Young Earth v. Old Earth

[SFTor]

I have heard a recent estimate that there are 135 million people who believe in the Young Earth Theory of Creation in the United States.

Has anyone read or seen this statistic anywhere? It’s a pretty staggering number if it is true.

I will admit it boggles my mind a little. I mean Mesopotamians and Chaldeans were already brewing beer 6,000 years ago.

 

[Verisimilitude]

I have heard a recent estimate that there are 135 million people who believe in the Young Earth Theory of Creation in the United States.

Has anyone read or seen this statistic anywhere? It’s a pretty staggering number if it is true.

I will admit it boggles my mind a little. I mean Mesopotamians and Chaldeans were already brewing beer 6,000 years ago.

I heard something similiar not too long ago. I forget the number given but I think it was a % that I seem to recall at about 55% of the US believes in the young earth theory. In the last general election about 120 million people voted so it does put a different perspective on it.

 

[The_Barbarian]

The Pew Center survey found that about 42% of Americans were creationists who thought humans were created as they are now, so the number sounds about right.

A bit creepy realizing almost half the American people really think like that.

But then, about 35% believe in little men in UFOs, and nearly 6% think the Apollo moon landings were faked, so a lot of people believe really odd things.

 

[buffalo]

The Pew Center survey found that about 42% of Americans were creationists who thought humans were created as they are now, so the number sounds about right.

A bit creepy realizing almost half the American people really think like that.

But then, about 35% believe in little men in UFOs, and nearly 6% think the Apollo moon landings were faked, so a lot of people believe really odd things.

More mass hallucination I suppose. So much for the education system. No matter how much science is taught they still don’t like evolution as the answer. One has to wonder why.

 

[ROBIN97]

Thank you for the explaination of how science works. Yes, I had a relative who thought that the landing on the moon was faked. I had bet him $1000 that we would land on the moon. I was 16. He was about 45. I never collected. Ignorance is bliss they say. I say pride in ignorance, of how science works; is motivated by fear.

 

[The_Barbarian]

More mass hallucination I suppose. So much for the education system. No matter how much science is taught they still don’t like evolution as the answer. One has to wonder why.

They have some insight into that…

http://www.fasebj.org/content/vol22/issue1/images/medium/z380010867990004.gif

However, the level of education and belief in creationism are inversely proportional, with 73% of U.S. adults with a high school degree or less ascribing to creationism, and this percentage declining to 42% of those with a postgraduate degree.
findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3994/is_200707/ai_n19434016/pg_34?tag=artBody;col1

(numbers are different, as this is from a different survey; in evolution polls, the responses are extremely sensitive to the precise wording of the questions)

 

[buffalo]

They have some insight into that…

http://www.fasebj.org/content/vol22/issue1/images/medium/z380010867990004.gif

However, the level of education and belief in creationism are inversely proportional, with 73% of U.S. adults with a high school degree or less ascribing to creationism, and this percentage declining to 42% of those with a postgraduate degree.
findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3994/is_200707/ai_n19434016/pg_34?tag=artBody;col1

(numbers are different, as this is from a different survey; in evolution polls, the responses are extremely sensitive to the precise wording of the questions)

Yeah, I could see that. I wonder how it would look if college mandated philosophy and metaphysics along with science.

 

[SFTor]

More mass hallucination I suppose. So much for the education system. No matter how much science is taught they still don’t like evolution as the answer. One has to wonder why.

Evolution seems cold and hesitant, like all science. It requires serious involvement to fascinate. For an outsider it provides no comfort as it is an exercise in parsing uncertainty.

Thinking hurts.

 

[historyb]

I have heard a recent estimate that there are 135 million people who believe in the Young Earth Theory of Creation in the United States.

Has anyone read or seen this statistic anywhere? It’s a pretty staggering number if it is true.

I will admit it boggles my mind a little. I mean Mesopotamians and Chaldeans were already brewing beer 6,000 years ago.

I’m one of them.

 

[SFTor]

I’m one of them.

You mean you were brewing beer 6,000 years ago?

That’s sensational!

Best,

Tor

(and regarding your tagline about liberals: they are the ones who brought you the weekend. Was that wrong too?)

 

[edwest2]

More mass hallucination I suppose. So much for the education system. No matter how much science is taught they still don’t like evolution as the answer. One has to wonder why.

buffalo -

As a Catholic, have you considered that evolution as written in textbooks is atheistic? Have you ever wondered why people on this forum, and many others, spend so much time trying to convince people to just say yes to evolution? I’ll give you a clue, they aren’t putting in all that time and effort to teach. Another way to look at it is like this: if evolution is a fact, as claimed, why the effort here?

God bless,
Ed

 

[SFTor]

buffalo -
As a Catholic, have you considered that evolution as written in textbooks is atheistic? Have you ever wondered why people on this forum, and many others, spend so much time trying to convince people to just say yes to evolution? I’ll give you a clue, they aren’t putting in all that time and effort to teach. Another way to look at it is like this: if evolution is a fact, as claimed, why the effort here?

God bless,
Ed

Sorry to jump in here, but I believe it would be incorrect to call the teaching of evolution atheistic. I would vote for areligious.

 

[historyb]

You mean you were brewing beer 6,000 years ago?

That’s sensational!

Best,

Tor

(and regarding your tagline about liberals: they are the ones who brought you the weekend. Was that wrong too?)

No silly I’m a YECer

 

[Orogeny]

buffalo -

As a Catholic, have you considered that evolution as written in textbooks is atheistic? Have you ever wondered why people on this forum, and many others, spend so much time trying to convince people to just say yes to evolution? I’ll give you a clue, they aren’t putting in all that time and effort to teach. Another way to look at it is like this: if evolution is a fact, as claimed, why the effort here?

God bless,
Ed

Why do you think I come here to discuss this, Ed?

Peace

Tim

ps - still waiting for the textbook.

 

[SFTor]

No silly I’m a YECer

Oh, OK!

Because if you had been brewing beer for that long you would probably be really good at it by now, and I might have come around for a bottle or two.

Best,

Tor

 

[The_Barbarian]

Evolution seems cold and hesitant, like all science.

I could never understand how it could seem that way to me. As a young boy, climbing the cliffs overlooking the Mississippi River, and wondering how the cliffs and river and living things got there, I knew I would spend a lifetime finding out.

And to my surprise, the scientists were exactly like children poking about in the leaf litter, and looking at rocks and trying to figure out why they are they way they are.

It is, above all other things, fun. It’s the treat of being the first one over the next hill, and finding out what’s there. It’s a warm, human, and inspiring way.

It’s limited, of course, and beyond the physical universe, it can see nothing at all. But it would be as foolish to say that is atheistic as it would be to call plumbing “atheistic” for having nothing to say about God.

It requires serious involvement to fascinate.

I have a son who is an artist. One is a lawyer. One is a software developer. One daughter actually makes a living coaching soccer, and another is studying to be an actuary. All of them love science and are fascinated by it.

A complete education should include God, art, science, mathematics, and history.

Years ago, I read magazine editorial, in which a writer expressed pity for a young girl whose father was explaining to her how the brilliant colors of fall foliage happened. She argued that the father had stolen the magic away.

I truly pity that woman’s children. God’s real creation is so much more amazing and lovely than the “magic” that there is no comparison.

Kids can live better with “we aren’t sure yet”, than they can with the “magic.”

 

[The_Barbarian]

(Barbarian points out a strong correlation between educational attainment and acceptance of evolution)

Yeah, I could see that. I wonder how it would look if college mandated philosophy and metaphysics along with science.

If our Pope is any measure, it would sure reduce the number of YE creationists.

It makes sense: far more people with graduate degrees have studied philosophy and metaphysics than those with high school or lower.

So you’d expect them to be more open to evolution, for that reason, among others.

 

[SFTor]

I could never understand how it could seem that way to me. As a young boy, climbing the cliffs overlooking the Mississippi River, and wondering how the cliffs and river and living things got there, I knew I would spend a lifetime finding out.

And to my surprise, the scientists were exactly like children poking about in the leaf litter, and looking at rocks and trying to figure out why they are they way they are.

It is, above all other things, fun. It’s the treat of being the first one over the next hill, and finding out what’s there. It’s a warm, human, and inspiring way.

It’s limited, of course, and beyond the physical universe, it can see nothing at all. But it would be as foolish to say that is atheistic as it would be to call plumbing “atheistic” for having nothing to say about God.

I have a son who is an artist. One is a lawyer. One is a software developer. One daughter actually makes a living coaching soccer, and another is studying to be an actuary. All of them love science and are fascinated by it.

A complete education should include God, art, science, mathematics, and history.

Years ago, I read magazine editorial, in which a writer expressed pity for a young girl whose father was explaining to her how the brilliant colors of fall foliage happened. She argued that the father had stolen the magic away.

I truly pity that woman’s children. God’s real creation is so much more amazing and lovely than the “magic” that there is no comparison.

Kids can live better with “we aren’t sure yet”, than they can with the “magic.”

You have no argument from me. I love science. I was simply describing what may be part of the perception in science in the public at large. Science changes its mind, it quibbles, it disagrees with itself, it gets numerical on us. I think these qualities make many feel that “they can’t trust it.”

In a previous job I was sitting in a meeting room at the Jet Propulsion Lab, listening to a bunch of space scientists discuss whether there is water on Mars. Thank God the ceiling was tightly screwed down. It was one of the most wonderful two hours of my life. You hit it on the head: it was FUN.

 

[edwest2]

I could never understand how it could seem that way to me. As a young boy, climbing the cliffs overlooking the Mississippi River, and wondering how the cliffs and river and living things got there, I knew I would spend a lifetime finding out.

And to my surprise, the scientists were exactly like children poking about in the leaf litter, and looking at rocks and trying to figure out why they are they way they are.

It is, above all other things, fun. It’s the treat of being the first one over the next hill, and finding out what’s there. It’s a warm, human, and inspiring way.

It’s limited, of course, and beyond the physical universe, it can see nothing at all. But it would be as foolish to say that is atheistic as it would be to call plumbing “atheistic” for having nothing to say about God.

I have a son who is an artist. One is a lawyer. One is a software developer. One daughter actually makes a living coaching soccer, and another is studying to be an actuary. All of them love science and are fascinated by it.

A complete education should include God, art, science, mathematics, and history.

Years ago, I read magazine editorial, in which a writer expressed pity for a young girl whose father was explaining to her how the brilliant colors of fall foliage happened. She argued that the father had stolen the magic away.

I truly pity that woman’s children. God’s real creation is so much more amazing and lovely than the “magic” that there is no comparison.

Kids can live better with “we aren’t sure yet”, than they can with the “magic.”

This is almost word for word what I’m reading elsewhere. Misleading statements and the exaltation of the mind of man above God.

“Man is the measure of all things.”

“Man invents himself.” How very, very false.

Peace,
Ed

 

[historyb]

This is almost word for word what I’m reading elsewhere. Misleading statements and the exaltation of the mind of man above God.

“Man is the measure of all things.”

“Man invents himself.” How very, very false.

Peace,
Ed

That’s their big motto