Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Science
Related: About this forumMore proof Republicans getting dumber
US acceptance of evolution holds steady overall, drops among Republicans
One-third of US doesn't accept one of the unifying principles of biology.
by John Timmer - Dec 31 2013, 11:47am ESTYesterday, Pew Research Center released the results of a poll of US residents that asked about their acceptance of the theory of evolution. In keeping with past surveys, this one found that a completely uncontroversial idea within the scientific communitymodern organisms are the result of evolutionis rejected by a third of the US public. While that fraction has held steady over time, the survey found that the political divide over evolution has grown over the past four years, with Republicans now even more likely to reject the idea than they were before.
In the poll, people were asked whether they thought that humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time, or if we and other creatures had evolved over time. To make sure that mentioning humans didn't make things overly personal, Pew also asked a subset of questions just about other animals; this didn't make any difference in responses.
Acceptance of evolution was higher in younger people and those who had graduated college, as had been found in previous polling. Among the 60 percent of Americans who do accept the theory, a bit over half ascribed it solely to natural causes32 percent of the total. 25 percent of all adults believed in some form of theistic evolution, where a deity or deities guided the process, possibly in a way that's indistinguishable from the random mutations that have been observed. That figure's a bit higher in most religious groups, and a bit lower among the unaffiliated.
Evangelicals were the most likely to reject evolution (nearly two-thirds of them did), yet most of the 27 percent who did accept it thought it happened due to natural causes. This might be explained by the idea that rejection of evolution is a way for people to reinforce their cultural affinity with groups they feel will also reject evolution. If someone is already willing to forgo those cultural ties, then they may be more open to other ideas that are atypical of their cultural group.
more
http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/12/us-acceptance-of-evolution-holds-steady-overall-drops-among-republicans/
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
3 replies, 1621 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (7)
ReplyReply to this post
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
More proof Republicans getting dumber (Original Post)
n2doc
Dec 2013
OP
Xipe Totec
(43,889 posts)1. Unpossible. nt
Gothmog
(145,062 posts)2. The GOP has made a religion out of rejecting science
The policy of the GOP on climate change and the hostility to the teaching of science and evolution are great examples. If you look at the GOP members of the science committee of the House, you have the shutter in fear. For example, Paul Broun thinks that the big bang theory and evolution are from the pits of hell. Lamar Smith wants to put federal controls on science. The GOP with the help of Fox News has been waging a war on science which explains why the GOP base is indeed getting dumber
on point
(2,506 posts)3. They reject anything that pops their delusional bubble- science economics
History facts