Snatched from lbbastard

[40cakes]

Study shows that 12 percent of Americans believe in evolution without God.

Now, as we know they didn't knock on everyone's door for their poll, we have to take into consideration the extent of their study. Maybe they only did this in, like, South Dakota. Or Kansas. Or maybe they just hung out at a church and asked people to check off a box and leave it in the tithing tray. If you assume this study accurately represents America, there are about 35.5 million people who believe in evolution with no divine intervention.* If you count the 31% who believe in evolution with some help from above, there are about 127 million who accept it. I'm cool with that 31%. If you believe in the Judeo-Christian God, then part of that is knowing that He kinda has a hand in everything. That 31% doesn't represent mass stupidity,** it represents religious folk who don't look at scientific evidence and theory and rational thought and choose to clap their hands over their ears and shout, "La la la la la la NOT LISTENING!"

*Specifically, 35,569,248.48. One person was undecided maybe. Or half of a conjoined twin set. Do those count as two people or one in the census?
**Unless you DO think that religion represents mass stupidity, and in that case, that's between you and your god. ...no, wait.

Comments

[suburban-panic.livejournal.com]

Maybe we should start a 12% Club LJ community! That'd be fun, wouldn't it? In a constant flame-war sort of way, I mean.

[suburban-panic.livejournal.com]

  I'm getting this vision of you perched on your keyboard, constantly refreshing a search page until the community popped up. =)

  Welcome! Would you like to be a moderator, too?

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

Sure!

Actually, I was wondering if anybody had it yet. I checked 12percent, which was taken, and then said, "What about with an underscore in it? Oh, that's taken too...by lbbastard who just made it hee."

[dialogue.livejournal.com]

How does that 12% compare with the percentage of Americans that identify themselves as atheists?

I looked at the article, and it does seem surprising to me that so few Americans give Evolution ANY credit. While I've considered myself a Christian most of my life (I'd go under "agnostic" now), I can't remember ever believing the Garden of Eden creation story as anything more than a fairy tale. Frankly, I'd be much more impressed with a god who started with the simplest building-blocks of life and let them develop than one who slapped us all together just as we are now.

Frankly, it seems to me irrelevant whether or not God "guided" evolution or not...the data we have overwhelmingly shows that evolution happened. That is science. Whether God or some gods or the Flying Spaghetti Monster had any hand in it is not. Vitally important for many people, but. not. science. I'm all for discussion of matters of faith, since I myself am still on the fence as far as the existence of a higher power, but keep that out of my science class, thank you very much!

[pyrobovaphiliac.livejournal.com]

Can you provide a log in link so I can read the article too? I went to the Gallup site and found it, but I didn't want to reg for the trial. Fuskers are protecting their bibliography with subscriptions.

From the site they seem like a stupid pseudo-grassroots sort of political bs. The sort of vocal minority you need to keep away from the populace.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

I read part of the headline as "black bible" and my mind went to a bad place.

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

Snicker. 12% of Americans believe in evolution from tentacle monsters.

[jerseyfabulous.livejournal.com]

i wonder if that's more or less than the percentage of americans who believed in evolution in 1925.

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

Hopefully more. Please more. PLEASE.

[suburban-panic.livejournal.com]

  Hello, Mod. Moderating won't be a big deal right now, because we have 6 members and I'm not requiring approval for membership. I might change that later on, but I'll let you know first. =)

[restivemind.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. How does this factor in the 0.00012% of people who believe that they personally evolved directly from God? ;)

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

Aw man, when I worked at the Phys. Therapy office, this guy came in who believed he was a direct descendant from Jesus. And that he could control the winds from the four corners of the earth.

[restivemind.livejournal.com]

Did you gently point out to Jesus Junior that the earth is round and therefore corners are hard to find? And just why would someone directly descended from a man who could walk on water need physical therapy anyway? If you can control the wind, surely a bum knee is no big deal.

Of course, what the hell do I know? I can't even control my own wind... :P