The poll of 2,455 U.S. adults from Nov 7 to 13 found that 82 percent of those surveyed believed in God, a figure unchanged since the question was asked in 2005.
It further found that 79 percent believed in miracles, 75 percent in heaven, while 72 percent believed that Jesus is God or the Son of God. Belief in hell and the devil was expressed by 62 percent.
Darwin's theory of evolution met a far more skeptical audience which might surprise some outsiders as the United States is renowned for its excellence in scientific research.
Only 42 percent of those surveyed said they believed in Darwin's theory...
It struck me that as I gaze into the vacuous eyes of people I pass on the sidewalk, more of those blank stares and drooling lips harbor a belief in "the Devil" and fiery brimstone damnation than believe in the soundness of natural selection.
I found the following article without really trying:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/ev_publi.htm
My favorite part of the article:
The results, for what they are worth are a statistical draw:
- 49% believe in "Evolution;"
- 48% do not;
- 2% have no opinion.
As expected, more highly educated adults believe in "evolution:"
- 74% of people with post-graduate degrees believe in "evolution," as do:
- 48% of college graduates
- 50% of adults with some college
- 41% of adults with high school or less.
More frequent attendance at religious services correlated with a lack of belief in "evolution:"
- 24% of those who attend weekly believe in evolution, as do:
- 52% of those who attend nearly weekly or monthly, and
- 71% of those who attend seldom or never.
- Only 30% of Republicans believe in "evolution;" 68% do not.
- 61% of independents believe in "evolution;" 37% do not.
- 57% of Democrats believe in "evolution;" 40% do not.
The five main reasons why people say they do not believe in "evolution" are belief Jesus Christ, belief in God, due to my religion or faith, not enough evidence, and belief in the Bible.
This, plus the section where online surfers are polled showing a predominate bias towards evolution among web denizens, tickled my funny bone. Those with more education tend to believe science, whereas those with less education tend to belief mythology as presented by world religions. Four of the five main reasons for not believing in biological evolution are religious in nature. Baby Jesus weeps, as does his adult stone incarnations:
When people, rather than thinking for themselves, become satisfied regurgitating spoon-fed answers which reflect the way ancient peoples dealt with the unknown, they shut their brains off and cease to ask questions about their faith. How can faith really have any other consequence, since every unknown ultimately leads the faithful to ascribe the currently incomprehensible to the realm of the sacred, and especially when the sacred can't be challenged without endangering their eternal souls?
Hence my faith in the Pentabarf of Discordianism, which I will publish here for the uninformed:
I - There is no Goddess but Goddess and She is Your Goddess. There is no Erisian Movement but The Erisian Movement and it is The Erisian Movement. And every Golden Apple Corps is the beloved home of a Golden Worm.
II - A Discordian Shall Always use the Official Discordian Document Numbering System.
III - A Discordian is Required during his early Illumination to Go Off Alone & Partake Joyously of a Hot Dog on a Friday; this Devotive Ceremony to Remonstrate against the popular Paganisms of the Day: of Catholic Christendom (no meat on Friday), of Judaism (no meat of Pork), of Hindic Peoples (no meat of Beef), of Buddhists (no meat of animal), and of Discordians (no Hot Dog Buns).
IV - A Discordian shall Partake of No Hot Dog Buns, for Such was the Solace of Our Goddess when She was Confronted with The Original Snub.
V - A Discordian is Prohibited of Believing what he reads.
Number V holds the key people. Don't get all sanctimonious on me, just think for yourselves.
10 comments:
Again, as one who considers 'faith' a logical kind of thing (please don't make me totally explain...you are so much smarter than me....) I am also disgusted by people who don't think about what they read. Or who believe and don't read at all. Thats totally worse. I see those who don't think about what they read but instead listen to someone else who has read (and a title makes you more able to read? more able to understand? that totally goes against evangelical christian beliefs...and they'd know that if they ever bothered to read for themselves...). They believe, but if you say, 'why' they don't know. If you say, "tell me about that" they can't. Which is nuts, because if you count the times that the Bible says, "meditate" (which means dwell on and think, right?) its actually a lot.
gah.
as far as the natural selection/evolution bit... I think those who don't buy into it don't really know what Darwin (who was a religious guy) was getting at... I kind of don't see why they don't work together.
Except that when you set up a binary, you're necessarily setting up a system where one end is deficient.
Duh. Unless you THINK about it.
Hell. Its way too early for this. I'm going to go for a run and shake this out....
No, most people I've talked to about evolution/natural selection don't really understand it, even the ones that profess acceptance of it. Blind faith can be found on either side of this fence.
Not to be snarky and argumentative (as I do think very highly of you) but why would you not want to explain something you find to be logical? Wouldn't it be easy to lay out for me? You've obviously thought about it, and thoughts are welcome here. Nay, they're encouraged!
For you, I prescribe a simple, logical explanation of your faith, and if one isn't forthcoming, either an acceptance that faith maybe isn't logical or that being wrong is an ok state to live in. Then see barf #V above.
People take things way too seriously most of the time, and need to devote at least one day a week to being purposefully and absolutely incorrect about everything, myself included. Why not?
Thanks for dropping by, as always!
I, personally, revel in living in a pretty constant state of wrongness. I've decided that my mini-goal at this point is to at least begin living consistently.
That said, I do believe in the theory of evolution, but like many others, I only vaguely remember reading pieces of On The Origin Of Species, or whatever it was called. Fundamentally, I know that Darwin's theory was based on several ideas-
1. there are things that add to small increases in population (enough food, ability to make new babies) that then require a struggle for survival.
2. Certain traits allow for ease at acheiving survival, and lots of those are inherited.
Therefore, very slowly over time, the most desirable traits will result in new and improved varieties of living things that are better suited for living wherever they live.
And, the thing is, these are good theories. They make sense, and insomuch as it is possible, they have (sort of) been proven. However, as gene theory is more and more researched and enhanced, and as early biology-early physics related fields become more and more sophisticated, what we find are more questions rather than less. And we find good, hard to answer questions that lead scientists to continually revise exactly what is meant by evolution.
I mean, even as recently as 10 years ago when I last took a biology class, the basic Mendel theory of genetics was THE rule... how did you end up with a blonde child with no blonde great-grandparents, parents, etc.? It was the milkman's baby, that's how!
And what they have found is that this is absolutely untrue, of course. Modern genetics is far more sophisticated than the simple dominant gene theory.
Anyway, all this to simply point out that evolution is something that makes sense to me, but I do continually remind myself that it is, in fact, just a theory. And that I'm certainly not closing the door on the idea that the discovery of evidence to support very different ideas may be just around the corner.
I think I definitely agree, though, that there won't be any quickly coming genuine evidence to support that the earth and all of it's creatures were created as seen now about 7,000 years ago by an "intelligent designer".
But what did you think of the video eulogy to Jesus? That's the important part of the blog!
cuz really, I'm pretty simple and it all boils down to everything is just too damn beautiful to be a happy accident.
really... i'm not so deep. :)
also... i meant most christians don't understand evolution... they just know they're supposed to be pissed off about it.
i think what i'm critical of is dogma.... which is where i am eternally aggravated with people who don't fucking think.
i agree with you on all accounts...which is what i think is beautiful about our friendship and why i'd like to have beer. not just everyone with whom you can think about thinking...particularly when the notion is to just think about it...not solve... I think the thinking is the solution myself.
you're great, dude.
I agree. When thinking about it, you are better prepared to recognize an adequate solution when it is presented, at least. Too many people go off half-cocked, not having given any prior consideration to the issue at hand.
We are all more rockstar than we realize.
Aaaaah! The video was awesome! I kept imagining what my hyper-Baptist co-worker would think if she looked over my shoulder while I was watching it. I was torn between "accidentally" sharing it with her, and not. I decided not, because she just can't handle it.
What's to handle? Jesus dies in the Bible, why not run him down with a bus?
Well, I once joked that it must have been confusing for baby jesus in the manger to look around and see shepherds, and joseph, and angels (uh, multitude of heavenly hosts, right?), and think, "Uh, lemme get this straight? NONE of you are my dad? I don't get it", and she was pretty offended. And I was pretty much of the understanding that Jesus, himself, (at least according to the bible) consistently had struggles throughout his entire life accepting who he supposedly was, so it seemed like the typical manger scene, with all the wise men, and shepherds, etc. would be pretty funny to me, since it's populated by all these men, and a baby who has no effin' idea what he's just gotten himself into.
But, she totally doesn't see it this way. She has a really, really hard time seeing things any way other than the way her pastor tells her they are. Sad, really.
Very funny, Kate. I think you should definitely give her a link to my blog, and she should most CERTAINLY see that video. She'd love it. We'd all have a glorious time laughing at... err... with her.
Post a Comment