Free Republic
Browse · Search
Smoky Backroom
Topics · Post Article

To: DannyTN
That Americans don't know that all plants and animals have DNA is a bigger concern, but I seriously doubt that claim.

I don't doubt it. Surveys for the past several decades have consistently found huge percentages of American adults who don't know who the current President is (VP stats are even more alarming), can't find the continental US on a globe, and at the height of the Cold War, didn't know that the Soviet Union and China were Communist countries. However, this article seems to jump to the conclusion that people who answer "No" to the question "Do all plants and animals have DNA?" are somehow being influenced by a belief in Biblical creationism and imagine that humans are special in this respect. More likely, they simply have no idea what "DNA" is, but have vaguely absorbed references to DNA testing in crime cases, but have never heard of DNA in any other context (after all, many of our most clueless citizens live in crime-infested cities, where many of their friends and relatives -- and themselves -- have had occasion to have DNA samples tested by police, and many are also regular watchers of TV crime shows). You'd probably get about the same percent of "No" answers to the question "Do all plants and animals have fingerprints?", for the same reason, and in that case the same simple reasoning process would have resulted in the correct answer.

73 posted on 08/11/2006 12:46:47 PM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies ]


To: GovernmentShrinker; aft_lizard
"Surveys for the past several decades have consistently found huge percentages of American adults who don't know who the current President is... "

I wonder if the surveys are really finding huge percentages of Americans who are annoyed with surveys and are willing to give bad answers just to mess them up.

93 posted on 08/11/2006 1:06:02 PM PDT by DannyTN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Smoky Backroom
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson