43% of Republicans accept evolution; down from 54%

[Aezral]

Either way, as has already been said, those numbers should be much closer to 100% accepting evolution for all the groups. There's really no excuse given how easy it is for pretty much anyone to find information on the subject these days.

But sadly people remain ignorant and uneducated. Alongside that, the population in general is getting older. Individuals closer to death will bargain with a higher power, and start taking religious texts verbatim.

[Sky High]

I'm actually pretty surprised that numbers went down for Republicans and Independents. We've got a lot of work to do.

as I said trust in science as a whole is going down, mostly because people think it's politicly charged, from Huffpo.

What’s more, many Americans worry that the results of scientific studies are sometimes tainted by political ideology -- or by pressure from the studies’ corporate sponsors.

A whopping 78 percent of Americans think that information reported in scientific studies is often (34 percent) or sometimes (44 percent) influenced by political ideology, compared to only 18 percent who said that happens rarely (15 percent) or never (3 percent).

[Aezral]

Polls are pretty meaningless when you only randomly sample less than 2,000 people in one country.

I would love to understand your reasoning

[Googolplex]

As I read the pole, Democrats are getting smarter, Republicans are heading the other way so to speak.

It strikes me as slightly amusing, but also a bit sad, that people still fail to recognize evolution as the only logical explanation.

[TZucchini]

Polls are pretty meaningless when you only randomly sample less than 2,000 people in one country.

You're right, polls are meaningless.

But scientific polls, like those conducted by Pew, are not.

[obdigore]

Here is a happier 'for the future' chart (From OP's link)

[jtstormrage]

Are there really people in the modern age that believe that the earth was actually created in 7 days, about 5000 years ago, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and are those people really in positions of power?

It is absolutely breathtaking.

[magik8ball]

Fuck, if this keeps up I'll start rooting for China.



No, we do need more people among non scientists. Because these fools vote and decide policy.

What policy actually involves evolution, though? There's no real political reason to believe in evolution (besides the educational one of believing in its teaching). Besides that, evolution's only real use is in the scientific community. It's science - it works whether you believe in it or not.

[Aezral]

I just seems not plausible that the Earth is older than 6000 years to me.

Please elaborate, I would love to understand your logic behind this.

[Mihalik]

I just seems not plausible that the Earth is older than 6000 years to me.

And here we go...

I'm a geologist mate. Believe me the Earth is a lot, lot older then 6000 years. What seems plausible to you is largely irrelevant as you have no understanding of the topic. I don't claim to be an Engineer as I never studied that, and I have very little to no understanding of engineering.

But the good thing is...that you can actually study this and understand the processes involved. And by study I don't mean reading some blog and watching some youtube videos. But picking up a book (not the Bible), studying some physics, chemistry, biochemistry, cartography, mathematics and tada...suddenly your world has expanded beyond your wildest dreams, and all that implausible magical stuff makes sense and you totally understand it.

[dd614]

Are you surprised?

First of all Republicans are a shrinking demographic and past about 12 years lost substantial amount of voters currently still holding onto their seats via a mix of shameless gerrymandering, vote rigging and bullying, and gained very little in the form of Tea Party folks.

Republican extreme right wingers, with their religious dogmatism, raging hate fueled by ignorance are a cancer that is killing economic conservatives and libertarians.

The World looks on the Tea Party and the droves of Christian fundamentalists and science deniers with a mix of confused concern (God forbid they ever get any real political power), and utter contempt.

GOP, stop it. Put your house in order, kill off that red headed step child which is the Tea Party, get out of peoples bedrooms and ovaries, stop talking about God every 5 minutes and you might have a future.

For the GOP to win they should basically ignore everything you said.

[obdigore]

Are there really people in the modern age that believe that the earth was actually created in 7 days, about 5000 years ago, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and are those people really in positions of power?

It is absolutely breathtaking.

We have elected officials in positions of power over scientific funding by the government who think things like 'evolution is a lie from the pit of hell'.

[Deleted]

What policy actually involves evolution, though? There's no real political reason to believe in evolution (besides the educational one of believing in its teaching).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibiotic_resistance

[Deleted]

On another note, there should be a poll among scientists to see who believes in evolution. Could be interesting.

100% of scientists believe in evolution, even the religious one's.
And with scientists, I mean people who need to understand a tiny bit of biology to do their job.

And I don't want to go on a rant here, but seriously America, get your shit together, how can one part of your country be developping laserguided weapon systems that can accuratly post a 20 ton missile in your mailbox from the other side of the planet while the other part has the intelligent equivalent of a beatle?

[Coombs]

I would love to understand your reasoning

Because the human dynamic cannot be placed into a statistical model despite what social science tries to assert.

[Googolplex]

Polls are pretty meaningless when you only randomly sample less than 2,000 people in one country.

Maybe you should start taking some math lessons, because you clearly have no idea what you are talking about.

[Mihalik]

What policy actually involves evolution, though? There's no real political reason to believe in evolution (besides the educational one of believing in its teaching). Besides that, evolution's only real use is in the scientific community. It's science - it works whether you believe in it or not.

Biotechnology. Biology, and bio chemistry don't work without evolution. Medical science and other applications of biotechnology in areas of industry and agriculture are of crucial importance for the future of any modern nation.

You know the whole Stem Cell research problem etc. which are essentially pissing contests between the scientific community and the religious groups.

[s_bushido]

What policy actually involves evolution, though? There's no real political reason to believe in evolution (besides the educational one of believing in its teaching). Besides that, evolution's only real use is in the scientific community. It's science - it works whether you believe in it or not.

If you have people making policy who refuse to accept scientific evidence for ideological reasons, it doesn't give me much confidence in their decision-making capabilities.

[Kapadons]

Are you surprised?

First of all Republicans are a shrinking demographic and past about 12 years lost substantial amount of voters currently still holding onto their seats via a mix of shameless gerrymandering, vote rigging and bullying, and gained very little in the form of Tea Party folks.

Republican extreme right wingers, with their religious dogmatism, raging hate fueled by ignorance are a cancer that is killing economic conservatives and libertarians.

The World looks on the Tea Party and the droves of Christian fundamentalists and science deniers with a mix of confused concern (God forbid they ever get any real political power), and utter contempt.

GOP, stop it. Put your house in order, kill off that red headed step child which is the Tea Party, get out of peoples bedrooms and ovaries, stop talking about God every 5 minutes and you might have a future.

Biggest issue most right leaning people have with Republicans is the bible thumpers.

[Deleted]

Kind of scary how the most powerful country on Earth is led by people who are THIS retarded.