SHIFTING THE BURDEN OF PROOF.

If you scroll down a ways in Message 21 of the Background info thread you'll see a few numbers. I don't know why I wasn't more detailed. I have the original SciAm article around somewhere and can probably dig it out if it seems helpful.--Percy

QuetzalI think that the most appropriate type of person to take on the creationists is a generalist - someone who has a thorough but not specialist understanding of a wide range of scientific fields. The vast majority of creationist "arguments" have been around for many years and the scientific evidence which debunks them is relatively well know outside creationist circles. The difficulty is that such a person would need to have full time sponsorship to remain up to date with scientific advances in the relevent areas, monitor the occassional new creationist assertion and take on the creationists whenever they raise their heads. After all, Ham, Sarfati et al are full time, paid mouthpieces for creationism.

Here is a pretty good site with lots of detailed information on beliefs among the general population, broken down into various categories. As you can see, Creationists make up a small minority of scientists.Beliefs of the U.S. public about evolution and creationFK

• ..........Creationist....Theistic....Naturalistic Evolution
• Everyone...............44%..........39%..........10%................Nov 97
• Scientists..............5%..........40%..........55%................
• Everyone...............47%..........40%...........9%................Nov 91
• Men....................39%..........45%........11.5%................
• Women..................53%..........36%.........6.6%................
• College graduates......25%..........54%........16.5%................
• No high school diploma.65%..........23%.........4.6%................
• Income over $50,000....29%..........50%..........17%................
• Income under $20,000...59%..........28%.........6.5%................
• Caucasians.............46%..........40%...........9%................
• Afro-Americans.........53%..........41%...........4%................

The Gallup Organizations...at above url

It is also important to note that the scientist group includes professions like computer science and electrical engineering. In my experience, these two groups make up a disproportionate number of Creationists with science or engineering degrees.FK