From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Mon Jul 17 2000 - 08:47:23 MDT
Robin Hanson wrote:
>
> Jeff Davis wrote:
> >Curt Adams commented:
> > >>People can and do deny the obvious. Something like 40% of Americans
> > believe
> > >>the world was created in a big "poof" 6000 years ago.
> >
> >Robin Hanson responds, effectively supporting the original comment, with:
> > >Since I have the stat handy, in 1999 Gallup found that 47% in US believe God
> > >created humans in basically their present form in the last 10,000 years or
> >so.
> >
> >This feels to me like the way bad information gets proliferated. Robin
> >refers to his factoid as "the" stat, giving the unwarranted impression that
> >Curt's "poof" creationism is on "solidly corroborated" ground. But Robin's
> >description of the Gallup information is only somewhat similar to Curt's
> >"big poof" formulation, and the details of the questioning by Gallup which
> >resulted in the "47% believe" factoid--those details are unavailable.
> >Considering the general disrepute of polling statistcs, all we're offered
> >here is mental pollution.
>
> Here is my source: http://www.gallup.com/poll/releases/pr990830.asp
>
> >The Gallup stats may simply reflect that people have heard of Neanderthals
> >and Cromagnons--pre-modern humans who lived, what?, 20, 50, 100,000 years
> >ago, that they generally believe that modern civilization and with it
> >modern man, began about 10,000 years ago, and that the question "Where did
> >it all came from?" is answered conventionally with god.
>
> The claim agreed to by 47% of US in 1999 is: "God created human beings pretty
> much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so'
Frankly, while I find this issue to be of concern, looking at the full response
(including responses in previous instances the poll was taken) shows that the
numbers have not changed all that significantly since 1982, so while the level
of willful ignorance is disturbing, its not like there has been any big increase
in stupidity over time. People are as dumb as they have been in the past, see:
Which of the following statements comes closest to your views on the origin and
development of human beings --
99 Aug 97 Nov 93 Jun 1982
Human beings have developed
over millions of years from
less advanced forms of life,
but God guided this process. 40% 39% 35% 38%
Human beings have developed
over millions of years from
lessadvanced forms of life.
God had no part in this process. 9 10 11 9
God created human beings
pretty much in their present
form at one time within the
last 10,000 years or so. 47 44 47 44
No opinion 4 7 7 9
100% 100% 100% 100%
The only significant change is that the people with no opinion have decreased,
which can be considered a good thing, assuming that people are answering with an
informed opinion, where a knee jerk opinion is as useless as no opinion.
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