I was mentioning to a friend that Whoopi Goldberg is apparently a semi-moon landing denialist. At least Goldberg isn’t a Creationist like fellow View co-host Sherri Shepard. In fact Goldberg took issue with Shepard’s stance when it came up. Rather disappointing when it comes to the moon landings then, though of course attitudes toward evolution for most people are cultural markers, not genuine assessments of the scientific consensus. It is interesting that both Shepard and Goldberg are black. The black community is more Creationist than the American popualtion as a whole, and have less general knowledge of science. My friend asked: is black opposition to evolution a function of their greater religious conservatism, as is the case with their attitudes toward homosexuality?
The General Social Survey question in regards to evolution which has the largest N is EVOLVED. N = 2,256 for whites and 368 for blacks. I cross-referenced several variables with race. Results below.
Now let’s sort:
It is true that blacks are more religious than whites, and tend to be more fundamentalist in their orientation. Among those who do not necessarily know that God exists, it is much more skewed toward those who believe, but with doubts, among blacks than among whites (who have more atheists & agnostics in this class). But the religious differences can not explain all of the gap between the two groups. Whites are relatively well sorted when it comes to attitudes toward evolution and its correlations with religious orientation, but blacks who believe that the Bible is a book of fables are only marginally less Creationist than whites who believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. Blacks who consider themselves religiously liberal are around the white average in regards to evolution.
These results aren’t too surprising. The GSS also has a question about whether we trust too much in science. 28% of whites said we did. For blacks? 52%.
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