h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

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I am with you there, zoomer, essentially, as a Christian, because I think the OT doesn't really have much to say that's relevant. Certainly, a country should not be basing its foreign policy on any Scripture at all!

People outside the United States and many within it often look at the USA with its mindless fundementalist fanatics, daytime talk shows, tabloids, conspiracy kooks and Paris Hilton, not to mention the White House, and ask "How dumb are Americans?"

Well according to this basic scientific literacy poll
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind02/append/c7/at07-10.pdf
done by the U.S. National Science Foundation the answer is "pretty frickin' dumb"

According to the survey:


65% of Americans either don't know or don't believe that Evolution is a valid scientific theory.
25% believe that the Sun goes around the Earth
52% believe that humans once coexisted with dinosaurs
46% don't know how long it takes for the Earth to go around the Sun

Pretty frickin' dumb, all right!

Yes, it shows that a big part of the population aren't getting it, and the education system fails to deliver.

I would love to see an international survey with these type of questions, to see how the different nations compare.

Ireland was recently found to be the happiest country in the world and in a completly seprate poll we're also the highest drug users in the European union. Coincedence,I think not.

~*~I would love to see an international survey with these type of questions, to see how the different nations compare.~*~

Me too.

I sort of knew these statistics, but not all together like this. It worries me, because America seems to be travelling backwards in time.
How can anyone deny fossil evidence? - Oh I remember, God is supposed to have planted them, although for what reason (other than 'moving in mysterious ways') I can't fathom.

'Yes, it shows that a big part of the population aren't getting it, and the education system fails to deliver.'

I think the education system is being compromised by the anti-evolutionists in the US. I don't think this would happen in the UK, religious control freaks insisting that the creation theory be placed along side evolution in text books. I hope we never come to that anyway. That would be like suggesting that the bible (in all fairness) should have Darwins theories alongside Genesis.

I remember seeing a film some time ago starring Jimmy Stewart where he played the part of a lawyer hired to defend a school teacher being prosecuted for teaching Darwin's Origin of the Species in school. The film was based on true events that occurred in 1925.

The year 1925 saw the enactment of Tennessee’s Butler Law—prohibiting the teaching of evolution in public schools. When a young science teacher named John T. Scopes challenged the law with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the trial and media frenzy that followed captured the nation’s attention and became a religious and political battlefield. A popular movie later capitalised on the frenzy of the trial.

http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/programs/greatbooks-originofspecies/

I would hope that things have moved on a bit since then but in some commuities apparently not.

It is interesting to note that Darwin delayed publication of his Origin of the Species because he feared the outcry it would in religious circles. He wasn't wrong but I think Darwin would be surprised to find that resistance has persisted for so long a time.

Donald

>> How can anyone deny fossil evidence? - Oh I remember, God is supposed to have planted them <<

No, it was the Magratheans, on behalf of the , remember?

RF

Mouse = god= same thing really, confusing plants of fossilised remains of impossibly large beasts to make life more mysterious.
(I've put little 'g' to avoid and accusations of blasphemy here BTW.
Life, commissioned by rodents.

~*~It worries me, because America seems to be travelling backwards in time.~*~

Why do you assume that the U.S. is the only Nation with these statistics?

I'm not assuming that Mr X, I have no statistics for other countries. I do know that religion and politics are not as close to one another in the country I live in . There are other countries too, in the third world possibly , who have not moved on at all from religious superstitions to control the population, but I expected move enlightened views from a 'modern' country with an extensive education program.

Technological Development and an Educational System doesn't really effect any Religious opinion. It is theorized that any values or Religion or behaviors taught to you in the first ten years of life or so will stick with you your whole life.

Which would give a lot of Religions a major advantage, since so many parents teach their children from birth that their own Religion is the "right" one, and the leaders of those Religions encourage that behavior (for obvious reasons).

>> It is theorized that any values or Religion or behaviors taught to you in the first ten years of life or so will stick with you your whole life. <<

Well it didn't work in my case. I was brought up by a Father that was a religious zealot. Everything he said and did was based on his interpretation of the Bible. Up to the age of eleven I went to a Church of England School. By the time I was sixteen I was contemplating going to confirmation classes. By the time I was 21 that idea was well and truly gone.

When I was in my twenties I had a discussion with my Father where I said I didn't believe in God. He had the audacity to tell me that I did! His reasoning was that because I was honest, law abiding and a generally nice person, I had to be a Christian. It was that kind of attitude that convinced me that Christianity had nothing for me.

If attitudes and beliefs taught at an early age stuck with everyone throughout their lives then nothing would change. The Churches would be full to breaking point every Sunday, which in the UK, they are not.

Donald

'Technological Development and an Educational System doesn't really effect any Religious opinion.'

Untrue - or we would still be in the dark ages. Until later...
BCNU - Crescent

I'M AN AMERICAN WHO DOES BELIEVE IN EVOLUTION, AND WE ALL REVOLVE AROUND THE SUN AND NOT THE SUN AROUND US. THE EARTH ISN'T FLAT AND THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS (IN MY HEART) SO I'M NOT AS DUMB AS SOME PEOPLE MIGHT THINK.

Yes, we naturally take on our parents values when we are very young.
As we get older, however, we either accept their values or rebel and go in totally the opposite direction. Either way is a reaction to their values. I think that something else is happening with the new neo Christianity in America, a rebellion from liberal seventies parenting perhaps, resulting in a new surge of kids looking for something of value and unfortunately falling into the mind control trap.

Redbones, I know you and thousands like you exist, thank er God.

Got to agree with that Crescent.