In my never ceasing effort to increase stereotyping, I present, for you, a recent Gallup poll about American views on the theory of evolution:
|
Subgroup |
% Who Believe that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution |
| Postgraduate education | 65% |
| Liberal | 56 |
| College graduate | 52 |
| West | 47 |
| Seldom, never attend church | 46 |
| Catholics | 46 |
| 50- to 64-year-olds | 44 |
| Men | 42 |
| East | 42 |
| 18- to 29-year-olds | 41 |
| Independent | 40 |
| Democrat | 38 |
| Moderate | 36 |
| SAMPLE AVERAGE | 35 |
| Nearly weekly church attendance | 35 |
| 30- to 49-year-olds | 34 |
| Some college | 32 |
| Women | 30 |
| Republican | 29 |
| Midwest | 29 |
| Protestant | 28 |
| South | 27 |
| Conservative | 26 |
| Weekly church attendance | 22 |
| Age 65+ | 21 |
| High school or less | 20 |
This data makes me think maybe we need another 1960s cultural revolution. Well, truthfully I always think that…
If there’s anything surprising in this data it’s that even those with postgraduate degrees fail to endorse in seriously convincing numbers what is already a pretty lukewarm statement about evolution. When more than one out of three people in the most highly educated demographic substratum of the country will go on the record as rejecting one of the most solidly established scientific facts in the record, it’s not time for another hippie festival, it’s time for another Enlightenment.
check out http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=90
it’s a review of a edited volume on the arguments put forth by the school of intelligent design. an interesting read.
doesn’t it sometimes seem that in a different universe, the evolution debate would present an excellent opportunity to teach people what constitues science and scientific reasoning? oh well; complaining about another opportunity lost in this universe would be a massive waste of time.
As a postgraduated non-church-going liberal male from the west (and your cousin), it was really nice spending time with you in Santa Fe, Dave!
I wonder how the poll data would look (save obvious changes in proper nouns) were it conducted in Canada. A post-new-Enlightenment-Canada certainly resonates with my image of The True North as the last undiscovered metric wonderland.
You had a 1960s cultural revolution?…
Reminds me of Gandhi’s alleged reply to the question “What do you think of Western Civilization”. He is said to have paused reflectively for a moment and then said “I think it would be a good idea”.