mazorj wrote:
"Mike Marotta" wrote in message
...
On Feb 9, 12:47 pm, "mazorj" wrote:
Someone on NPR also noted that 47% of Americans do not accept
evolution. That single factoid explains the successful marketing of
To set the record straight:
The Harris PollŪ #52, July 6, 2005
Nearly Two-thirds of U.S. Adults Believe Human Beings Were Created by
God
A majority of U.S. adults (54%) do not think human beings developed
from earlier species, up from 46 percent in 1994.
Forty-nine percent of adults believe plants and animals have evolved
from some other species while 45 percent do not believe that.
Adults are evenly divided about whether or not apes and man have a
common ancestry (46 percent believe we do and 47 percent believe we do
not).
Again divided, 46 percent of adults agree that "Darwin's theory of
evolution is proven by fossil discoveries," while 48 percent disagree.
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/har...ex.asp?PID=581
More Americans Believe in the Devil, Hell and Angels than in Darwin's
Theory of Evolution
Nearly 25% of Americans Believe They Were Once another Person
ROCHESTER, N.Y. - December 10, 2008 - That very large majorities of
the American public believe in God, miracles, the survival of the soul
after death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the Virgin birth
will come as no great surprise.
80% of adult Americans believe in God - unchanged since the last time
we asked the question in 2005. Large majorities of the public believe
in miracles (75%), heaven (73%), angels (71%), that Jesus is God or
the Son of God (71%), the resurrection of Jesus (70%), the survival of
the soul after death (68%), hell (62%), the Virgin birth (Jesus born
of Mary (61%) and the devil (59%).
Slightly more people - but both are minorities - believe in Darwin's
theory of evolution (47%) than in creationism (40%).
Sizeable minorities believe in ghosts (44%), UFOs (36%), witches
(31%), astrology (31%), and reincarnation (24%).
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/har...ex.asp?PID=982
=====================================
Scary, ain't it?
The dumbest part about rejecting evolution just because one believes
in God is that science is not incompatible with faith. As one of the
NPR guests said, to reject science because of faith is both bad
science and bad theology. I was taught that not only is the
continuing evolution of the universe and human life compatible with
faith, it speaks of a Supreme Being who operated far more
intelligently than just a tinkerer who whipped up a cosmic set-piece
diorama that requires his constant attention to correct his design and
production errors.
The real hard core cases against evolution are brought forth by those who
claim that God speaks directly and privately to them. In my theology, that
is blasphemy of the most damnable sort. And once the claim is made, further
discussion will not occur.
Now that this topic has been on the table a while, it will serve as a test
of Jaggers' Law: "As soon as a Usenet post is made which challenges
fundamentalism, the
probability of Scripture citation by another poster within three calendar
days approaches one."
James