No Change = News?

Nearly half of Americans believe God created humans in their present form in the last 10,000 years.

Yes, I know ... scientifically implausible given the massive fossil record.  As a practicing Catholic, I have no problem believing God played a role in creation but that man (and all the other critters) evolved over a huge amount of time, but 46 percent of Americans think we magically appeared in the last 10,000 years.  Probably along with the dinosaurs.

My headline above, though, says No Change = News? because, frankly, even the news story tells us the public really hasn't changed all that much:

That number has remained unchanged for the past 30 years, since 1982, when Gallup first asked the question on creationism versus evolution. Thirty years ago, 44% of the people who responded said they believed that God created humans as we know them today - only a 2-point difference from 2012.

So is it news that people remain unchanged in this belief?  Yes, if for no other reason than to demonstrate we're not getting any smarter, at least when it comes to what people know about science.

Sigh.

Don't Know Much ...

Remember the lyrics to that great old Sam Cooke song?

Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about the french I took

According to this survey, Sam's not alone.  The high (or low) points:

• Only 53% of adults know how long it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun.
• Only 59% of adults know that the earliest humans and dinosaurs did not live at the same time.
• Only 47% of adults can roughly approximate the percent of the Earth's surface that is covered with water (65-75 was considered correct).
  
• Only 21% of adults answered all three questions correctly.

Yup, sad.  I admit the study is a bit old, from February of this year, but I'm kinda slow in finding stuff.