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[SloJon]

We still have a long way to go


The latest Newsweek poll included a variety of interesting questions about Americans and religious matters, including the not-surprising fact that 91% of the public say they believe in God and almost as many (87 percent) say they identify with a specific religion. Although one in ten (10%) of Americans identify themselves as having “no religion,” only 6% said they don’t believe in a God at all. (Even fewer still, 3%, are self-identified atheists.)

But perhaps more importantly, Newsweek also asked poll respondents about modern biology.

Nearly half (48 percent) of the public rejects the scientific theory of evolution; one-third (34 percent) of college graduates say they accept the Biblical account of creation as fact. Seventy-three percent of Evangelical Protestants say they believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years; 39 percent of non-Evangelical Protestants and 41 percent of Catholics agree with that view.

This is not at all encouraging. These poll results come just a few months after an international study was conducted to measure which countries were the most accepting on evolutionary biology. Of the 34 countries involved, the United States ranked 33rd. Only Turkey ranked lower.

Researchers cited poor science education, the politicization of science in the U.S., and American religiosity for the poor showing. “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.

Whatever the explanation, I continue to wonder about the extent to which Americans understand how much this undermines national progress and competitiveness.

Back when the international report came out, PZ Myers made a compelling case that it’s time to start holding certain parts of society responsible for such wide-spread confusion, if for no other reason because change is so necessary.

"Americans are being rolled in large numbers by an ideological ‘elite’ nested in our churches and in the Republican party — the reason we are falling so far behind in our understanding of the biological sciences is that political and religious authority figures are lying to the people and fostering ignorance, and Americans are dumbly falling for it…and the more ignorant they are, the more they depend on those false authorities."...

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/10383.html
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We were once the most advanced country in the world...welcome to the new dark ages. Illiteracy reigns supreme...again. You'd think people would be cognizant enough to at least ask "WHY?". Maybe that's why they're called The Great Unwashed.