New survey on science and religion
whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com
Jerry Coyne discusses the results of a survey which came out at the end of May.
On creationism, the results were pretty much what was expected:
Which of these statements comes closest to your views on the origin of biological life: biological life developed over time from simple substances, but God guided this process, biological life developed over time from simple substances but God did not guide this process, God directly created biological life in its present form at one point in time? [Note: the order of answers was randomized among people]
God directly created life: 43%
Life developed over time, God guided this process: 24%
Life developed over time, God didn’t guide it: 18%
None of these/didn’t know/refused to answer: 16%
One can tell that many creationists are not getting their information about evolution from credible sources by the following question:
From what you’ve hear or read, do you think the evidence on evolution is widely accepted within the scientific community, or do many scientists have serious doubts about it?
Widely accepted: 53%
Many scientists have serious doubts: 31%
Don’t know/refused to answer: 16%
I’ve never come across any scientist (outside of the self-declared “scientists” doing “creation science”) that seriously doubts evolution takes place and has done so since the beginning. There are theistic evolutionists out there, but they still accept that species change.
This misunderstanding about the science of evolution is mirrored in that about climatology. From the survey PDF:
Is Global Warming Accepted by Scientists?
From what you’ve heard or read, do you think the
evidence on global warming is widely accepted within
the scientific community, or do many scientists have
serious doubts about it?Widely accepted 37%
Many scientists have serious doubts 49%
Don’t know/Refused 14%
In reality, almost every single climatologist will accept that global warming is occurring and that man’s actions have a part in it. There may be some disagreements as to the proportions in attributions, and the exact outcome over the centuries, but that the globe is warming and that human actions are responsible for some part of it is indeed very solid science.
What these results show is that the American populace continues in ignorance. This is in part because vested interests (religious zealots on the part of creationism, and energy and other companies/investors on the part of AGW-denial) have been waging what I call ignorance campaigns on the American society for some time.