Republican Acceptance of Evolution Plummets

Discussion in 'Current Events' started by Think for myself, Dec 30, 2013.

  1. Think for myself

    Think for myself Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Talk about intellectual devolution.

    How is this possible? How can 48% of the Republican party think that life on earth has always existed as it is today?

    My god, you can sit there and point to holes and gaps in the theory of evolution, but to eschew science and reality altogether? Disturbing is the best way I can describe it. Disturbing that folks can simply ignore not only the theory in whole, but the hard facts that exist within the theory. Why not simply change their name to the anti science party? Or the creationist party?

    Which brings to mind another point. When an entire demographic is willing to ignore so much science, what does that say about our future in areas related to science?

    http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slat...n_acceptance_has_plummeted_among_the_gop.html



    A poll released today by the Pew Research Center reveals that acceptance of evolution among Republicans has plummeted in recent years, from 54 percent in 2009 to a jarring 43 percent today. The poll also found that a startling 48 percent of Republicans believe that all living things today have existed in their present form since the start of time.

    Democrats and independents fared much better: 67 percent of Democrats accept evolution today (up from 64 percent in 2009), while 65 percent of independents accept it (down from 67 percent in 2013). Overall, 60 percent of Americans accept the basic fact that “humans and other living things have evolved over time,” meaning 40 percent support, to varying degrees, creationism.
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    But there’s a twist buried in that 60 percent figure. Only half of Americans who accept evolution as fact also accept that it is “due to natural process such as natural selection.” (That means only 32 percent of Americans accept that fundamental scientific notion, better known as natural selection.) And 24 percent of Americans overall—including some who claim to accept evolution—believe that “a supreme being guided the evolution of living things for the purpose of creating humans and other life in the form it exists today” (better known as intelligent design). Taken together, this means that not even a plurality of Americans accept evolution driven by natural selection, one of the most foundational and indisputable facts of modern science.

    The more educated Americans become, however, the less likely they are to deny evolution: According to the Pew poll, acceptance of evolution correlated closely with level of education. 72 percent of college graduates acknowledge that humans have evolved over time, while only 51 percent of those with a high school degree or less accept human evolution. Young people, too, are less likely to be creationists: 68 percent of American age 18-29 accept evolution, while only 49 percent of those age 65 and up acknowledge its validity.

    The anti-evolution crowd, then, might be going to the way of the dinosaurs—but in the meantime, it looks like the Ark Park might just get enough support to break ground.
     
  2. zbr6

    zbr6 Banned

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    Slate.com just took a poorly, poorly, executed poll and ran with it.

    For one, how can any intelligent person accept a polling of 1,983 out of the countries 313 some odd million people as accurate?

    For two, read Pew's own analysis of their polling techniques. Talks about "weighted sampling" and "inflated proportion" and "combining yields". For anybody who didn't take statistics in high school those are words which translate to crap methodology.
     
  3. Think for myself

    Think for myself Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Interesting.

    Have you a poll that indicates otherwise? Because simply calling it crap does not mean it is wrong.
     
  4. DevilMay

    DevilMay Well-Known Member

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    Most reliable pollsters like Gallup use similar sample sizes with reasonable accuracy when compared to actual election results. Some use a lot less than 2,000. The only thing you could question is how much regional variance they used... like if they asked mostly southern Republicans... that would make more sense ;)
     
  5. Whaler17

    Whaler17 Well-Known Member

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    Look Einstein, there is no proof that all animals evolved from a single celled Amoeba. Adaptation has never been disputed, but there is no proof of the far fetched "we all evolved from an Amoeba" nonsense.
    - - - Updated - - -

    Most conservatives equate evolution to the everything came from an Amoeba idea.
     
  6. Whaler17

    Whaler17 Well-Known Member

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    Southern conservatives are far more intelligent than Blue state moonbats.
     
  7. Think for myself

    Think for myself Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Hmmm. I daresay I think it is vastly more complex than that, and i do believe I called it a theory.

    Now that being said, you may just be vastly incorrect.

    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/100513-science-evolution-darwin-single-ancestor/
     
  8. DevilMay

    DevilMay Well-Known Member

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    Is that based on any actual studies or just your biased political leanings?

    Last I checked 30% of Alabama Republicans still opposed interracial marriages.
     
  9. BroncoBilly

    BroncoBilly Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    This is the way I see our world and it's evolution. Spend the two minutes and enjoy the show

     
  10. Quantumhead

    Quantumhead New Member

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    I have no problem with that whatsoever. Let them think what they like. But what I can't fathom is how people espousing views like this constitute one of the two major political parties in the United States. That's just insane.
     
  11. Cloak

    Cloak New Member

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    I agree. Why not secede? You'd do so well without the financial centers of NY and CA.
     
  12. Unifier

    Unifier New Member

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    Hey, if you don't like all the skepticism, blame the liberals. If they hadn't insisted on injecting politics into the academic curriculum, there wouldn't be such a backlash. But as it stands, anything coming out of academia today should be considered suspect until proven otherwise. Because the source is no longer a credible one.
     
  13. 10A

    10A Chief Deplorable Past Donor

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    How can 27% of the Democratic Party? How can 28% of Independents?
     
  14. Whaler17

    Whaler17 Well-Known Member

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    Nope, some scientist who started with a pre conceived notion then built computer models to try to prove it isn't convincing.
    - - - Updated - - -

    SO you spoke to all of them personally? Or are you just relying on the typical leftist BS sources?
     
  15. Whaler17

    Whaler17 Well-Known Member

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    Anything posted by leftists isn't credible.
     
  16. CKW

    CKW Well-Known Member

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    From what I've seen..its been 50/50 in the U.S. I'm confused by your post regarding intelligent design, which I always thought was the theory that a creator was behind the process. Just a belief in God. Why is that such a "twist". Do you have to be an atheist to believe in evolution?
     
  17. Jonsa

    Jonsa Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I have a theory that its just a theory. You know just like "Col. Mustard in the study with a lead pipe".
     
  18. JP5

    JP5 Former Moderator Past Donor

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    Yeah....I guess you're right......it's so much easier to believe with absolutely NO PROOF that we were once fish and suddenly decided to go on to land and start walking..........than it is to believe that we all began from a much higher being than ourselves.

    As others have stated, there is no PROOF either way. But I contend that EVEN IF one believes we evolved from some other species......one still has to question why? HOW? And where did it all start before that?
     
  19. Grokmaster

    Grokmaster Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Because they are keeping track of genetic research and advances in knowledge of hereditary traits, which make Darwinist evolution LESS and LESS likely, with each new revelation?

    Here's the ACTUAL POLL:


    http://www.pewforum.org/2013/12/30/publics-views-on-human-evolution/
     
  20. xAWACr

    xAWACr Member

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    I don't know, why don't you ask the 33% of Democrats who don't believe it either?
     
  21. Grokmaster

    Grokmaster Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I had a girlfriend who always insisted that "cats are as smart as dogs". I always told her, "show me a 'seeing-eye cat' ", and I'll buy that. a REAL ONE....not one the cat lover CLAIMS is one."

    I feel the same way about Darwinism: show me the complete genetic chain of ANY LIVING CREATURE. from the "primordial ooze" up to now, and I'll buy that.
    Or how about from FISH to WOLF....show me that complete genetic chain, and I'm in.
     
  22. Gorn Captain

    Gorn Captain Banned

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    Ask yourself...if you were the CEO of a bio-tech or pharmaceutical company working on viral vaccines?


    Would you hire a "creation science" graduate of Liberty University as a researcher?
     
  23. Taxcutter

    Taxcutter New Member

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    Compared to the economy, evolution vs creationism is trivial.

    "Look! A squirrel!"
     
  24. Gorn Captain

    Gorn Captain Banned

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    TC doesn't want to offer an opinion on evolution. Oppose it....he has to defend "creationism". Support it....he makes his political allies who are Religious Righties mad.

    So...he doesn't want it discussed.
     
  25. Taxcutter

    Taxcutter New Member

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    How does anybody in the real private sector ever use either evolution or creationism?
     

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