Evolution Belief

[SezMe]

OK, I know this topic has been covered numerous times, but here (http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19125653.700) is the latest survey.

What is especially interesting is the distribution of belief by country as shown here (http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/archive/2565/25653701.jpg).

I know USAian fundamentalists can go bonkers about this issue, but what is there about Turkey culture that makes them even worse than the USA?

Any ideas?

[grayman]

Would interesting to see how it is distributed throughout the U.S. and Canada.

[SezMe]

USA data is shown but Canada does not appear. This could be due to the fact that Canadian data were not collected (why not?). That said, many other countries also do not appear in the chart. Why?

[brodski]

I know USAian fundamentalists can go bonkers about this issue, but what is there about Turkey culture that makes them even worse than the USA?

in some ways Turkey is similar to the US, in that privately the majority of people are religious, but the state is secular. There is a fairly strong Islamic creationist movement.

[skoob]

Creation myths exist in practically every religion and culture. If you believe in a powerful deity it's pretty natural to assume that it created the world and everything in it -- including all lifeforms.

I doubt that the theory of evolution is well known in places where there is no widespread science education teaching the theory of evolution. I don't know the quality of education in Turkey, but it wouldn't surprise me if most people alive today weren't taught evolution when they went to school.

[Infophile]

USA data is shown but Canada does not appear. This could be due to the fact that Canadian data were not collected (why not?). That said, many other countries also do not appear in the chart. Why?

It looks like the primary focus was on European countries, but they threw in the US and Japan as they thought they'd see interesting data there.

[Jeremy]

USA data is shown but Canada does not appear. This could be due to the fact that Canadian data were not collected (why not?). That said, many other countries also do not appear in the chart. Why?

It seems to me that they purposely chose countries that would out shadow the US (and then added Turkey for comparison). That is not to say that the rate itself is not dismaying, but, if you were to take survey of all countries it certainly would be less impressive.

[pipelineaudio]

We should do a similar survey on "atheist" woo as well...stuff like gender norming

It would be hillarious if we found out that the USA was highest in both Abraham woo and loony lefty woo at the same time!

[pounce]

crazy. so do american skeptics find this more disturbing because of the cultural clash we face more strongly than so many other countries? i tend to wonder if i might have to become an expatriot at some point as my political and religious beliefs are apparently divergent from the direction this country is heading in.

[SezMe]

...stuff like gender norming
What's that? :confused:

[bozothedeathmachine]

Would interesting to see how it is distributed throughout the U.S. and Canada.


A red-state/blue-state correlation, perhaps? Where's my million $$$?