Thor Q. Mada

In Europe, most people don't even know that there are still people that take the bible literally, and there are even less people that know that this is still a debate in the US. If they would they would laugh a lot.
Could it be because Europe exported most of its religious fanatics to the US, at one moment in time??

Kimpatsu

Fine, 'cause France hates you, too.

Joe Meert

[QUOTE
Now, about the original question, I've found a professor Brian Alters who is doing research on creationist ignorance. You can search Google on this. The guy has an article in the journal Evolution. Here's the abstract. From a newspaper article:
I find 45% too low to believe. [/B][/QUOTE]

JM: I've been surveying the students in my intro geology courses for about 5 years on the subject. While my 'poll' is not rigorous in a statistical sense, I'd say 45% about right for those who do not understand evolution. Of those 45% who reject evolution on religious grounds, about 100% misunderstand the premise.

Cheers

Joe Meert

Osiris

If they understood statistics, they would understand premise.

Be fruitful and multiply. baby! - Osiris

The Lone Ranger

A lot of the problem is how evolution is taught -- or not taught -- to students.

I saw a survey not too long ago of U.S. high school biology teachers, and a frighteningly high percentage of them (something like half) couldn't provide a concise and accurate explanation of the concept of "natural selection." Something like 20% of them, on average, were outright Creationists.

I attended junior high and high school in North Carolina. I distinctly remember that my 7th grade biology teacher was a Creationist who taught us that God was responsible for the complexity and diversity of life.

Not one of my high school science teachers even mentioned the concept of biological evolution in class. One courageous teacher did suggest that we might find Darwin's writings enlightening, but we weren't required to read those writings, nor did we discuss them in class.

On a related note, we were all required to say a prayer before going to lunch, as well. This was in the late '70s and early '80s, long after the Supreme Court had ruled that public school teachers couldn't initiate prayers or require students to pray. It's my understanding that a lot of public schools still have teacher-led prayers in the South.

I've taught in several colleges in North Carolina. My understanding was that to get a certificate to teach high school-level biology in N.C., one had only to take and pass two college-level biology courses. Assuming this is accurate, and that North Carolina's standards are more or less typical, this means that one can be certified to teach a subject while being almost totally ignorant of it. [Come to think of it, by the time I reached high school, I knew more science than almost any of my teachers.]

While I was teaching, we saw this sort of thing all the time. We'd have people take the two lowest-level biology courses we taught -- "Biology for the Braindead" was what those of us on the staff called these courses -- and just barely scrape by. They'd manage to memorize just enough to pass, while showing almost no understanding of the concepts. Almost inevitably, these people would be education majors, and would tell us that they wanted to teach biology.

It's truly frightening.

Cheers,

Michael

acidphos

I had Ed majors come through my Bio for non majors class that couldn't multiply by 10. Seriously.

The Lone Ranger

I wouldn't be surprised.

I was struggling to teach the metric system to some students once, and was becoming frustrated over the fact that some of them JUST. COULDN'T. GET. IT.

I pointed out that it's much easier than the system they'd grown up with. "I mean, there's 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard, 5,280 feet in a mile, etc. Compared to this, the metric system is a piece of cake -- and vastly more consistent."

Remember, this is a college course.

One of them raised her hand and said, "How am I supposed to know how many inches there are in a foot?"

I didn't know what to say.

-- Michael

Joe Meert

JM: Yes, but the good thing is that these people end up working at places like JoAnn fabric or Lowe's. Do you know how much cheaper it is to buy a yard long piece of pipe that is 50 inches long? Plus, if you ask them to make change you can always come out ahead twice!

Cheers

Joe Meert

Kimpatsu

In other words, the imperial system capitalises on ignorance?

Joe Meert

JM: Well, it's win/lose.

Cheers

Joe Meert