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Darwin, Britain's Hero, Is Still Controversial In U.S.
Hello
On the story below. You can view the two pound coin from the link below from Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Br...s_Darwin.pn g (MORE INFORMATION) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin,_Charles ------------- FROM: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...29&ft=1&f=1003 NPR - National Public Radio Health & Science Darwin, Britain's Hero, Is Still Controversial In U.S. by Joe Palca Weekend Edition Sunday, February 8, 2009 · This year marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, and to say Darwin mania is gripping England does not overstate the case. The Royal Mint has created a Darwin coin, the Royal Mail has made a Darwin stamp set, and there are countless lectures and exhibitions throughout the country. Bob Bloomfield is in charge of Darwin200, a program coordinating the celebration. He says there's even a group of knitters paying tribute to Darwin. "The group created artistic knitted elements which are evocative of evolution processes," says Bloomfield. "Similarly there's a very small group also doing quilts which are doing a Bayeux tapestry of the Beagle voyage." In other words, Darwin is not the controversial figure in the United Kingdom that he continues to be in the United States. Bloomfield says the reason for this is science has proved Darwin right. "Unless you want to disregard the weight of evidence, there's not really a controversy," says Bloomfield. "Most difficulties come from people who have a fixed perspective on either the nature of time or either the created nature of the natural world." But in Britain, even those who see the hand of a creator in the natural world don't have a problem with Darwin. The reason is that science and religion answer different questions, says the Right Rev. Lord Harries of Pentregarth, a member of the House of Lords and the former bishop of Oxford for the Church of England. "Science is trying to address the question, 'How do things happen?'" says Harries. "In answer to that you get the theory of evolution. Things happen gradually over a very long period of time by natural causes. But if you ask 'Why did things happen?' Then you get a completely different answer." It's the why of life that belongs in the spiritual domain. Harries believes the problems some religions have with Darwin and evolution come from a literal interpretation of the Bible. According to Harries, while the Bible contains profound truths, it is not word for word true. "First of all, take the issue of the age of the Earth," says Harries. "Do people really think that the universe is only 4,000 years old when every science - chemistry, paleontology, physics, astronomy . points to, with substantial evidence, to the Earth being billions of years old and the universe more than billions of years old. So you have to ask people, do you think that the vast majority of scientists . are liars?" The Rev. Malcolm Brown says the Church of England did have problems with Darwin's theory at first, but quickly realized it was not an attack on Christian faith. Nevertheless, by getting the first reaction wrong, "We legitimized, to some extent, later movements, particularly in the United States during the early 20th century, to raise creationism as an ideology and make Darwin a whipping boy." The creationist ideology, now repackaged as a theory known as intelligent design, still runs strong in certain parts of America. The University of Kansas in Lawrence actually has one of the 1,250 copies that make up the first edition of On the Origin of Species. But unlike in England, where it seems every scrap of Darwin memorabilia is on public display, this copy of the first edition stays mainly in the vault. Leonard Krishtalka is a paleontologist and head of the natural history museum on campus. Krishtalka knows the book, with it's notions about how life appeared on Earth, is threatening to some people. And even though Kansas has grabbed headlines with its fights over teaching intelligent design as an alternative to Darwin's theories in schools, it's not a problem unique to Kansas. "There are actually 34 states in the United States that have passed anti-evolution laws of one kind or another," says Krishtalka, "whether it's stickers in textbooks or warnings that 'Reading this book with be injurious to your mental health," whether it's California or Alabama or Louisiana. For the record, in Kansas, the teaching of evolution in schools never stopped because all of the regulation and rules that the anti-evolution segment of the Kansas City Board of Education tried to get through were never enacted." But the fight continues. It's not a scientific fight. Science has already proclaimed Darwin the winner. It's a social tug of war. A tug of war that started 150 ago and shows no signs of abating. ... |
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Darwin, Britain's Hero, Is Still Controversial In U.S.
"Arizona Coin Collector" wrote in message m... Hello On the story below. You can view the two pound coin from the link below from Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Br...s_Darwin.pn g (MORE INFORMATION) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin,_Charles ------------- FROM: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...29&ft=1&f=1003 NPR - National Public Radio Health & Science Darwin, Britain's Hero, Is Still Controversial In U.S. Someone on NPR also noted that 47% of Americans do not accept evolution. That single factoid explains the successful marketing of Obama dollars, Elvis quarters, ridiculously high selling prices for mediocre coins on e-Bay, and the offers to "buy your gold for cash". Not to mention other phenomena like jack-ass videos, S+c+i+e+n+t+o+l+o+g+y, and the elections of 2000 and 2004. Most people think that the TV commercial for hulu is a joke. The fact is, the aliens have succeeded to the point where they now can openly taunt us with the truth. ;-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m71m-LBqFQ |
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Darwin, Britain's Hero, Is Still Controversial In U.S.
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 Poll® #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 Mazorj also wrote: Most people think that the TV commercial for hulu is a joke. The fact is, the aliens have succeeded to the point where they now can openly taunt us with the truth. ;-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m71m-LBqFQ- Hide quoted text - Thanks for the link! Although we do have a cable feed for the internet, we do not watch television by long habit, though to confess, Saturday morning, when we woke up, I went looking for cartoons but stopped at Elizabeth Taylor Richard Burton Rex Harrison Martin Landau a cast of thousands in CLEOPATRA. We watched about 20 or 30 minutes. Great acting, lots of pomp, but, you know how it's going to turn out, right? Anyway, I did not watch the Superbowl. In fact in my entire life I have not watched enough total Superbowl to make one quarter. So, the alien invasion via television will pass me over, I am sad to say... BTW -- You are probably one of the few here who know that the word "evolution" was not coined by Darwin. Moreover Herbert Specer was not a "social Darwinist" but rather, Darwin was a "biological Spencerian." (That and much more is hidden in books.) To bring this about, though, it is far too easy to make fun of other people's collecting habits -- or of collecting anything, actually. I have repeatedly pointed out that the 1804 Dollars and 1913 Liberty Nickels are fakes, frauds, phonies, counterfeits, but people keep paying attention to them as if they were real, important or interesting. That's the free market way to do things and the alternative is a far scarier proposition than some indemic idiocy. Mike M. Michael E. Marotta "The king of coins has no clothes." |
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Darwin, Britain's Hero, Is Still Controversial In U.S.
"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 Poll® #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 ____________________ Makes one wonder about the level of education reached among the people polled, and how many had to be told who Darwin was before responding to the question. .. |
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Darwin, Britain's Hero, Is Still Controversial In U.S.
Bruce Remick 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 Poll® #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 ____________________ Makes one wonder about the level of education reached among the people polled, and how many had to be told who Darwin was before responding to the question. I would venture to say that only about 1/10000 of a percent of those who do not accept Darwin's findings have actually read his works. The other 99.9999% rely on hearsay and "special" revelation - to someone other than themselves. James |
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Darwin, Britain's Hero, Is Still Controversial In U.S.
Bruce Remick 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 Poll® #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 ____________________ Makes one wonder about the level of education reached among the people polled, and how many had to be told who Darwin was before responding to the question. . Our public schools are doing a very poor job at educating our children. This is not accident. It's much easier to exploit the ignorant than the educated. JAM |
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Darwin, Britain's Hero, Is Still Controversial In U.S.
Leo Marx wrote:
Bruce Remick 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 Poll #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 "Darwins 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 Darwins Theory of Evolution ____________________ Makes one wonder about the level of education reached among the people polled, and how many had to be told who Darwin was before responding to the question. . Our public schools are doing a very poor job at educating our children. This is not accident. It's much easier to exploit the ignorant than the educated. Kids come to school with their minds made up regarding this topic and therefore closed. Attempts to pry those minds open are mostly futile. James |
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Darwin, Britain's Hero, Is Still Controversial In U.S.
"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 Poll® #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. Mazorj also wrote: Most people think that the TV commercial for hulu is a joke. The fact is, the aliens have succeeded to the point where they now can openly taunt us with the truth. ;-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m71m-LBqFQ- Hide quoted text - BTW -- You are probably one of the few here who know that the word "evolution" was not coined by Darwin. Moreover Herbert Specer was not a "social Darwinist" but rather, Darwin was a "biological Spencerian." (That and much more is hidden in books.) As with most history, the details have been sanded smooth and forgotten over the years. I learned (or had refreshed) a few of those details listening to the anniversary interviews. It's one of the reasons I listen to NPR. You get a lot of background and context that commercial broadcasting doesn't bother with. To bring this about, though, it is far too easy to make fun of other people's collecting habits -- or of collecting anything, actually. I have repeatedly pointed out that the 1804 Dollars and 1913 Liberty Nickels are fakes, frauds, phonies, counterfeits, but people keep paying attention to them as if they were real, important or interesting. That's the free market way to do things and the alternative is a far scarier proposition than some indemic idiocy. It's true that freedoms mean taking the good with the bad and exercising enough judgment to know the difference between the two. However, society can lawfully curtail any freedom if there are valid, compelling reasons for doing so. So while being duped by a fraudulent seller shouldn't be illegal, the freedom to perpetrate fraud should be totally curtailed. |
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Darwin, Britain's Hero, Is Still Controversial In U.S.
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 Poll® #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 |
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Darwin, Britain's Hero, Is Still Controversial In U.S.
On Feb 9, 3:29 pm, "Bruce Remick" wrote:
Makes one wonder about the level of education reached among the people polled, and how many had to be told who Darwin was before responding to the question. Bruce, that was why I went to the HARRIS POLL website. Harris, Gallup, Pew and a couple of others are well-known for their statistical reliability. The "level of education" can be expected to be statistically representative of the USA. They would be representative for age, income, gender, race, etc. etc., all the significant variables. That's what makes Harris, Gallup, etc., worth paying for. If you read the print edition of USA Today, you will see that their polls often give the sample size, margin of error and confidence level. If I recall my stats class, you need to have 1054 samples to be 95% confident with +/- 3% error. I was pleasantly surprised to see all the hits when I googled "statistics help." Depending on where you live, you can probably take an accredited statistics class at a community college for $350-$500. It will take 13-15 weeks of commitment, but you will know way more than everyone else about how polling is done and the mental exercise will help stave off senility. Mike M. Michael E. Marotta Statz 4 Life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA98PYAKzYo |
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