Americans: Keepers of the Truth, or Ignorance?
EDIT: Sorry for you folks who couldn't get to the story. Here's a summary:
In surveys conducted in 2005, people in the United States and 32 European countries were asked whether to respond “true,” “false” or “not sure” to this statement: “Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals.” The same question was posed to Japanese adults in 2001.
The result was that Americans were second to last in answering "True". Turkey was the country with people least likely to believe in evolution. Countries like France, Japan, and Great Britain were more near the top.
The story can be found here at The New York Times site, but you have to be a member to look at it now. Joining is quick and free.
I will refrain from commenting myself. Be sure to look at the bar graph here. I encourage any and all comments and discussion. Although I would like to suggest to drive the discussion more toward America is this way and have it focus less on the subject of evolution. I don't wish to start any more world wars. Philosophic banter is fun, religious flaming is not.
posted by Unknown @ 12:25 AM
3 Comments:
This study is somewhat interesting when looking at the US results. When I see our little three bar graph, I see a breakdown of American politics right now. If someone were to remove everything on that graph but our bar, and tell me that it was representative of a survey done in the US, I'd be more likely to guess that it was a breakdown of people who consider themselves to be liberal, moderate, or conservative, for instance. Basically, to me this is a reminder of just how polarized our country is on the issues, political, moral, philisophical or otherwise. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that all creationists are big G-dub fans, far from it, but it seems that this issue reflects the general polarized environment of discussion in this country.
What I find even more interesting than this, however, is which countries have the largest "not sure" contingents. The only one at the top with a sizeable undecided sample to speak of is Japan; its European counterparts are very clear on the issue. I very much like the fact that the States have a large undecided chunk. Maybe I'm biased, but I think a large swing vote is important. I'm glad to know that my country has a large number of people willing to be convinced. It's a sign that we're still thinking for ourselves.
It's amazing that in spite of being a country that prides itself on scientific innovation and being at the forefront of research, a majority of Americans don't believe a damn thing scientists say. What does it take to convince people? *sigh*
Alright, Scientist opinion: First, the answers were not that unexpected, I believe that most Americans believe as their parents did that Creationism is the way things went. Second, I really am coming to the realization that Science is getting to the point where we are doing things just to disprove a "God" and not solve tomorrow's problems. This is sad and an arrogance that Christians and Scientist both have is astounding. To say that either of us know for sure what happened billions of years ago, is increidibly stupid. We should take a hypothesis, like the Bible or Evolution, and dig deeper, not just be content with the status quo. Answer all those questions first. Then instead of asking this question, we could ask be asking "True, false, not sure- This era of World Peace and Cooperation is Awesome"
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