Gallop Poll: "Do you Believe in Evolution"?

Cute Tink said:

Slightly missed what you were saying. Could be that some people are getting filled with misinformation (it does have to come from somewhere) and believe it more the more often they are bombarded with it.

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Good point. I remember reading somewhere that people whi higher education are more likely to believe in things like ghosts and psychics.

... But that's another topic.

To clarify, I mean misinformation about evolution, not that churches are routinely giving out misinformation in general. I just realized that may have come off wrong.

Jazer said:

According to Gallop only 39% of the people actually believe in Evolution.
36% have no opinion either way and only 25% are believers.
On Darwins Birthday, Only 4 in 10 Believe in Evolution
Only 4 in 10 is nothing to get excited about.

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Nothing to get excited about in what sense?

It's nothing to get excited about indeed when you want to judge the correctness of the theory. Because public opinion is, to put it mildly, a rubbish guide to scientific truth.

It is everything to get... not so much excited but worried about when you actually care about science education. Something clearly went wrong where a theory accepted by the overwhelming majority of experts in the field is rejected by a such a large proportion of the public.

Jazer said:

I think there is a lot of hype and a lot of what they want to call evolution that has nothing to do with Darwin's theory.

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Yeah, that's because Darwin's theory, while quite brilliant for its time, was incomplete in some respects and even wrong in others.

Which is only to be expected of a scientific theory, really. We never have all the relevant information, so we'll inevitably miss or misinterpret some things in our explanations.

philadiddle said:

This is a good point, the American education system is failing....only 39% have come to grips with reality, and 25% completely deny it.

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Incidentally, it would be interesting (though perhaps depressing) to ask the 39% why they accept evolution. Even among undergrad science students, "'coz that's what they told me" can be an appallingly common answer to similar questions. (SOURCE. The actual talk is on this page in QuickTime format, can't link directly to the video)

Naraoia said:

Incidentally, it would be interesting (though perhaps depressing) to ask the 39% why they accept evolution. Even among undergrad science students, "'coz that's what they told me" can be an appallingly common answer to similar questions. (SOURCE. The actual talk is on this page in QuickTime format, can't link directly to the video)

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Now that is scary.

Naraoia said:

Incidentally, it would be interesting (though perhaps depressing) to ask the 39% why they accept evolution. Even among undergrad science students, "'coz that's what they told me" can be an appallingly common answer to similar questions. (SOURCE. The actual talk is on this page in QuickTime format, can't link directly to the video)

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It also means they are likely to switch columns if someone else starts talking to them.

Notedstrangeperson said:

Another interesting point: where Creationism is lowest, atheistic evolution is at it's highest, and vice-versa.

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That would tend to indicate that people need to believe in something. I know I am not comfortable with nothing. So you believe in God or you believe it all somehow created itself.

Naraoia said:

Something clearly went wrong where a theory accepted by the overwhelming majority of experts in the field is rejected by a such a large proportion of the public.

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What do you care if they accept or reject the theory? Something clearly went right because of the controversy they got interested in something that would otherwise know nothing about. The evolution vs creationism debate is a VERY effective teaching tool.

Yeah, that's because Darwin's theory, while quite brilliant for its time, was incomplete in some respects and even wrong in others.

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Yet Moses 3500 years ago has never been shown to be wrong.

Antiquarian said:

Note that races with the lowest IQ's are those that are the most religious or believe in superstitions etc.

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First of all Science no longer believes in "race" it has to do with culture. If you set up an IQ test adjusted for a persons culture they will do a lot better. How well would you do on this IQ test?

1. A “handkerchief head” is:
a. a cool cat
b. a porter
c. an Uncle Tom
d. a hoddi
e. a preacher

2. Which word is most out of place here?
a. splib
b. blood
c. gray
d. spook
e. black

3. A “gas head” is a person who has a:
a. fast-moving car
b. stable of “lace”
c. ”process”
d. habit of stealing cars
e. long jail record for arson

Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity (self-grading quiz)

http://www.psychbytes.com

Antiquarian said:

This is easily explained, look at Detroits demographic stats. Its majority black. The white population has fallen from 98.5% in 1900 to under 10% in 2011.



See one above.

Average IQ:

Australian Aborigine: 56
Black Africans: 62-67
Arabs: 85
Native Americans: 85
Central Asians: 90
Europeans: 100-103
East Asians: 105

Note that races with the lowest IQ's are those that are the most religious or believe in superstitions etc. Australian Aborigines believe in spirits, Black Africans worship Gods in animal forms, Arabs worship ''Allah'', Native Americans worship totems and spirits.

The peoples with the highest IQ's (Europeans & East Asians) are the people who believe the most in science and are least religious.

Religion is primitive/backward. Sub-Saharan african tribes still think the earth is flat and that their tribe was shaped out of mud by an animal god... Europeans etc who subscribe to primitive ''creationism'' or religions are just dumbing us down. Embrace science.

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source please

Orogeny said:

source please

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It's mostly accurate, I didn't know it either and almost posted exactly the same a minute ago. But I googled "IQ by race" and there are a lot of studies about it. He did however open a huge can of worms with this post. But while I do find a lot of evidence for the IQ versus race portion of it, I found none for the religion versus race.

Antiquarian said:

Its a well known fact races with lower IQ's are more religious or superstitious. Sub-Saharan Africans do not even know what causes an eclipse and blame it on evil spirits or demons. On January 9, 2001 for example a lunar eclipse caused rioting in Nigeria; evil people were blamed. (“Eclipse Triggers Nigeria Riot,” BBC News, Jan. 10, 2001).

Races which have lower IQ's are backward and don't have scientific knowledge, they are therefore more religious or superstitious.

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Even if this is statistically true it's important to note that culture plays an almost exclusive role in this rather than actual genes.
Also IQ tests are calibrated for a specific sort of thinking and reasoning.

If IQ tests involved how quickly and correctly people could herd cattle or transport water with resources available, it's most likely Sub-Saharan tribes would ace westerners in them.

While there may be a correlation bewteen intellegence and belief, it is not a direct correlation. There are plenty of very smart theists and plenty of very stupid atheists.

Antiquarian said:

Races which have lower IQ's are backward and don't have scientific knowledge, they are therefore more religious or superstitious.

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I do not know how you can manage to spread so much mis information with so few words.

When my brother was getting his PHd in Psychology from the University of Minn this was something he studied extensively. It was the conversation one year when he came home for Christmas. The whole family talked about it quite a bit. In fact my father and brother developed a preschool readiness test. This was the subject of his doctoral dissertation.

CabVet said:

It's mostly accurate, I didn't know it either and almost posted exactly the same a minute ago. But I googled "IQ by race" and there are a lot of studies about it. He did however open a huge can of worms with this post. But while I do find a lot of evidence for the IQ versus race portion of it, I found none for the religion versus race.

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Having interacted with dozens of Australian aboriginals, and given that I'm currently living with and interact with native Americans on a daily basis, I'd be very surprised to learn that there was any appreciable difference in intelligence between these groups and people of European descent. The average IQ of those with Downs' syndrome is around 50 (wiki), and I can assure you that Australian aboriginal tribes are not populated with individuals of similar intellect.

It's important to realize that IQ tests measure very specific skill sets that may not be emphasized in some cultures. It is also important to realize that the wording and application of test can significantly influence scores, particularly when cultural boundaries are involved.

Asserting that an entire race is nigh-on mentally impaired indicates serious cultural misunderstanding at best, and borders on racism at worst.

CabVet said:

Yeah, atheists are losing!

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Yeah, there are far fewer atheists than there are evolutionists.

Cute Tink said:

The more uneducated the more likely you are to disagree with evolution.

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The more educated you are in rubbish the more likely you are to agree with evolution.

Naraoia said:

Something clearly went wrong where a theory accepted by the overwhelming majority of experts in the field is rejected by a such a large proportion of the public.

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Thank God we are not all experts.

“Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world...For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight.” (1 Cor 1:20-2, 3:19).

"Do you Believe in Evolution?" NOPE!

Antiquarian said:

Its a well known fact races with lower IQ's are more religious or superstitious. Sub-Saharan Africans do not even know what causes an eclipse and blame it on evil spirits or demons. On January 9, 2001 for example a lunar eclipse caused rioting in Nigeria; evil people were blamed. (“Eclipse Triggers Nigeria Riot,” BBC News, Jan. 10, 2001).

Races which have lower IQ's are backward and don't have scientific knowledge, they are therefore more religious or superstitious.

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So? All an IQ test measures is the ability to answer the questions on the IQ test.

Doveaman said:

The more educated you are in rubbish the more likely you are to agree with evolution.

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I think you mean "the more likely you are to agree with creationism."

Doveaman said:

Thank God we are not all experts.
.

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will do