According to a NY Times article published today, “64 percent [of Americans] said they were open to the idea of teaching creationism in addition to evolution…”
This is fascinatingly scary! Of course, I also understand where it is coming from: [Disclaimer: I’m not a statistician, or an Poll designer, so these opinions expressed are just that] Americans love fair play, and that lends the Intelligent Design proponents a bit of an edge where the questions are designed “neutrally”.
Another quote from this article I find enlightening is this: “More of those who believe in creationism said they were “very certain” of their views (63 percent), compared with those who believe in evolution (32 percent).”
Call me crazy, but doesn’t this sound like the answer differential between a fundamentalist who is sure about what they know and a person who acknowledges that they might not know all the answers? If I don’t know about something, I’m certainly not going to say “very certain” on a survey.
I’m a bit disappointed that more people aren’t “very certain” when it comes to their views about evolution. I believe that is due to the complexity of the topic vs. the simplicity of creationism.
Let us leave it that we need to do better at grass-roots education of our neighbors and co-workers that teaching creationism in science classrooms is not a good idea if we plan to have a respectable science establishment in this country.
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