[Droogie]

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article....S00010000000001

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NEW YORK (Oct. 23) - Most Americans do not accept the theory of evolution. Instead, 51 percent of Americans say God created humans in their present form, and another three in 10 say that while humans evolved, God guided the process. Just 15 percent say humans evolved, and that God was not involved.

These views are similar to what they were in November 2004 shortly after the presidential election.

This question on the origin of human beings, asked both this month and in November 2004, offered the public three alternatives: 1. Human beings evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years, and God did not directly guide this process; 2. Human beings evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years, but God guided this process; or 3. God created human beings in their present form.

The results were not much different between the answers to that question and those given when a specific timeline was included in the final alternative: God created human beings in their present form within the last 10,000 years.

Americans most likely to believe in only evolution are liberals (36 percent), those who rarely or never attend religious services (25 percent), and those with a college degree or higher (24 percent).

White evangelicals (77 percent), weekly churchgoers (74 percent) and conservatives (64 percent), are mostly likely to say God created humans in their present form.

Still, most Americans think it is possible to believe in both God and evolution. Sixty-seven percent say this is possible, while 29 percent disagree. Most demographic groups say it is possible to believe in both God and evolution, but just over half of white evangelical Christians say it is not possible.

Opinions on this question are tied to one’s views on the origin of human beings. Those who believe in evolution, whether guided by God or not, overwhelmingly think it is possible to believe in both God and evolution – 90 percent say this. However, people who believe God created humans in their present form are more divided: 48 percent think it possible to believe in both God and evolution, but the same number disagrees

51%... thats MOST AMERICANS!!!

[Automatic Man]

The American bastards.

[Gabriel Synthesis]

no 51% isn't most americans

it's about half the americans

but they sure do love their statistics don't they, there's about 2 to 3 per line in that article and it gets fucking confusing

[Automatic Man]

turkish, on Oct 25 2005, 03:18 PM, said:

no 51% isn't most americans

it's about half the americans

but they sure do love their statistics don't they, there's about 2 to 3 per line in that article and it gets fucking confusing

51% is most Americans, but just, just most Americans.

[Gabriel Synthesis]

bollocks

51% is the majority of americans

most americans would be like 80% upwards

[Automatic Man]

Dont they kind of mean the same thing?

[Gabriel Synthesis]

no

saying that most americans don't believe in evolution just isn't true

it's being deliberately misleading just so we can take a cheap shot at americans

say you have 51 people believing in one thing and 49 people against that. then 2 people change their mind and so you have 49 to 51 going the other way

are you saying that 2 people make the difference between most of the 100 people believing one thing and then most of the 100 people believing the exact opposite?

[Automatic Man]

clever bastard.

[Gabriel Synthesis]

no i just think it'd be wrong to laugh at people for opinions you've attributed to them

[Automatic Man]

turkish, on Oct 25 2005, 03:26 PM, said:

no

saying that most americans don't believe in evolution just isn't true

it's being deliberately misleading just so we can take a cheap shot at americans

say you have 51 people believing in one thing and 49 people against that. then 2 people change their mind and so you have 49 to 51 going the other way

are you saying that 2 people make the difference between most of the 100 people believing one thing and then most of the 100 people believing the exact opposite?

But there are a damned lot more people in America than 100, so it would take a few thousand to change their minds for that to be right. A few thousand dumb peoples minds count.

[Gabriel Synthesis]

a few thousand people in a country of almost 300 million?

[Automatic Man]

Yeah, but the other 150 million agree with them, so actually it would be more like 152 million. Anyway, 51% is a pretty bug percentage of dumb people IMO.

[Droogie]

well lets not get bogged down in pedantry, i only said 'most' because it makes it seem like a lot more. i stand by my comment though, and 51% is most americans.

[Gabriel Synthesis]

yeh most makes it seem like a lot more, but it's still wrong

one of the synonyms given by word for most is "nearly everyone"

that just isn't the case here

and it's hardly pedantic when basically what you're saying is a lie

A Person, on Oct 25 2005, 03:57 PM, said:

Yeah, but the other 150 million agree with them, so actually it would be more like 152 million. Anyway, 51% is a pretty bug percentage of dumb people IMO.

yes it's a lot of dumb people but it's still not most americans because there's another 150 million who don't believe that

[Automatic Man]

Ok. But it is still a lot.

[where_i'm_calling_from]

actually 'most' americans would be 67%. thats a 2/3 majority, and its what is needed to pass important motions in governments. if you think about it, it makes sense, and 2/3 people is far beyond a 1/2% margin of error making a difference, as with 51%, and in a country of 300 million, 200 million is a fuck load of people.

[Forgone Conclusion]

51% of Americans are thick

[Automatic Man]

More than 51%

[where_i'm_calling_from]

i think its just as stupid/closed minded/uneducated to dismiss intelligent design. it may actually seem retarded to the more "enlightened" among us, but it is in fact supreme intellectual arrogance, something which i'm pretty sure all the people who diss intelligent design on this site have no right to display.

there is a reason why many people are persuaded to believe there is a god - we don't actually understand ANYTHING about the world we live in on a fundamental level, there is such thing as a religious experience etc etc - and that is why you have great intellectuals who believe in god. of PhD wielding scholars, it is the scientists - physicists, biologists etc - who are the most fervently religious as often their work leads them to believe in intelligent design as there seems no other way certain things could exist/survive/evolve, for example the eye. it is so minutely complex, and with any one of hundreds of tiny things wrong with any part of it, it would not work. it is hard to see how it could have evolved.

there is also shockingly little evidence to support evolution in humans. in total, in the world, there are 8 ancient human skeletons, only one of which is complete. most of them are from genuses that did not evolve into homosapiens and are thus irrelevant, and the spans of time roughly between each one is far too long to deduce any reasonable conclusions.

i'm not trying to convert anyone - i don't believe in intelligent design - it's just that its infuriating to see people criticise things they almost certainly have no understanding of whatsoever. curtis.

[Echoes]

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actually 'most' americans would be 67%. thats a 2/3 majority, and its what is needed to pass important motions in governments.

'in governments'? Look, most means majority, don't bite the guy's arse off, he has every right to use it. Feel sorry for the people who hear that word and let their minds exaggerate the problem (its bad enough as it is, frankly, in my opinion). Feel sorry for the people unfairly lumped in with these low-brow, high faith retrogrades

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i think its just as stupid/closed minded/uneducated to dismiss intelligent design.

It may be closed minded, but it's certainly not as stupid/closed minded/uneducated as rejecting something for which there is a consistent, testable theory, simply based on faith in some supernatural being and/or incredulity. It's important to challenge theories like Darwinism, certainly.

But these must be either be demostrated to be false, or replaced by better theories. ID can't do either. Not only is it not even a theory - it's only reason for being is that people say 'i dont believe Darwinism could have done this' (when it could have, but apprently them saying they dont think so is enough proof for them - circular reasoning if ever i saw it), 'hence ID muyst be the key'.

No, no, no. Thats not how theories work. Even if darwinism were shown to be impossible, that would still not make ID the explanation for the world around us, let alone a theory - there's a not a shred of proof of that guiding influence, nor evidence of its action (just pointing at stuff and saying that's so complicated it MUST have been intelligently designed isnt proof at all of such a designing)

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and the spans of time roughly between each one is far too long to deduce any reasonable conclusions.

actually, given the timescales we're talking about when we talk about evolution, they're remarkably close together, so that's not true at all.

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we don't actually understand ANYTHING about the world we live in on a fundamental level

bantertastic, but if we don't understand anything about that fundamental level, presumably we wouldn't even know of its existence, i.e. presumably what you said cant ever be shown to be remotely true?

As for understanding the world we live in, the religious person's desire to do that goes as far as saying 'the lord works in mysterious ways' and 'shit, what day of the week is it, what food am i not allowed to eat?'

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who are the most fervently religious

being 'fervently religious' runs so hard opposite to what being a scientist means, that i wouldn't even call them that. Certainly not to prove a point, even one as shaky as that.