Those cunning rascals Jesus and Mo also link to a poll…but it's not the one in the comic, but a poll asking what the best webcomic is. I guess you can go crash that one, then.
pharyngula | January 23, 2010
I especially like the snark at the end. This stuff isn't hard. It ought to be part of the basic toolkit for critical thinking that kids get out of sixth grade.
pharyngula | January 22, 2010It was a particularly silly poll that asked if the bible was the divinely inspired word of god, and we very quickly ran the answer up to a definitive "NO", so the poll owners did something predictable: they closed it.
Survey suspended temporarily.
We appear to have been the victims of a hacking attempt to stuff the ballot box.
We are investigating. Your patience is appreciated.
Uh, there was no hacking. It was an open poll. We visited the site and clicked on the buttons, just like it said we should and could. The only problem was that their poll didn't arrive at the answer they site…
pharyngula | January 21, 2010And this is just the place to muster it! I can see one problem in it, though: the creators of this ridiculous poll have cunningly split the good answers into two, so we have a double challenge: we should run up both the first and fourth answers to outnumber the other two.
The Bible: God's Word or pious myth?
9%Â The Bible is a book of myth and is of human origin
77%Â The Bible is inspired by God in all its parts
5%Â The Bible is partially inspired by God and partially uninspired
2%Â The Bible is untrustworthy and irrelevant
6%Â Don't know
I wish they'd done a little consolidation. The bible…