Friday, August 18, 2006
Why doesn't America believe in evolution?
Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals: true or false? This simple question is splitting America apart, with a growing proportion thinking that we did not descend from an ancestral ape. A survey of 32 European countries, the US and Japan has revealed that only Turkey is less willing than the US to accept evolution as fact.
Religious fundamentalism, bitter partisan politics and poor science education have all contributed to this denial of evolution in the US, says Jon Miller of Michigan State University in East Lansing, who conducted the survey with his colleagues. 'The US is the only country in which [the teaching of evolution] has been politicised,' he says. 'Republicans have clearly adopted this as one of their wedge issues. In most of the world, this is a non-issue.'
Miller's report makes for grim reading for adherents of evolutionary theory. [intelligent design]
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Millers study "Public Acceptance of Evolution": Summary
There is an earlier report (from a week ago) here.
technorati tags: human+beings, species, animals, america, ape, ancestral, us, japan, european, turkey, evolution, religious, fundamentalism, science, education, miller, michigan, state, university, survey, wedge, evolutionary, theory, intelligent+design
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