Monday, May 5, 2008

The Kool-Aid of Creationism

I go to church every Sunday, yet I find the idea of Intelligent Design and Creationism about as compelling as an episode of American Idol. The scientific support for the theory of evolution is overwhelming and I have no difficulty meshing my lifelong Christian beliefs with real science.

ID and C are religion dressed up as science, like lipstick on a pig. It just doesn't work.

But what people know is different than what actually is. For example, people were asked: "Do you think the scientific theory of evolution is well-supported by evidence and widely accepted within the scientific community?"

Obviously it is. Ask any real scientist. And yet, only 48 percent got it right and said yes. Thirty-nine percent got it wrong, 13 percent were unsure. In other words, over half of Americans fail basic science.

It's one thing to not believe in evolution. Stupid, but not surprising. But to get it so wrong about what the scientific community thinks, the people who do this stuff for a living, that's another issue altogether.

Half of Americans think humans were created in their present form. Never mind the piles of evidence to the contrary, never mind the lack of evidence to support an ID/C interpretation. Never mind that Americans tend to score low in just about every test compared to people in other countries, from geography to history to news to, yes, science.

What do people know? When it comes to science, at least half don't know a hell of a lot, and that's scary.

2 comments:

Mark E. Johnson said...

I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU ACADEMIC HEATHENS ARE GIVEN TENURE! IT JUST PROTECTS YOU FROM WHAT SHOULD BE INEVITABLE - YOUR DEMISE!

Oh, wait, except you're right ... wonder why no one has blasted you yet ...

Hollander said...

No one has blasted me because no one reads the blog.

Actually, I get anywhere from 4 to 10 readers a day -- more if I write about Fox and CNN. And even more if I write about lemon bars.