Why doesn’t America believe in evolution?
Why doesn’t America believe in evolution?
Because of evolution.
Because the Flat Earthers are very good at spinning the memetic value of words.
“Theory” of Evolution to them, is all the wiggle room they need. There is an extraordinary amount of funding and manpower being put behind the “Intelligent Design” propaganda. Because, just like the Church was threatened by the discovery that the universe didn’t rotate around the earth, a power hungry subset of “men of faith” are not about to concede that their holy book isn’t absolutely correct.
To be forced to accept Adam and Eve as metaphor, instead of a historical fact destroys the underpinning of a huge, huge section of American Christianity. (Primarily those that believe that every word in the bible is fact.)
To accept evolution is to accept that a benevolent creature didn’t create this lovely place for us to stink up. It is to accept that woman, is in fact, not responsible for man’s downfall. It is to accept that perhaps some of the other stories in the bible might in fact be retelling of other mythos, and that perhaps their purpose is informative, rather than declarative.
It’s just a whole big cognitive dissonance thing. This particular brand of Christian anti-evolution people believe that because they are saved, they are better than the rest of humanity. If science can prove that we evolved, rather than were created…well, that’s just like dumping blood on the prom queen, ain’t it?
{for the record, Matthew’s answer is priceless.}
It might depend on how the question is worded. Something like “Do you believe evolution is the only possible explanation for the diversity of life on Earth?” would elicit a lot more ‘no’ or ‘don’t know’ answers with all the recent publicity in the States over things like ‘intelligent design,’ even if they personally believe that evolution is probably more likely correct.
It looks like the paper that this is based on is at: http://www.sciencemag.org/. Unfortunately they require a subscription to view it. I am interested to see the sample size and geographic distrobution within the US.
Of interest is that this article here says the following:
“The data for the 32 European countries were collected by the European Commission using primarily personal interviews. The Japan data were collected in 2001 by personal interview. The U.S. data were collected by Miller using Knowledge Networks, an online national sample of households selected on a probability basis.”
While I don’t disagree with the percentages outright, I think it is very suspect to base a conclusion on a chart with no data given to back it up. Not that it stops anybody these days…
anarch…
Goddamn, Matt. Perfect.
I’ve been wondering for a while now, when everyone is talking about accepting or believing in evolution, do they mean the general concept and idea of evolution, i.e. how it works, its principles, how it has functioned in animals or over time, or the specific theory of man’s origin from evolution?
Because, isn’t it quite possible to believe and accept evolution the concept without accepting that we evolved from apes? It’s not as if it is out of the question for God to create the principle of evolution (maybe you’d call it giving scientific principles free will :P) and the general creatures to start with and let the scientific principles do the rest. Adam and Eve, regardless of whenever you believe they were created, don’t exactly need to be negated in order to understand and accept evolution.
So I can see why Christians don’t believe we evolved from apes, but not the resistance to the other type of belief. What’s the problem in that case? I mean, it’s kind of like saying gravity and density as principles don’t exist because the Bible doesn’t give us any details about their creation, which of course, would be nutter talk all around.
-Kitsune
My wife is a devout christian and I am not. However, this has not stopped us from discussing Creationism and Evolution to great detail.
My arguement is that I believe in God. However, I believe that the possibility of evolution (that it even exists) is a miracle of God. I believe there is a God, but that God has more of a indirect approach in our lives. God sets a course using evolution, luck, fate or spontanous clarity (I use Einstein’s theories as a prime example), but doesn’t cure cancer, part the Red Sea, cause plagues and other circumstances that have other factors working in its favor.
My wife’s arguement is that the Old Testament states that God created Adam and then created Eve from his rib, as well as created all the creatures of the earth, that evolution is a myth. Her big hang-up, is as I see it, self-pride in herself and fellow man. Her arguement is that there is no way that we could have evolved from such a lowely species such as apes.
I’m not going to do this justice at all, but I heard a sermon that got into the specific greek tense of this and that verb and whatever, and it boiled down to the very first few verses possibly being translated to the effect that “In the begining, God made just about everything” with the possibility for evolution in there, or at the very least allowing for an ancient earth “And then he brought everything together in the garden of eden specifically in about seven days”.
I know you’re all rolling your eyes and thinking it was just some fancy linguistic gymnastics to combine an evolution-friendly view with a literal interpretation, and I’d certainly want to investigate more before I get behind his arguement too, but it was at least a new spin on things that I hadn’t heard before.
I’m sort of the same, but different. I look at the universe - well, the bits I can see - and I say to myself that the idea that something so obviously magnificent could be designed by something not so totally different from myself just seems silly, and also exactly the sort of thing a monkey would think. And then there’s the idea that positing a far more complicated creation than the universe - a mind capable of designing a universe - as an explanation for said universe, is about the dumbest thing ever to come out of a mind, and is more proof that minds aren’t all that.
Greek tense? But surely all the offending verses would be in ancient Hebrew?
EDIT: Oh wait, Google tells me that Hebrew conjugations correspond to Greek tenses. I don’t know what any of this means, btw.
I can’t comprehend belief in creationism any more than i could believe in the tooth fairy or a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. It’s so backwards as to be amusing.
It’s a shame that in 2006 people still think this way and doesn’t bode well for the advancement of humanity and civilisation.
In strict evolutionary terms there is no such thing as advancement! Another victory for Darwin.
I blame religious nuts.
Turkey is worse than us! Do you hear me? Shut up! We’re still better than Turkey, so shut up!
ha ha ha that reminds me of an old yoke…
Oh you REAL Christians look away…
On one day adam asked god about a companion… He wanted a good friend, a helper in all things needed, and a very good sexpartner…
Ok said god that i could give you, it will cost you only your left leg and your left arm…
So adam asked: Uhm what would i get for a rib…
But not women? O.o
No way. Greek has a much richer and more precise verb/tense/mood system than biblical Hebrew.
The verb “bara” can be translated as created/was creating/had created/of creating (in this particular context), and even possibly “will be creating” (although it’s not likely in context). It makes verbal gymnastics unnecessary–you can read the verbs in a lot of different ways without necessarily a major stretch.
One oft-unspoken reason is because, particularly in the South, evolution implies that Black and White people are of the same basic stock. In the post-reconstruction era, evolution and the south must have been a magically dangerous combination.
I think this reason has largely vanished in the modern era, but I think historical research might well demonstrate this was the original speck of grit around which the beautiful and radiant pearl of modern creationism was formed.
Because we have such incredibly cushy lives, and are so desperately self-centered and consumerist that we are afraid of ever losing it. We can’t handle not being the center of the universe for all time, that when we die, we might just no longer exist, leaving a shell to be eaten by worms. I believe that religion in the U.S. is less about belief and faith, and more about the desperate attempt to find some mystical way to assure ourselves that we will be driving our SUVs around in heaven for all eternity. I truly believe that religion for most people is inspired by fear, caused by the concern that if I’m wrong, I might go to hell, so why not (Pascal’s Wager, essentially), and self-importance causing fear that we won’t get to live forever in some form.