The folks at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press conducted a poll on what is apparently one of our nation’s most pressing issues. The result: 64 percent of respondents said they were open to creationism being taught alongside evolution in public schools, while 38 percent favored replacing evolution with creationism altogether. Wow.
42% held strict creationist views, while 48% said they believed that humans had evolved over time (18% of these folks thought that evolution was guided by a supreme being).
The poll surveyed 2,000 people, giving a margin of error of 2.5%.
You can read about it here.
It’s not just Kansas anymore.
August 31st, 2005 at 4:47 pm
> It’s not just Kansas anymore.
It never was just Kansas IMHO.
August 31st, 2005 at 4:56 pm
The slogan “let’s just be open minded” is simply irresistible. To succeed someone will need to come up with something equally simplisitic and powerful (I myself have no advertizing skills…).
August 31st, 2005 at 4:57 pm
There are some really interesting implications from the results they got. I blogged a little bit at Thoughts from Kansas, and I’m sure I’ll have more to say once I look at the cross-tabs.
August 31st, 2005 at 5:01 pm
Hi Moshe. As I often hear Lawrence Krauss say, how about “…but not so open-minded that one’s brains fall out.”?
August 31st, 2005 at 5:02 pm
Aah! JoAnne….while I was writing my long post you snuck in with a quicker one on the same topic! That’ll teach me to babble on and on!
-cvj
August 31st, 2005 at 5:05 pm
[…] [Update: JoAnne was writing a post about this at the same time I was! So you can find hers here.] […]
August 31st, 2005 at 5:10 pm
JoAnne, as an “out-there” theorist I’m very proud that like you (much closer to real experiments) I also placed a line reporting the sample size and margin of error in my post on the same report. So there’s hope for me yet, eh?
-cvj
August 31st, 2005 at 5:10 pm
Pretty good Mark, now if this point could be made with fewer syllables…
August 31st, 2005 at 5:14 pm
Actually, speaking of which Clifford, what is the political bias of the Pew research center? this usually has some bearing on the results.
August 31st, 2005 at 5:21 pm
“Let’s be open-minded” really is irresistable. I think opponents of ID are only going to be successful if they can draw the distinction between “open-minded in the things we thoughtfully consider” and “open-minded in what we teach children.” The key question scientists need to be asking people who publically flog the ID donkey is “Just how ridiculous does a theory have to be before it’s not worth teaching in schools? If I had a theory that life was created by a flying spaghetti monster, should my ideas be taught in a science class along with Darwin and ID?” I think this is a good way to get people to focus in on exactly how the scientific method imposes a burden-of-proof, which burden is exaclty what is lacking in all these nebulous ID assertions.
August 31st, 2005 at 5:26 pm
Not a surprise
> Wow
I can’t believe how surprised you all seem to be by this survey. The results have held steady since 1982 according to the Gallup poll, says this link from the National Center for Science Education. http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/news/2004/US/724_public_view_of_creationism_and_11_19_2004.asp
August 31st, 2005 at 5:47 pm
Joe,
Let’s save the children… now that is the spirit (they are the future, aren’t they?)
August 31st, 2005 at 6:00 pm
Moshe-
You read me like an open book. (An open book that’s not Wald.)
August 31st, 2005 at 6:13 pm
Clifford, Great minds blog alike!
September 1st, 2005 at 12:05 am
Jim is right, as depressing as this is, it ain’t new. I wrote about how these persistent these results have been last fall during my brief guest stint at Preposterous Universe… essentially unchanged since they started asking the question. The only difference is that we now have the president and the majority leader in favor of it…
September 1st, 2005 at 2:42 am
[…] posted by: cooper 01-Sep-2005 03:31 EDT The folks at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press conducted a poll on what is apparently one of our nation’s most pressing issues. The result: 64 percent of respondents said they were open to creationism being taught alongside evolution in public schools, while 38 percent favored replacing evolution with creationism altogether. Wow. 42% held strict creationist views, while 48% said they believed that humans had evolved over time (18% of these folks thought that evolution was guided by a supreme being). The poll surveyed 2,000 people, giving a margin of error of 2.5%. You can read about it here. It’s not just Kansas anymore. CV On that note, these are great! […]