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American Public's Knowledge of Science in the Crapper

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NeoSeminole:
"A comparison of peoples' views in 34 countries finds that the United States ranks near the bottom when it comes to public acceptance of evolution. Only Turkey ranked lower.

Among the factors contributing to America's low score are poor understanding of biology, especially genetics, the politicization of science and the literal interpretation of the Bible by a small but vocal group of American Christians, the researchers say.

“American Protestantism is more fundamentalist than anybody except perhaps the Islamic fundamentalist, which is why Turkey and we are so close,” said study co-author Jon Miller of Michigan State University.

The researchers combined data from public surveys on evolution collected from 32 European countries, the United States and Japan between 1985 and 2005. Adults in each country were asked whether they thought the statement “Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals,” was true, false, or if they were unsure.

The study found that over the past 20 years:

The percentage of U.S. adults who accept evolution declined from 45 to 40 percent.
The percentage overtly rejecting evolution declined from 48 to 39 percent, however.
And the percentage of adults who were unsure increased, from 7 to 21 percent.

Of the other countries surveyed, only Turkey ranked lower, with about 25 percent of the population accepting evolution and 75 percent rejecting it. In Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and France, 80 percent or more of adults accepted evolution; in Japan, 78 percent of adults did.

Politics is also contributing to America's widespread confusion about evolution, the researchers say. Major political parties in the United States are more willing to make opposition to evolution a prominent part of their campaigns to garner conservative votes—something that does not happen in Europe or Japan."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060810/sc_space/uslagsworldingraspofgeneticsandacceptanceofevolution

Please don't move this thread b/c this is a science article and doesn't belong in the religion area.

Diesel1:
America is dumb

24KT:
Here's the chart that shows the breakdown by country.



What’s your genetic literacy score?
Author Ker Than

I wrote about a paper appearing in Science today that compares public acceptance of evolution in the United States versus other countries. As part of the study, the researchers reviewed surveys in which adults were given 10 True or False statements (listed below) to test their understanding of basic concepts from genetics.

Each correct answer was worth one point. The median score for American adults was 4. How do you fare? (**answers at bottom of post)


1. Ordinary tomatoes do not have genes, whereas genetically modified tomatoes do.

2. Genetically modified animals are always larger than ordinary animals.

3. Cloning is a form of reproduction in which offspring result from the union of sperm and egg.

4. Today it is not possible to transfer genes from humans to animals.

5. If someone eats a genetically modified fruit, there is a risk that a person’s genes might be modified too.

6. All plants and animals have DNA.

7. Today it is not possible to transfer genes from animals to plants.

8. Humans have somewhat less than half of the DNA in common with chimpanzees.

9.. It is possible to extract stem cells from human embryos without destroying the embryos.

10. All humans share exactly the same DNA.

**Use your mouse to highlight below to see the answers:

All statements are false except number 6.


My score: 9 out of 10
(I got #5 wrong at least according to this test, ...i'm still not taking any chances tho)  :-\

24KT:
Okay, far too lazy to cut, paste, and properly format today... so I'll leave ya with links instead.

These are a series of 4 LiveScience Special Reports on Evolution & Intelligent Design
 
PART 1
An Ambiguous Assault on Evolution
This Trojan Horse for Creationism has become very popular. But who is being duped? And what does it all mean for morality?

PART 2
'The Death of Science'
Intelligent design is presented as a legitimate scientific theory and an alternative to Darwinism, but a close look at the arguments shows they don't pass scientific muster. So why are scientists worried?

PART 3
Belief Posing as Theory
As evolution takes a beating, scientists remind us of the difference between fact, theory and belief.

PART 4:
Anti-evolution Attacks on the Rise
Each time the effort to introduce creationism into classrooms starts up again, so does legislation aimed against evolution. Learn about the rash of recent cases, plus a look at historically pertinent court cases.
 

240 is Back:
Did you know that some Americans are still naive enough to believe that this tower collapsed from fire "because it was so heavy"?




I mean, it's never happened in history, even from much larger fires.  But some Americans are simple enough to believe it.

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