53% of Americans Believe in Evolution...66% of Americans Believe in Creationism

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul

Originally posted by owzitgarn
and how come there wasn't an option for both? evolution could be thought of the method god used to create us. a poll with this answer could produce some interestingly high results for it and show that people aren't as divided as this poll is trying to insinuate

because there's no reason to insinuate god was behind it. the system works out perfectly without the inclusion of god.

occams razor, removing supernatural deities for over 500 years

Its not about what works, its about peoples oppinions.

Only 1007 people were used in the survey so it is very misleading to say the results display the oppion of the entire american population.

With such a small percentage of americans asked the poll is totally insignificant in regards to depicting a nations oppinion

owzitgarn, that's how statistics work. you take a fairly large random sampling and ask a question. 1007 people is reasonable for a scientifically sound statistical analysis of an adult population around the size of the USA's

yeah, sorry, after digging out my old statistics work, that sample size is almost exactly right for the american population

also the survey does indded appear to offer the oppurtunity to give an oppinion that would constitute as believing in both.

i apologise for previous posts, i should really have looked into this before posting.

sorry

Originally posted by owzitgarn


also the survey does indded appear to offer the oppurtunity to give an oppinion that would constitute as believing in both.

As I stated early in the thread that would be the most logical explanation for those numbers.

speaker, it doesn't work for how the question was phrased... it was an "evolution OR creationism" poll

it would work for how the questions were phrased actually, there wasn't a single question that actually asked which they believed in.

it asked for oppinions on each of the subjects of creation and evolution, if a candidate answered similarly for each subject then it would show they believed in both.

either this wasn't a case and each of the 1007 candidates answered so that it was clear that they believed either evolution or creationism, or it was decided to disregard any evidence of this and they just went with the closest result for each candidate, even if the difference was almost negligible.

i'm guessing they did they second one, even if was only for a few candidates.

although those 2 numbers don't add to 100 %, it seems the majority of americans don't understand the facts of evolution and lack of ANY facts regarding creationism.

Just because a majority of people believe something doesn't make it true. As example, at one time alot of germans liked hitler. It doesn't mean they were right to do it, but they did.

Hear are some thoughts
There is a Theory of Evolution. Please learn what a scientific theory is.
There is NO theory of creationism.

Evolution is a fact.
creationism is just an idea based on faith without the need for any pesky facts.

Why can't people just face the fact that they will never know how it all "began".
There is no archeological evidence that one species "evolved" into another species. The only changes any creatures ever made were adaptation to its environment.
As to humans, well most and probably all of us came from another planet.
There is no evidence that we "evolved" from apes. If so what prevented all apes from evolving? They all lived in the same area - so they say.
And if we "evolved", why did we become weak hairless creatures?

And who are these people?
www.the-oh-zone.com

Originally posted by OhZone
Why can't people just face the fact that they will never know how it all "began".

we could... ya never know

There is no archeological evidence that one species "evolved" into another species. The only changes any creatures ever made were adaptation to its environment.

...you're right, it's paleontology that's the field at hand, not archeology

...ok, yes there is evidence, we've discussed this ad naseum in other threads.

As to humans, well most and probably all of us came from another planet.

...that's absolute BS speculation right there

There is no evidence that we "evolved" from apes.

again, yes there is. we have common ancestors with modern apes.

If so what prevented all apes from evolving? They all lived in the same area - so they say.

this is a common misconception. you're under the impression that evolution states that we evolved from modern apes. that's not the theory, we actually evolved from a common ape ancestor.

And if we "evolved", why did we become weak hairless creatures?

weak?
the mind is a more powerful tool than any muscle.

And who are these people?

oh, i see
you're just here to plug your site...

Does religion make you a better person?

Does religion make a country better?

The USA is one of the most religious countries in the world, does that make it the best country in the world?

Is it the most moral country in the world?

Logically the most religious country in the world would also be the most moral, logically the least religious country in the world would also be the most immoral.

How do we determine the morality of a country?

(Sexual behaviour) (Crime)

The least religious large country in the world is Japan, 80% accept evolution, only 10% believe there is a god, population 100,000,000. Japan has one of the lowest crime rates and teen pregnancy rates in the developed world.

Next in line as the most moral countries are:

Norway
Britain
Germany
Holland

60% of the population of these countries accept evolution as a fact, fewer than one in 3 believe in a deity. They have very little teen pregnancy, Homicide rates are 1-2 per 100,000.

How does the USA stack up against these godless countries?
82% believe in god
13% accept evolution

The USA is the most religious developed country in the world, it would be the most moral country in the developed world, is it?

It is just the opposite, the USA is the most religious and most immoral country in the developed world.

The USA has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the developed world.
The USA has the highest homicide rate in the developed world.

5 times greater than these godless countries and 10 times greater than Japan.

The correlation is very clear the more religious a country is the more immoral it is.
Religion does more harm than good.
Religion tends to weaken rather than strengthen people’s ability to participate in society.
Religion makes it less likely they will respect social customs and laws.

Does religion make you a better person?

Religion absolves them of all other responsibilities, those who are “born again” have diminished respect for others who do not share their belief, convinced only the bible has the truth, they lose their intellectual curiosity and ability to reason. Their priority becomes not the world they live in but themselves, the more people priorities themselves rather than those around them, the weaker society becomes, as for sex….religion encourages ignorance rather than responsible behaviour.

In the godless countries, sex education includes contraception reducing the risk of unwanted pregnancies.

Such and approach recognise that young people have the right to make their own choices and help them make decisions that benefit them and society as a whole.

In America faith-driven abstinence programs deny them that right, the result is soaring rates of unwanted pregnancy and sexual transmitted infections. Abstinence programs rest on the same weak intellect foundation as creationism and intelligent design.

Faith discourages unprejudiced analysis, reasoning is subverted to rationalising that supports rather than questions assumptions. The result is a self-contained system that maintains an internal logic no matter how absurd. Despite all it’s fine words, religion has brought in its wake violence, prejudice and sexual disease.

Families that pray together stay together….No….divorce rates are significantly among Christians than other groups. 90% of divorces among born again occur after they have been “saved.”

Atheists and agnostics have a lower divorce rate than Christians.

USA prison populations….
Believers 99.781%
Christians 79.99%

Non-believer
16% of USA population, only .209% of prison population.


Does religion make you a better person?

NO!

Does religion make a country better?

NO!









[edit on 073030p://am3038 by andre18]

reply to post by grover


nitpick: I think you mean richard dawkins - not dworkin. Ronald Dworkin is an American jurist, Richard Dawkins in the author of The Selfish Gene.

I guess this means that half of all Americans are literally idiots. How does religion explain the planets (religion is geocentric), the universe, etc.?

Why isn't there any real discussion of early religions and their incorporation into these modern day religions? Religion and the atomic age are completely unrelated and sooner or later we will find other civilizations, but unfortunately it appears that half of all Americans will figure out a way to put a god in the middle of all of it.

The omnipotent, omniscient god of the earth created man in his own image (white? black? yellow? brown?) and gave man the ability to make choices that would banish man eternally into hell. The rationale for this doesn't make sense, but since we are not god we don't understand his divine nature (that is the default answer).

Does any of this make sense? Oh, and by the way if you are Christian then you are not his chosen people, another group is (the group who denies his existence as a messiah), but you are supposed to keep plugging away and protect this group at all costs.

Originally posted by SpeakerofTruth
I personally believe evolution and creation both are correct.I have never understood the debate, too be quite honest.

and i personally believe that they are both glaringly wrong; so neither have i

reply to post by JPhish


JPish, just a quick question, why choose to revive a year old thread?

reply to post by FSBlueApocalypse


showed up in recent threads for me; odd

an anonymous poster who's post isn't approved probably bumped the thread.

[edit on 12/12/2008 by JPhish]

Yeah, same thing here - it got bumped to the top.
Anyway, as an ungodly heathen, I have to comment on the history of religion. I was telling someone about the early Messopotamian inventions (math etc) in relation to advances for humanity from the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Messopotamians etc. I was trying to highlight how amazing these early civilizations were in their accomplishments, inventions, laws, philosophies etc, and how, after adopting organised religion, they failed miserably. It's like religion took control and put everything into suspension. The dark ages. That's what religion gave us for a thousand years. And look at how humanity as grown since the enlightenment! The enlightenment was a growth in science, because of a loss of power by religion.
Looking at it in this respect, surely you can only conclude that organised religion is nothing but a hindrance to humanity.

reply to post by OhZone
You need to find out what evolution is about before saying silly things about it - your comments show a complete misunderstanding.