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48% of Americans Reject Evolution

Posted by Zonk on from the we-need-just-a-touch-stronger-educational-standards- dept.

MSNBC has up an article discussing the results of a Newsweek poll on faith and religion among members of the US populace. Given the straightforward question, 'Is evolution well-supported by evidence and widely accepted within the scientific community?', some 48% of Americans said 'No'. Furthermore, 34% of college graduates said they accept the Biblical story of creation as fact. An alarmingly high number of individuals responded that they believe the earth is only 10,000 years old, and that a deity created our species in its present form at the start of that period.

5 of 1,856 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Heathens dying of scurvy in New York by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    "a majority of Americans are christians." This news item has nothing to do with Christianity, it just says that 48% of Americans don't believe in Evolution. What does that have to do with Christianity? I'm a Christian and I beleive in Evolution. I don't get it.

  2. Infrequently used refutation of 10,000 year theory by hackwrench · · Score: 0, Redundant

    When someone brings up the 10,000 year theory, even though I've heard various long age of the universe statements in refutation, I rarely hear mention of the fact that there is evidence of human culture before 10,000 years ago. Maybe it should be brought up more?

    Wikipedia: 6th millennium BC

  3. 48% said the OPPOSITE of the /. headline claim by FLJerseyBoy · · Score: 0, Redundant
    The question in the actual 3/31 Newsweek survey reads:

    Do you think the scientific theory of evolution is well-supported by evidence and widely accepted within the scientific community?

    48% said the scientific theory of evolution IS well-supported. This is diametrically opposed to the /. editor's summary, "Given the straightforward question, 'Is evolution well-supported by evidence and widely accepted within the scientific community?', some 48% of Americans said 'No.'"

    Am I missing something here?

  4. Re:In unrelated news... by shmlco · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Precisely. Note, for example, how the title of the article wasn't "Over 50% of all Americans believe in evolution."

    --
    Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
  5. Oh no! People believe in God!!??!? by Aceheaton · · Score: 0, Redundant

    This is crap. People believe in God, get over it. An "alarmingly" high number of people believe in religion!! Oh no... We are all uneducated buffoons, please help us understand our ignorance. If you have ever written a program over 100 lines of code you know what it takes to organize and make things work and how many little things go wrong. Do you really think this earth wasn't organized by some greater being?!?! It just popped into existence one day?? To me that sounds so silly, almost as silly as someone believing in religion...