40 percent of Americans believe God is responsible for creat

[sandinista]

I sometimes wonder why amercians seem to be clueless when it comes to history, I suppose if they don't even "believe" in evolution and actually think "god" created humans 10,000 years ago how can I expect them to even have a rough idea of historical facts. 40 percent?? I mean, polls are often BS, but 40%?? This even includes individuals actually IN the government, people RUNNING the country. What a mess.

According to a Gallup poll released last month, 40 percent of Americans believe God is responsible for creating human life in its current form roughly 10,000 years ago.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/3 ... 15909.html

[Animavore]

Huh, huh. Americans are so dumb.

[tattuchu]

Yeah, I read that of Huffington Post as well. Dunno who conducted that poll, but I hope to Christ it's not accurate. Otherwise, we're fucking doomed

[sandinista]

Huh, huh. Americans are so dumb.

40 percent of them apparently.

[Geoff]

Dunno who conducted that poll, but I hope to Christ it's not accurate. Otherwise, we're fucking doomed

According to a Gallup poll...

It pretty much tallies with other polls I've seen recently, I'm afraid.

[maiforpeace]

Yea, I saw that Bill Maher episode and it was embarrassing...Jack Kingston AND D.L. Hughley believe in creationism.

And please, I would appreciate it if you said 40% of Americans are dumb...

[Ian]

40% is probably accurate. Or at least a combined 40% believe in creationism or think that it's an equally reasonable theory. The number no doubt goes much higher if you limit the polling to residents of Mississippi and Oklahoma...

I like trend analysis more than static analysis though. What were the numbers looking like thirty years ago, and what will they look like thirty years from now? While we're still lagging behind Europe, it's also clear enough that secularism is growing in the US. So I don't think "we're fucking doomed". For now, we're just fucking embarassed.

[Warren Dew]

While we're still lagging behind Europe, it's also clear enough that secularism is growing in the US.

Can you link to sources to back this up, or are you just guessing? My impression is that young earth creationism has been gaining ground here in the past couple of decades.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I pray every day that mankind will come to understand the true miracle of evolution. The sad fact is, it looks like my prayers are falling on deaf ears.

[Geoff]

While we're still lagging behind Europe, it's also clear enough that secularism is growing in the US.

Can you link to sources to back this up, or are you just guessing? My impression is that young earth creationism has been gaining ground here in the past couple of decades.

http://religions.pewforum.org/reports

...those Americans who are unaffiliated with any particular religion have seen the greatest growth in numbers as a result of changes in affiliation.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"Do you believe in creationism?"

"Huh?"

"Do you believe God created everything?"

"Yeah, sure, of course I do."

[PsychoSerenity]

Am I the only one that gets annoyed by the question "Do you believe in evolution?" - why can't they ask something like "do you understand the basic concepts of evolution?" - Forget whether they believe it or not, get them to admit to themselves they don't understand it, and that there might be something they can learn.

[Pappa]

Am I the only one that gets annoyed by the question "Do you believe in evolution?" - why can't they ask something like "do you understand the basic concepts of evolution?" - Forget whether they believe it or not, get them to admit to themselves they don't understand it, and that there might be something they can learn.

Maybe you'd prefer "Do you have faith in evolution?"?

[Warren Dew]

http://religions.pewforum.org/reports

...those Americans who are unaffiliated with any particular religion have seen the greatest growth in numbers as a result of changes in affiliation.

Pew's "unaffiliated" includes "religious unaffiliated", so it may not be a great marker for secularism. At 16%, it's also rather too small to include most of the people who believe in evolution.

The same sentence says that the biggest drop was in Catholicism, which given the Catholic church is happy with evolution, seems to me a net loss on the question.

[Coito ergo sum]

According to a survey of Canadians - 26% believe in Creationism and another 34% believe that God guided evolution: http://www.canadianchristianity.com/nat ... ution.html

So - 60% of Canadians think "goddidit" - if that makes you feel that your country is "smarter" then more power to you.