About 25% of Americans Don't Know the Earth Revolves Around the Sun

[MrPhyntch]

Gotta love the religion hate in this topic. Here, let's throw some more statistics into the mix:

76% of Americans identify themselves as "Christian". Whether they are "saved" by Christian standards is another matter entirely, but roughly 3/4 of Americans are devoted enough to the faith that they choose to be identified as such.

4% of Americans identify as other religions, the majority of which being Judaism and Islam. For the record, Christianity and Islam both stem from Judaism, meaning that all 3 religions believe the same or similar things about creation and the development of man, i.e. God spoke and it was done, and God sculpted us out of dust in his image specifically, respectively.

Only 15% of Americans identify as Atheist/Agnostic, with the remaining 5% refusing to identify either because they hate polling or they don't know where they stand.

If this sample size accurately represented America, and wasn't a sample out of some heavily Atheist populated areas, then that means that roughly 40% of people who identify themselves as beholden to creationist beliefs gladly answered "yes, evolution is fact" AND around 60% said "Yeah, the Big Bang is what started the universe".

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_States
http://religions.pewforum.org/reports

On top of this, you have people like me, who believe that Creator-Guided Evolution is a very valid possibility. While I am open to evolution and in a general scientific setting will accept it as fact, had I received this poll, I likely would have marked that I don't believe in evolution as stated. The question seems to be somewhat predatory, and in a casual setting like most of these polls I would have said the easiest thing to say (in this case no).

So please, people, stop with the religion hate. Religion may be shaping the results of this poll, but the reasons are somewhat valid, and it's not as much of an influencer as you think. The fact that over half of Americans unquestionably accept evolution is a HUGE shift to science from religion in just the past decade.

EDIT: Another thing I just thought of. Note how many people screwed up the Earth's Orbit question. This is undeniable fact, Religion hasn't influenced that answer in the last 300+ years. Take into account the number of people who answered that question wrong (and are therefore COMPLETE imbeciles), then add that number in with the statistics above, and Religion plays even less and less of a picture than sheer stupidity does.

 

[Klagermeister]

like why testicles are where they are as opposed to you know buried deep and encased in bone...and the curious fact that just about everything with sharp teeth has it's head about crotch level with the average human male.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume the second one was a joke, but the first one likely was not.
For someone who so quickly and snarkily comments on someone's inability to understand basic science questions, it surprises me you didn't know this one.
Basic body temperatures are high enough to kill sperm outright, thus their production and storage system is just slightly outside the body, allowing the sperm to survive.
If your balls weren't outside your body, YOU WOULD BE STERILE.

OT: It doesn't surprise me that people can be stupid. Not just in America, but everywhere.
Try asking other countries with a religious bias questions that could be influenced by opinion and you'll see stupidity is a commodity not only produced by the USA.

 

[Erttheking]

I'm reminded of an obvious, yet frightening statement my dad (an RN) once made to me while I was working my first job (fast food):

"The average IQ is around 100, which means that roughly half of the world's population is below average. Now consider the sort of people you engage with on a daily basis. With a few obvious exceptions, those are just the average ones."

So I guess I can't say these results surprise me. America seems not only to enjoy being ignorant, but is downright proud of its own ignorance at times, which is infuriating to deal with on a daily basis.

One thing kinda annoys me about that saying. If half of the people are dumber than the average, than the other half are smarter than the average. Averages are what you get when you add up everyone and divide by the number of people. If half of the population had an IQ of 100 and the others below, the average wouldn't be 100 IQ, it'd be lower than that. So truth be told, there can be only a few average people in the world and everyone else is above or below average.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Though these figures suddenly explain, Justin Bieber, Sarah Palin and how GeeDubya got two terms in office.

I fail to see how poor knowledge of science leads to having bad taste in music. But I'd love to hear your theory!

Ok, so cows do get their energy from plant-life, but most plant-life gets their energy from the sun, so if we go back that far cheese is made from sunlight.

Compressed, mouldy sunlight.

Mmm.

Indeed. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=croHtCzzDhQ]

 

[Gary Thompson]

I'm reminded of an obvious, yet frightening statement my dad (an RN) once made to me while I was working my first job (fast food):

"The average IQ is around 100, which means that roughly half of the world's population is below average. Now consider the sort of people you engage with on a daily basis. With a few obvious exceptions, those are just the average ones."

So I guess I can't say these results surprise me. America seems not only to enjoy being ignorant, but is downright proud of its own ignorance at times, which is infuriating to deal with on a daily basis.

And I'm sure you consider yourself to be in the top 50%, just like everyone else.

Just like how I'm sure you consider everyone else to be ignorant of how things really work, and that you have all the answers, just like everyone else.

 

[Objectable]

Oh, hell! What does that matter?! So we go around the sun! If we went around the moon or round and round the garden like a teddy bear, it wouldn't make any difference! All that matters to me is the work! Without that, my brain rots. Put that in your blog - or better still, stop inflicting your opinions on the world!

 

[DracoSuave]

Dear creationists. Please ensure that if you post an argument, that it cannot be absolutely destroyed by five minutes of google searching. If you claim something doesn't exist...

micro evolution can be observed and reproduced, not macro evolution.

...make damn sure it's something you couldn't find in two seconds. [http://lmgtfy.com/?q=observed+speciation+events]

Additionally, when talking about evolution...

right now no one definitively knows anything about our origins

...make sure you don't change the topic to abiogenesis

and for a true way to test it out, would take thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of years of observation.

...and don't make the mistake that because we can't watch something unfold directly doesn't mean we can't actually understand it. This above is a terrible fallacy based on the twin assumptions that science isn't based on falliblism, and that we can't learn things based on their effects on the present. Can we observe a speciation? Yes. Can we observe millions of speciations from protozoan life to self-aware conscious life? No. But that doesn't mean the speciation we HAVE observed can't be the process that did it. Can we find a living common sncestor? No. Can we find proof of common ancestry within DNA? Yes.

so right now arguing the validity of one theory or another is pointless. who know maybe we were simply created as stated in one of the many other religions. and being an atheist is a religion, just atheists practice science and what not, and believe that we are our own god so to speak.

I dunno what other theory you're talking about. Theories ARE tested, and have borne the scientific scrutiny. You're aware that origin myths CAN be tested, right? If your origin myth includes evidence that there was an extinction event 4000 years ago, then you can predict there'd be evidence of that event 4000 years back in the geologic column. If it says the universe is 6000 years old, then we'd see creation in progress by looking 6000 lightyears away in space. When we DO look 6000 light years away, why do we not constantly see stars being formed within the blink of a single day, or even seven days..... or even at all?

Some 'theories' as you incorrectly label them are utterly falsified by easily available evidence. You want to give them equal footing, you need a LOT more than 'Were you there?'

 

[A_Parked_Car]

This is entirely unsurprising to me. Not too many people are going to know things (even basic things) if it doesn't directly impact how they live their day-to-day lives. The exception to this being that reading up on astronomy or whatever is a hobby of theirs.

You could look at anything really. Very few people actually know anything about history. Not even just about events in the past but also what the discipline of 'history' even is. That doesn't mean they are unintelligent. They just either don't have any interest in it or have never been properly taught. Perhaps both. It just doesn't have immediate relevance to how they live their life. While it is true that historical events, and the fact that the Earth rotates around the Sun, does have an impact on their lives, knowing about those things doesn't really matter for non-specialists.

 

[ChaplainOrion]

The first one is extremely saddening but the other two... The second one is based on your religious belief and I'd be lying if I said I correctly answered the last one, it caught me off guard and it just seems like that's what antibiotics do.

 

[Erttheking]

One thing kinda annoys me about that saying. If half of the people are dumber than the average, than the other half are smarter than the average. Averages are what you get when you add up everyone and divide by the number of people. If half of the population had an IQ of 100 and the others below, the average wouldn't be 100 IQ, it'd be lower than that. So truth be told, there can be only a few average people in the world and everyone else is above or below average.

Er, yes, I understand how averages work. I'm not sure that you do, though, because there's way more than "a few people" near the average.

IQ is a bell-curve with roughly standard distributions, meaning that most people (68% or so) fall within a score of about 85 to 115.

I wasn't saying that they were, I was saying that they could be.

 

[Jadak]

Did the universe begin with a huge explosion? Only 39% answered yes correctly.
Did human beings, as we know them today, develop from earlier species of animals? Only 48% correctly said yes.
Do antibiotics kill viruses? Only 51% correctly answered no.

Too be fair, the first two of those will get disagreed with on religious principles. Don't get me wrong, I would agree that they are incorrect, but you're not going to get great statistics representing intelligence when your questions have the potential to be confrontational with people's beliefs.

As for the 3rd question, hardly surprising. Knowing exactly what antibiotics are and how they work isn't on the same level of common knowledge as "earth orbits sun" is or should be.

Coupled with the fact that I'd bet even fewer people have a strong understanding of the difference between a virus and other biological issues. In general, I think many people just view it as 'sick is sick' and at best, antibiotics as 'anti sick medical stuff', so I would pretty much expect asking people that one to be a roll of the dice regardless, stupid or not.

 

[Arawn]

After reading through (most) of this thread I had afew thoughts:

To the person that brought up that theory has a different meaning; you are correct. It does have more than one definition. People are referring to the other one in this case. Both sides are correct. Theory can be both proven and unproven statements.

Evolution makes sense, but by no means is it logical. I still can't wrap my head around how skunks came about; a creature that uses bad smells to thwart would be attackers. Why wouldn't all creatures go that route? Nor why some lizards became the present day birds. And as others pointed out the human biology is inefficient. You can indeed connect the dots, but there are several dots let over as well many questions. Recently I recall hearing that Bill Nye (the science guy) was in a discussion of evolution vs creationism. While many say that Bill "won" for the most part it's an open debate on the matter (too lazy to look for the link)Evolution

My final thought in regard to creationism; Greek mythology, Norse mythology, and fairy tales. I've read may stories through
my childhood. So when faced with religion I gave it the same treatment; a story to explain everything a limited people used. Before they were labeled as mythology or folklore the Greeks worshiped Zeus. He was the god of thunder! Gods were everywhere and controlled all we did. Sound familiar? At the time they were valid religions in their own right, but you can see the similarities with current religions. Again it makes sense, but not logical.

As for the survey itself it's hard to figure how many people were serious. Guess it depends on how it was given. They should take a survey on the people that take surveys. See what % of them that take such survey's seriously. For good of humanity, for kicks, or perhaps even for gain. Why they do it, and what motivates them. Guess it would take a few years to figure that one out.

 

[Elfgore]

The belief based questions, like the evolution and start of the universe, is not fair to ask. They answered wrong because they believe differently. That's just a low-blow.

Now the earth rotating question is inexcusable.

being ignorant because of your dark age beliefs is still being ignorant. It's like disagreeing with gravity because "its just a theory". America needs to learn that science is not simply a matter of opinion or beliefs. If i told you a cat was a dog because it was my belief you would call me a fucking idiot.

That's coming off as very arrogant and I'm an atheist as well. Though I think Christian reasoning makes little sense, what gives me the right to tell them their stupid and wrong? Science and Logic are on my side, but even then it doesn't give the right to treat the religious like they're a bunch of idiots because they choose to believe differently.

The statement you just made is why people think Atheist are arrogant jerks. A small minority of Atheists can't accept other beliefs even existing other than their own, making them just as bad as the Christians and other religions they oppose.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Oh come on everyone knows that the sun of orbits America, like everything else in the universe

While I'd like to laugh at what appears like more evidence that a good proportion of Americans are idiots, I have to remember that my younger brother a fully grown adult genuinely asked me which way you turn a screwdriver to loosen a screw.

 

[Sirron Kcuch]

I don't trust statistics if they are not followed by more data such as the mean, the standard deviation and in this case, having a pool of 50000+ people. 2200 people may not be an appropriate number for extrapolating this much. Also, it does not state how these people were chosen. I don't call BS on this, but it's really difficult to trust this info.

There's also a trick you can do, ask people "How many animals did Moses bring on his ark?"
You might find yourself surprised by how many people say "two"

Spoiler

It wasn't Moses. Oh you!