RELIGION drives beliefs about evolution, and damned near nothing else does…..

Religious beliefs and understanding of evolution: 2006-2010 GSS

 

Christian activist scholars are fond of confusing the issue regarding scientific understanding and religion. They are loathe to admit that the only reason why people fail to accept the scientific consensus is when people are infected with religious beliefs. In the United States, those beliefs are easily identified with Christian Biblical Fundamentalism–the belief that the bible is the word of god. Nuance is irrelevant. No matter how you ask this, about one third of Americans are fundies, I wonder how that stacks up against Iran, Saudi Arabia, or Israel…..Never mind. The question at hand is how they view science. And, the answer is that they tend to reject it. Less than one fourth of fundies accept evolution as an explanation for human origins. In contrast, nearly 88% of General Social Survey respondents who believe that the bible is a book of fables believe that humans evolved from other species. Less fundamentalist believers are more likely to understand science—with 56% believing that humans evolved. So, while many accounts somehow characterize the US as a nation of cretins who reject science, the actual data suggest that only our religious fuckers are ignorant morons, and that our less religious believers are coming into the fold. While “accommodationists” may see this as evidence that we should be nice to the religious wackjobs, a more attentive focus on the analyses would suggest that we should work to move the religious  from 56% to 88%…..