Am I Blue? Creationism, Part II

Evidence for FBR as zeitgeist and not merely my hobby-horse: last week's NYT series and Monday's poll question on WAMC, my favorite public radio station: "Should both evolution and intelligent design be taught in public school biology classes?" 80% of respondents in the unscientific survey say no. We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Like all the polls radio and televisions ask people to take on-line, no validity was promised.

Good thing: NYT reports today: "[A Pew Research Center] poll found that 42 percent of respondents held strict creationist views, agreeing that "living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time." In contrast, 48 percent said they believed that humans had evolved over time. But of those, 18 percent said that evolution was "guided by a supreme being," and 26 percent said that evolution occurred through natural selection. In all, 64 percent said they were open to the idea of teaching creationism in addition to evolution, while 38 percent favored replacing evolution with creationism.

Makes me wonder: what does the average American know about evolution or creationism? The hard core 38% understand creationism, I'm sure. Like most issues, however, my guess is most Americans couldn't tell you how evolution works or how creationism is supposed to supplant it.

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