1 in 5 Americans believes Sun revolves around the Earth

Logic 7

Logic 7

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Jul 17, 2006
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A light bulb appears over my head.
I finally get it.
For the democratic process to run properly it necessitates the voter to have some knowledge of what he is voting on.
For it to work properly it requires voters to cast their votes based on an educated opinion.
If you are going to vote on something like stem cell research you should at least know what it is, correct?
Sadly, that isn’t how many American vote, as is obvious when during an election year people are talking about whether or not someone “looks presidential” and whether the person looks “likeable”.
Well the question is, how can Americans vote on such things as global warming, stem cell research, cloning and what have you when basic scientific fundamental concepts fly right over our heads.
"American adults in general do not understand what molecules are (other than that they are really small). Fewer than a third can identify DNA as a key to heredity. Only about 10 percent know what radiation is. One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century." Said Jon D. Miller, a political scientists who directs the Center for Biomedical Communications at the Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, he regularly surveys Americans for his clients which include the National Science Foundation on the public’s knowledge and attitudes towards science in general.
I mean, lets be honest, if you don’t know what a ****ing cell is how can you understand what stem cell research is enough to vote on it?
And according to this guy most Americans don’t know what a cell is.
Then it hit me.
There is a reason why people are fighting so hard to get creationism taught in the public schools along side evolution as a scientific alternative.
Like I said, it hit me. And it hit me hard.
Americans, on top of not having a clue what a cell is or what radiation is or even that the Earth revolves around the Sun are letting religious leaders dictate to them what to vote on issues that would take knowledge of basic scientific fundamentals, because I am assuming that they are assuming that since these religious leaders are supposedly moral and ethical “authorities” they should be qualified to figure out where we stand on these scientific issues, but who is to say that they even know these basic scientific concepts?
What a dangerous misstep.
Fact: Polls show that in general, people who adhere to fundamentalist views are not well educated.
Those things go hand in hand.
He says that every time he goes on the radio to talk about his findings he gets people from the listening area sending him cards in the mail saying that they will pray for him.
So I take it even though they don’t understand what he is talking about when he refers to “DNA” they know that people that use big words like that are most likely going to hell.
Click to expand...


http://www.eightballmagazine.com/diatribes/volume02/034/708.htm




whouuuuuuu impress.
 
Logic 7

Logic 7

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Jul 17, 2006
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eh1eh said:
You're not one of them are you Logic? ;-)
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Not even close to it, i hate religion, it just make me puke, either you are a christian, jew, muslim etcccc, all those religion factions are a scam to me.
 
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karrie

karrie

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Jan 6, 2007
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Logic, those stats don't break down WHICH people think such erroneous things. I've met some really dumb people who aren't religious at all. Sheep get swept up on both sides of the spectrum.
 
Logic 7

Logic 7

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Jul 17, 2006
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karrie said:
Logic, those stats don't break down WHICH people think such erroneous things. I've met some really dumb people who aren't religious at all. Sheep get swept up on both sides of the spectrum.
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Good point.
 
gc

gc

Electoral Member
May 9, 2006
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karrie said:
Logic, those stats don't break down WHICH people think such erroneous things. I've met some really dumb people who aren't religious at all. Sheep get swept up on both sides of the spectrum.
Click to expand...

I agree that there are dumb people regardless of religion. However, in this particular instance, I would guess most people who think that the Sun revolves around the Earth are religious, since that's (more or less) what the bible says (remember Galileo). Why would a non-religious person have reason to believe the Sun revolves around the Earth?

Anyways, I question that study from what doesn't appear to be a very reputable site. I really doubt 1 in 5 Americans actually believe that. I'm sure some do, but not that many.

On a related note, there are also people (again, mostly religious) who think that the earth is flat.
 
Kreskin

Kreskin

Doctor of Thinkology
Feb 23, 2006
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They must be the 1 in 5 dentists who don't recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum. What's with these dentists?
 
Minority Observer84

Minority Observer84

Theism Exorcist
Sep 26, 2006
368
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Religion seeks to provide answers based on nothing , why would a person who thinks that god gave him all the answers bother and get educated . Yeah i believe it if billions of sheep around the world believe that the earth is only 6000 years old and that a zygote is a person believing that the sun revolves around the earth is not that far fetched .
 
G

GenGap

Electoral Member
Mar 19, 2007
120
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Ottawa, Ontario
I know one thing for sure! Conservatives switched to smaller Ice breakers in the North because they honestly believed the bigger ice Breakers would fall of the earth and float into space. 8O
 
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Colpy

Colpy

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Nov 5, 2005
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gopher said:
FundaMENTALLYDEFICIENTs also believe there are WMD all over Iraq and that Saddam caused the 9/11 attack.
Click to expand...

And the idiots on the other side of the political spectrum believe the WTC collapsed from controled demolition, that Al Gore is a wonderful, self-sacrificing guru with no political agenda, that Michael Moore speaks truth in his "documentaries", that there is a plot by the USA to force political union on North America, that Bush is Satan incarnate, that if the USA leaves Iraq that country will be better off, ......shall I go on?

Stupidity, gullibility, and ignorance exist on all points of the political spectrum......
 
Colpy

Colpy

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Curiosity

Curiosity

Senate Member
Jul 30, 2005
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Steward's one of those guys who has an intellect which is scattered all over the ballfield depending upon his audience.

You know the kind who can't make a pot of chili without three spoons to stir it?

If he ever learns to focus and stop trying to impress his readers as he does himself, he may have something going....

Meanwhile - a 50 center. Meet em all the time just sitting at Starbucks.
 
M

MikeyDB

House Member
Jun 9, 2006
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Illiteracy on the rise in America

By Larry Roberts
14 October, 1998

According to a recent US government report, The State of Literacy in America, released by the National Institute for Literacy (NIL), there has been a significant growth in illiteracy in America. Over 90 million US adults, nearly one out of two, are functionally illiterate or near illiterate, without the minimum skills required in a modern society.
The report is a devastating portrait of the social conditions in capitalist America, the country generally portrayed as the most advanced in the world. Out of 191 million adults in the US, as many as 44 million cannot read a newspaper or fill out a job application. Another 50 million more cannot read or comprehend above the eighth grade level.
 
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