There is
an article out that profiles a researcher who studies public knowledge of science and technology. I thought this quote was a typo or misrepresentation, "One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth." But I found the
original paper and here is what it says:
...only half of US adults know that the Earth rotates around the Sun once each year (NSB, 2000). One in five US adults say that the Sun rotates around the Earth, and 14 percent of US adults think that the Earth rotates around the Sun once each day (see Figure 2). A comparative study with Britain in 1988 found that only one-third of British adults understood that the Earth rotates around the Sun once each year...The level of adult understanding of the solar system shows little change over the last decade....
Well, I guess I was the one who said that people don't systematically explore the inferences of their assumptions and beliefs....
Jason Malloy Adds: And what are the wages of this ignorance?
In a finding that is likely to intensify the debate over what to teach students about the origins of life, a poll released yesterday found that nearly two-thirds of Americans say that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public schools . . . The poll found that 42 percent of respondents held strict creationist views, agreeing that "living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time." . . . In all, 64 percent said they were open to the idea of teaching creationism in addition to evolution, while 38 percent favored replacing evolution with creationism . . . John C. Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum, said he was surprised to see that teaching both evolution and creationism was favored not only by conservative Christians, but also by majorities of secular respondents, liberal Democrats and those who accept the theory of natural selection. Mr. Green called it a reflection of "American pragmatism."
It's a reflection of American something all right . . .
More from Razib: The evolution vs. creation section of the Pew Survey is very informative. 50% of secular individuals support "equal time" for creationism/intelligent design vs. 30% who oppose it. With that figure in mind, I'm not sure that one can say this is a secular vs. religious divide....
By the way, here is a graph from another survey which tracks "favorable" opinions of various groups:
Don't talk to me about Islamophobia....
