1 in 5 Americans believe Sun revolves around the Earth
A light bulb appears over my head. I finally get it.
For the democratic process to run properly it necessitates the voter to have some knowledge of what he is voting on. For it to work properly it requires voters to cast their votes based on an educated opinion. If you are going to vote on something like stem cell research you should at least know what it is, correct?
Sadly, that isn’t how many American vote, as is obvious when during an election year people are talking about whether or not someone “looks presidential” and whether the person looks “likeable”. Well the question is, how can Americans vote on such things as global warming, stem cell research, cloning and what have you when basic scientific fundamental concepts fly right over our heads.
"American adults in general do not understand what molecules are (other than that they are really small). Fewer than a third can identify DNA as a key to heredity. Only about 10 percent know what radiation is. One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century." Said Jon D. Miller, a political scientists who directs the Center for Biomedical Communications at the Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, he regularly surveys Americans for his clients which include the National Science Foundation on the public’s knowledge and attitudes towards science in general.I mean, lets be honest, if you don’t know what a fucking cell is how can you understand what stem cell research is enough to vote on it?
And according to this guy most Americans don’t know what a cell is. Then it hit me. There is a reason why people are fighting so hard to get creationism taught in the public schools along side evolution as a scientific alternative. Like I said, it hit me. And it hit me hard.
Americans, on top of not having a clue what a cell is or what radiation is or even that the Earth revolves around the Sun are letting religious leaders dictate to them what to vote on issues that would take knowledge of basic scientific fundamentals, because I am assuming that they are assuming that since these religious leaders are supposedly moral and ethical “authorities” they should be qualified to figure out where we stand on these scientific issues, but who is to say that they even know these basic scientific concepts?
What a dangerous misstep.
Fact: Polls show that in general, people who adhere to fundamentalist views are not well educated.
Those things go hand in hand. He says that every time he goes on the radio to talk about his findings he gets people from the listening area sending him cards in the mail saying that they will pray for him. So I take it even though they don’t understand what he is talking about when he refers to “DNA” they know that people that use big words like that are most likely going to hell.
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Source: Scientific Savvy? In U.S., Not Much, New York Times, August 30, 2005
