Newsweek Poll: 48% of U.S. Rejects Evolution

Hey that seems lower than before.

It seems the greater a scientist you are, the less likely you are to believe in God (or at least be agnostic)

Here's a study done in Nature (I found it referenced to in Dawkins' book The God Delusion and wanted to do some fact-checking.) The trend in the academia is moving further and further away from belief in a God with each census:

Leading scientists still reject God
Edward J. Larson, Larry Witham
Nature 394, 313 - 313 (23 Jul 1998)

For those of you who don't have access to the journal; the findings are as follows:

The polled scientists were all members of the National Academy of Sciences. Of those that responded to the question: "Do you believe in a personal God". 7.0% responded 'yes', 72.2% said no, and 20.8% had doubts. The question regarding human immortality had similar figures. This was for 1998. In previous years, the amount of believers was higher, but not by much. In 1914, only 27.7% had a belief in a personal God.

In regards to evolution — well — I doubt you'll find ANY member in the National Academy of Sciences who rejects biological evolution.

That sounds about right.

Has there been any international polls on this? Just curious to see what those numbers would be.

People reject what they don't understand. That's really what it comes down to.

flicka said:

People reject what they don't understand. That's really what it comes down to.

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I think what contributes to that is - they are left with a false choice - accept science and reject god, or, reject science and accept god. So there is no motivation to learn it.

Let's not kid ourselves. The bedrock of all this, the very core of creationists' motivation, has nothing to do with science at all. It has everything to do with their religious beliefs and advancing their religious agenda - and they're using politics and the courts to achieve their goals. Their biggest obstacle is the Constitution.

TheBear said:

That sounds about right.

Has there been any international polls on this? Just curious to see what those numbers would be.

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I don't have a link ready, but I remember that the US came in second to last in acceptance of evolution - barely surpassing Turkey.

Where was Canada?

TheBear said:

Has there been any international polls on this? Just curious to see what those numbers would be.

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,207858,00.html

Edited to add: Here you can see all the numbers-> http://www.flickr.com/photos/cpurrin1/363790966/

Peter

birdan said:

Sounds like that new AIG creation museum is going to be doing a brisk business. I'm so depressed ......

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It's another step forward into the Dark Ages.


eudaimonia,

Mark

Nitron said:

Where was Canada?

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North of most of the USA, where it normally is.

Yuk, yuk, yuk!

Fwafwafwa.

Elduran said:

North of most of the USA, where it normally is.

Yuk, yuk, yuk!

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I didn't see Canada up there...maybe that's because it's not even a real country

Elduran said:

North of most of the USA, where it normally is.

Yuk, yuk, yuk!

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Funny... but most Americans don't know that either.

Phred said:

Funny... but most Americans don't know that either.

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And that is just sad.