mizpah

Hi all,
I'm an old lurker here, thought I'd jump in.

I was reading the Poll on Creationism/Evolution article in the "Kiosk" section. It reported that only 5-10% or so of the US population believes is a non-theistic brand of evolution, and this has been consistent since the early 80's.
So I ask myself: Is this the result of the school curriculums (curricula?) not teaching evolution or not teaching it properly? What tactics are the evolution/science "side" using in the curriculum debate, and should they be changed? And, maybe most importantly, what needs to happen to change public opinion?

Just wondering.
your pal,
mizpah

scigirl

Hello mizpah, and welcome to infidels (or welcome to posting I guess, if you're a lurker!)

A great book to read about this subject is People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer, the creator of skeptic magazine. I've been meaning to post a summary of the chapters dealing specificially with creationism - maybe I'll do that tonight.

My personal opinion on why creationism persists: It is a combination of 1) lack of education, 2) the enormous complexity of biology, and people's difficulty believing that such simple mechanisms could create it and 3) religious indoctrination or influence.

That's a tougher question isn't it!

Well I think many of us believe it's education, so that's why we are here posting about E/C, and answering creationist's questions.

scigirl

tgamble

The full title is
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0716733870/internetinfidelsA" target="_blank">Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time </a> and is available on amazon.com

[ July 09, 2002: Message edited by: RufusAtticus ]</p>

scigirl

Thanks tgamble, for some reason I forgot the word "Why."

Ha ha ha, you can get the Shermer book and the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060392452/internetinfidelsA/" target="_blank">Stupid White Men ...and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation!</a> for only $26.17! I have no idea why Amazon linked these two together.

scigirl

[ July 09, 2002: Message edited by: scigirl ]

[ July 09, 2002: Message edited by: RufusAtticus ]</p>

RufusAtticus

Mod's note: I edited the two previous links to give props to II for the reference.

nogods4me

Another reason I would guess would also be C/S separation. Not only is teaching god as being real being kept out of the schools, so is teaching that god does not exist. This leads to the impression with many people (or at least I think so) that it may be true because school doesn't teach that it is false.

[ July 10, 2002: Message edited by: nogods4me ]</p>

Mageth

Since (roughly) 5-10% of the U.S. population are non-theists, is it all that surprising that only 5-10% of the population believe in a "non-theistic brand" of evolution?

trunks2k

Yes, that's true. Most religions that accept evolution as true, will put some sort of supernatural spin on it so it fits in with their religion. They will say things like "evolution is true, but it is guided by god, and the natural changes of species are the way in which god guides evolution." Which, to me is acceptable from a scientific standpoint, simply because it does not deny scientific findings, it only adds extra meaning to them. But from a theological standpoint, a YEC interpretation of the bible makes more sense.

KeithHarwood

If I remember correctly (a dubious proposition at the best of times) the Catholic position is that whatever science says goes. They don't even mention God guiding evolution. God intervened only at some unspecified point in the past when he selected a particular ape and gave him a soul. It is this event that is described in Genesis. It has the advantage that it's going to be a lloonngg time before science can find evidence to refute this, perhaps never (especially if `soul' is cleverly defined to move it out of science's domain).