Mr. Moderate

USA Today reports the results of a national poll which purports to measure whether people believe that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is true or whether people believe that the Creation story of the Bible is true. In spite of greatly-slanted questions that left no room for an overlapping decision, roughly 22% of the population of the United States appears to believe that both ideas are true. What this really means is that roughly 22% of the population either did not understand the questions or else they refuse to recognize the total impossibility of a rational human being holding both ideas, as stated, to be true.

Lets look at the poll over at USA Today:

1. Evolution, that is, the idea that human beings developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life

generates the following responses:

• 18% thought the above was definitely true
• 35% thought the above was probably true
• 16% thought the above was probably false
• 28% thought the above was definitely false
• and 3% had no opinion.
2. Creationism, that is, the idea that God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years

generates the following responses:

• 39% thought the above idea was definitely true
• 27% thought the above idea was probably true
• 16% thought the above idea was probably false
• 15% thought the above idea was definitely false
• and 3% had no opinion.

The way the above two ideas are phrased, there is not only no room for overlap between them, but in fact there is a huge gap in possible opinions about human origins which are part of the “excluded middle” between the above two ideas. For instance, human DNA seems to say that all women are descended from a common female ancestor who lived about 250,000 years ago. One could rationally accept that idea, assert that said woman was the “Eve” of the Bible, and that God had created said “Eve” about 250,000 years ago, and you would not be allowed to pick either of the above two options as true. Thus, there should be a negative bias in the results, meaning that there should be a reasonably large number of people who are numbered as creationists, but not so-called “young Earth” creationists of the type who would pick the second option (above) as being the true option.

To believe “that God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years” requires an utter rejection of modern science and all facts derived from modern science. You have to go back to before the time of Galileo to find such rigid theology lording it over science and scientific methods. It appears from the above that two-thirds of the population of the United States has so lost its mind (if it ever had a mind to lose) that it rejects flatly and out of hand any idea that the human species is more than about 10,000 years old.

The only ray of hope from the above poll is that roughly 22% of the population believes that both questions (above) are true, even though the way the two options are phrased makes it logically impossible for them to both be true. Most American citizens are not very good at math, and I suspect that they are even worse at even simple concepts of logic involving distinguishing between timeframes of 10,000 years and millions of years for the development of mankind. As I said, the poll seems to show that 22% of the respondents believed both options were true to one degree or another. While it might be some grounds for hope that science is not on the verge of being banned in the United States by popular request, it does leave me totally aghast that the nation that launched the race for space back during the Kennedy term as President could have sunk so low in terms of scientific and mathematical literacy that the above poll results could be reported by legitimate national news media.

We ought to educate the American public on what it means to be a “young-Earth creationist,” and to accordingly believe “that God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years.” It means that there is not one single scientific result that such a person can legitimately trust. And yet, trust they do, every time they go to the doctor or consume scientifically produced and tested food. Science impacts most aspects of modern life, and we trust it implicitly. Probably a bit too implicitly, if the above poll is to be believed.