Where are we Going Wrong?

I can’t speak for anyone else, but the latest Gallup Poll on the acceptance of evolution came as a proverbial “kick in the gut for me. Why? Not because figures have not really change much since 1982 (46% of the general population are flat out creationists) Not because 32% believe in theistic evolution(a God guided and directed the process) which is basically Intelligent Design. No, none of these. What pill I find hard to swallow, is that the figures are almost exactly the same  for college graduates. Yup after sixteen long years spent at school and in our public and private colleges,US graduates still think the earth is less than ten thousand years old and the story of Adam and Eve is literally true. This is not the case in most Western Nations(US rates 37 in the world on the acceptance of evolution) So where is the US going wrong? I would like to hear any of your thoughts on this.

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9 Responses to Where are we Going Wrong?

  1. Pierce R. Butler says:

    I presently lean toward the hypothesis that accepting various reality claims has come to be a tribal identifier for a lot of people: if X stands for membership in (whoever they see as) “Us”, they will happily assert X without pausing for a second to consider the factuality of X.

    My own psychology, and that of the people I (think I) know well, doesn’t work that way, but the idea does seem to fit a large (and growing, or at least more vocal) chunk of the US population.

  2. Michael Suttkus, II says:

    For the record, even when I was a theistic evolutionist, I still didn’t agree with “intelligent design”. There’s a difference between people who take “god guided evolution” as a faith position, and those who will insist on it being evidenced.

    In the end, we don’t teach science as if it was important. The entire school system is treated as a negative experience by students. Science classes are things you take because you are made to, not because understanding the world might be fun or even important. We don’t have a culture that values learning or the quest for knowledge. And that’s a shame, because we live in a time when it has never been easier to learn.

  3. Ivorygirl says:

    I fully agree with Pierce,I’m convinced that this is a social/political issue.
    How we can remedy this problem other than just keep plugging away in the science classrooms (at all levels)? I’m not so sure we can, changing peoples cultural values and encouraging modernity is always a slow process.

  4. chris says:

    I know my comments aren’t valued much here and usually get deleated quickly.

    I see the problem from a differnet angle.
    One of the main problems is not religion but rather the ability to question the science and verify the claims evolution makes.

    After over a hundred years of proclaiming all life shares a common ansester, not a single living thing has been produced beyond natural occurring speciation to support the claim.

    Dobzhansky’s research has been invaluable in many areas of science, but even he was duped by the unprove assertion of gill slits in human embryos. His famous statement “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution” should now read “biology makes sense in spite of evolution”.

    It doesn’t seem to matter what fantastic new claim is made by evolutionary scientist, after a little time it must be discarded, covered up or rewritten to keep the idea viable. All with the repetitious stamp of science, scientific theories change with new information or evolutionary theory is backed by multiple lines of evidence. But in the meantime you’re a moron for not accepting the fact of gill slits in human embryos, and the like. Such foolishness will cause almost anyone to see the fallacy.

    To significantly change the acceptance percentages in favor of evolution’s speculative portions, the population must be restricted from acquiring conflicting data regardless of it’s factuality and dumbed down much further.

  5. Jonathan says:

    Chris, there are only two administrators on this site, myself and Brandon. Neither one of us has ever deleted any of your postings. As far as I can recollect we have never deleted anyone’s comments, no matter how “off the wall” they maybe. Very occasionally we have closed the comments down on a topic when it just ran out of steam, but that’s all.

  6. chris says:

    Jonathan
    Thanks, glad to here this. Must have been my mistake.

  7. chris says:

    There are other problems with evolutions expanded theory of common ancestry, which are not social or political. One problem is only a select group of facts support it. Nor is it universally accepted by all scientist.
    http://www.unity-in-christ.org/Scientists%20Who%20Dissent.pdf

    I thought this was an interesting site and might shed some light on the subject.

    Evolution in Iceland
    We think that evolution is accepted by most people in Iceland simply because they are unaware of the many scientific inconsistencies in it. They accept evolution simply because, “everybody knows it is true.”
    http://www.scienceagainstevolution.org/v11i6f.htm

  8. chris says:

    Here’s another problem. Dinosaurs are depicted in ancient artwork all over the world. If they went extinct 65 million years ago, why are there drawings of people fighting them? How would people know what a dinosaur looked like if they hadn’t seen one? Not trying to be obnoxious, but these are some reasons to suggest evolutionary science is not looking for answers but rewriting history to fit a unsubstantiated belief. Not very convincing.

    http://www.genesispark.com/exhibits/evidence/historical/ancient/dinosaur/

  9. chris says:

    This article is a little old but relevant to your question, “ where is the US going wrong” Esponging this type of factual information (whether fact or not) from the inquisitive eyes of the population would be a must to improve the percentages for evolution’s acceptance.

    The Scientific Evidence For the Origin of Man
    http://www.bestbiblescience.org/apeimage.htm

    No doubt if this type of information were presented and evolution’s theory’s were allowed to be questioned in the public school system the percentages of new converts would drop dramatically.

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