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Author Topic:   Hard Numbers About Evolution
astral
Junior Member (Idle past 5531 days)
Posts: 2
From: Las Vegas
Joined: 02-04-2009


Message 1 of 4 (497534)
02-04-2009 3:05 PM


There was a survey taken in the U.K. recently to see how many people believe in Evolution or Creationism, and the results were interesting.
I wrote a blog about this article because I liked it so much. I think we'll see a lot more about evolution in the news soon since it's the anniversary of Darwin's theory.
Evolve Your Mind
Here's the original article.
Half of Britons do not believe in evolution, survey finds | Evolution | The Guardian
An interesting site for anyone who supports evolution and wants to find out more about the anniversary events going on:
Theos Think Tank - Understanding faith. Enriching society.

Replies to this message:
 Message 2 by Dr Jack, posted 02-05-2009 4:34 AM astral has not replied
 Message 3 by caffeine, posted 02-05-2009 5:07 AM astral has not replied

  
Dr Jack
Member
Posts: 3514
From: Immigrant in the land of Deutsch
Joined: 07-14-2003
Member Rating: 8.7


Message 2 of 4 (497620)
02-05-2009 4:34 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by astral
02-04-2009 3:05 PM


Hmm... I dubious of any survey of Evolution vs. Creation that did not even ask the people questioned whether they thought Evolution was correct, you can find the questions and data here.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by astral, posted 02-04-2009 3:05 PM astral has not replied

  
caffeine
Member (Idle past 1025 days)
Posts: 1800
From: Prague, Czech Republic
Joined: 10-22-2008


Message 3 of 4 (497622)
02-05-2009 5:07 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by astral
02-04-2009 3:05 PM


That's a very inaccurate headline for the article. More than half of those surveyed not only believe evolution to be true; but believe it 'makes belief in God unnessecary and absurd'. Only 33% of respondents answered that atheistic evolution, making belief in God absurd, was probably or definitely untrue.
It's also worth pointing out that there was no question simply asking if they believed evolutionary theory, as described by modern science, to be accurate. In order to express support for this theory in the survey; one also had to declare God absurd. This didn't put most off, but implies a survey deliberately slanted to overexagerrate support for creationism.

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 Message 1 by astral, posted 02-04-2009 3:05 PM astral has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 4 by Percy, posted 02-05-2009 10:35 AM caffeine has not replied

  
Percy
Member
Posts: 22393
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 5.2


Message 4 of 4 (497645)
02-05-2009 10:35 AM
Reply to: Message 3 by caffeine
02-05-2009 5:07 AM


caffeine writes:
It's also worth pointing out that there was no question simply asking if they believed evolutionary theory, as described by modern science, to be accurate. In order to express support for this theory in the survey; one also had to declare God absurd.
But people expressing support for what the survey called "theistic evolution" were also expressing acceptance of evolution. The big problem is that there are probably a broad range of interpretations of what "theistic evolution" is. Some might think it as "God put the universe in the motion and then just let things run their course." Others might think of it as, "God intervened to help evolution along," which overlaps with ID views. And the question itself (which states "evolution is the means that God used for the creation of all living things") seems to conflate evolution and the origin of life as well as being ambiguous about whether it included ID or not.
So no wonder the study thought there was some confusion, since the study helped contribute to it. The study is a nice try, but it is so difficult to clearly communicate what you're actually inquiring about when for each question you're limited to a single short sentence that I don't think it's of much value.
--Percy

This message is a reply to:
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