It seems to me that the saying, "There are lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics.", could now possibly read, "There are lies, damn lies, and then there is statistics and polling."
Whenever I read information gathered from polls I am highly skeptical. I dont know of anyone personally that has ever been contacted by these polling agencies. Also it appears polls can be manipulated just as easily as statistics can. Depends on where and how you collect the data.
I am more inclined to believe that more people in the US have Caller ID and will not answered unsolicited calls by people they dont know. I also believe that they use lists of people that they know will answer their polls. There should probably be some studies on what constitutes your average polling person and how they fare next to an average US citizen. So I do not generally think the US is full of a bunch of fundamentalist wackos... What is more likely is that the vast majority of the US is apathetic to many of these lightning rod issues. They just dont care because they dont see how their opinion will affect any change. Its the same reason many people in the US do not vote.
I dont believe in religion. I could certainly care less about God also. The reason evolution is so scary to people is that it isnt the "feel-good" answer that religion is. Religion fills in the embarrassingly large holes in what we dont know about things. People being afraid to admit they are alone in their decision making is what makes religion so attractive. Why worry about things you dont know when religion has the simple answers that you can even relate to children.
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It seems to me that the saying, "There are lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics.", could now possibly read, "There are lies, damn lies, and then there is statistics and polling." Whenever I read information gathered from polls I am highly skeptical. I dont know of anyone personally that has ever been contacted by these polling agencies. Also it appears polls can be manipulated just as easily as statistics can. Depends on where and how you collect the data. I am more inclined to believe that more people in the US have Caller ID and will not answered unsolicited calls by people they dont know. I also believe that they use lists of people that they know will answer their polls. There should probably be some studies on what constitutes your average polling person and how they fare next to an average US citizen. So I do not generally think the US is full of a bunch of fundamentalist wackos... What is more likely is that the vast majority of the US is apathetic to many of these lightning rod issues. They just dont care because they dont see how their opinion will affect any change. Its the same reason many people in the US do not vote. I dont believe in religion. I could certainly care less about God also. The reason evolution is so scary to people is that it isnt the "feel-good" answer that religion is. Religion fills in the embarrassingly large holes in what we dont know about things. People being afraid to admit they are alone in their decision making is what makes religion so attractive. Why worry about things you dont know when religion has the simple answers that you can even relate to children.