Public attitudes regarding evolution in the USA. Should we be afraid?

Yes. When Reason is subordinated to Faith, then be very afraid!

Edit: A poster below is SO wrong.

'There is no scientific proof for evolution.' Wrong. Masses. More every year.

'There is no scientific proof for creationism'. True. But creationism isn't a science.

Edit: Shnitz. Chimpanzees, Goriallas and Orang Outangs are distant cousins. Using your 'logic' 'If Shnitz is decended from his parents how comes he has siblings'

And the evidence includes loads of fossil material, genetics, developmental biology.

Yes absolutely. If matters evolve wrong enough this are the type of things that could usher in a new dark age. Humanity always progresses but sometimes we take back steps like when Napoleon was defeated and the powers of that time reinstated open and explicit serfdom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Vienna

Evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape-like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered.

Moreover, "fact" doesn't mean "absolute certainty"; there ain't no such animal in an exciting and complex world. The final proofs of logic and mathematics flow deductively from stated premises and achieve certainty only because they are not about the empirical world. Evolutionists make no claim for perpetual truth, though creationists often do (and then attack us falsely for a style of argument that they themselves favor). In science "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional consent." I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.

Evolutionists have been very clear about this distinction of fact and theory from the very beginning, if only because we have always acknowledged how far we are from completely understanding the mechanisms (theory) by which evolution (fact) occurred. Darwin continually emphasized the difference between his two great and separate accomplishments: establishing the fact of evolution, and proposing a theory--natural selection--to explain the mechanism of evolution.

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/evolution-fact.htm...

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-evolutiontheory.ht...

I agree we must guard against the regressive right that wants to destroy our enlightened society and return it to the "good old days" when superstitions kept us trapped to power and ordinary people "knew their place"

Do you think it's different anywhere else in the world? About a third of the world's population think life evolved. About a quarter believe in the literal interpretation of their folklore or religious traditions. The rest are far too busy getting on with their lives.

I know a particular fan of evolution, one Professor Richard Dawkins. He believes that microwave ovens make the food hot because of the friction caused by the molecules rubbing together. Woeful ignorance indeed! He's a zoologist who presumes to tell people there's no God - we should be far more afraid of that charlatan.

Nope, the USA is in decline anyway. We'll all be talking about the woeful ignorance of the Chinese people in a few years, so in the long run it doesn't really matter.

I do doubt this being a popular answer however.

Evolution has been presented all wrong if you ask me. We may have great similarities genetically to apes, but we also anatomically are close to pigs and mice...so are we related to pigs and mice? NO!

Just because people are resistant to how evolution is presented now, doesn't mean they are ignorant. I think scientists miss the fact that there are things and reasons we exist as humans that they will NEVER be able to prove or explain. They can only default upon their own limited human reasonings and science.

To be afraid of people NOT believing in evolution is pretty extreme. Believing in something we cannot see, like God, is not obsurd either. In fact I would say in my limited wisdom and understanding of the secrets of the universe, that there is more proof there IS a God than not.

The vastness of our universe right down to the detailed organization of molecular cells is unbelievable and has not been explained in how it was first made. To tell me this is all because of randomness and chance, I am sorry dude, I can't accept that. If you go on just the Probabilities or the odds of life happening, it's impossible, especially advanced intelligence. And to look around you and how societies work, how we can build technology, human reason...I am sorry...it isn't random happenings. We have evolved as a people and society yes...because we have been given higher intelligence.

I don't know what all that means...but to me, I have to defer to the only logical answer....the existence of God. Because no scientist is going to prove to me how we managed to beat against all possibilities to be who we are now.

And most of em have Bibles, Guns, Hate and Paranoia. That's a third of the immense power that might be fighting against you.

In that study I would bet that they didn't count people who believe in guided evolution or other similar things. I guess my point here is: why do you care if someone believes that a divine being pushed evolution in one direction or another or whether they believe it spontaneously happened? There's nothing that really discounts the idea that a creator COULD have had a hand in things. It's where faith and science meet. I mean, the proponents of evolutionary theory can't really prove exactly how the process came into being.

I know that religious people or those who believe in divine forces annoy the heck out of those who don't believe (and vice versa). It would be nice if we could have some small iota of respect for each other though.

EDT: **sigh**

One thumbs down for mutual respect and counting...

depends who the third are and what influence they have. I think more have a problem with their language than most any thing.

Only be afraid if they are such a close allie they can't do without you. (Maybe we could get our freedom if we change our language - it's all we have (sad but true.) slavery is abolished isn't it - so we can't auction our Royal Family. - Tourists keep coming !!! etc etc.

Don't worry, nothing is going to change.

You put too much faith in polls, polls are easily manipulated and usually are. How depends on the particular viewpoint of the Asker.

I don't think what people believe on evolution is going to change the power of the world's countries. Besides, isn't it Obama's plan that we are not better as a country than anyone else? So why be afraid?

Your fear is, itself, "woeful ignorance." If you were not, yourself, woefully ignorant, you would know that evolution fails to explain a key aspect of life on Earth: irreducible complexity.