Americans Review Evolution, Creationism

Angus Reid Global Scan ^ | October 23, 2005 | Angus Reid Global Scan

[md2576]

A majority of adults in the United States support the views of creationism, according to a poll by Gallup released by CNN and USA Today. 53 per cent of respondents say God created human beings in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.

Conversely, 31 per cent of respondents believe human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life with God guiding this process, while 13 per cent think God had no part in the development of man.

Charles Darwin’s "The Origin of Species" was first published in 1859. The book details the British naturalist’s theory that all organisms gradually evolve through the process of natural selection. Darwin’s views were antagonistic to creationism, the belief that a more powerful being or a deity created life.

In the U.S., the debate on the topic accelerated after the 1925 Scopes trial, which tested a law that banned the teaching of evolution in Tennessee public schools. Last year, Georgia’s Cobb County was at the centre of a controversy on whether science textbooks that explain evolutionary theory should include disclaimer stickers.

The theory of intelligent design suggests certain biological mechanisms are too complex to have developed without the involvement of a powerful force or intelligent being. At least 20 American states are involved in court disputes over the teaching of intelligent design in schools.

On Oct. 6, White House spokesman Scott McClellan expressed the views of the U.S. president George W. Bush on the issue, saying, "He stands where he stood before, that he believes that students ought to be exposed to different theories."

On Oct. 21, Cornell University interim president Hunter Rawlings III called intelligent design "a religious belief masquerading as a secular idea," adding, "It has no ability to develop new knowledge."

Polling Data

Which of the following statements comes closest to your views on the origin and development of human beings: 1) Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process; 2) Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process; 3) God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so?

 

	Sept. 2005	Nov. 2004
Man developed, with God guiding	31%	38%
Man developed, but God had no part in process	12%	13%
God created man in present form	53%	45%
Other / No opinion	4%	4%

Source: Gallup / CNN / USA Today
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,005 American adults, conducted from Sept. 8 to Sept. 11, 2004. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

[rightwinggoth]

Score one for Jesusland, and take that, United Socialist States of New Canada!

[Ready2go]

It's wonderful to see folks starting to think for themselves, and throwing away all that Evol junk they've been brainwashed with over the years.

[md2576]

It's wonderful to see folks starting to think for themselves, and throwing away all that Evol junk they've been brainwashed with over the years.

I must be brainwashed then.

I have my own beliefs from both science and the Bible together. So I actually do think for myself rather than believe the scripture means what my preacher says it means. Isn't that brainwashing?

[Ready2go]

"I have my own beliefs from both science and the Bible together. So I actually do think for myself rather than believe the scripture means what my preacher says it means. Isn't that brainwashing?"

Howdy there md2576;

You shouldn't rely on what any man tells you about anything, especially about the Bible...you need to read it for yourself.

God will show you what He wants you to know.

Each one of us is in charge of our own eternity and for me I wanted to know without a shadow of a doubt as to where I'll be spending my eternity...I wasn't about to take any man's word for it.

[md2576]

I've read the bible once completely but need to read it again and again as it changes meanings to me as I get older and as I read it more and more. This is why I believe they call it The Great Book.
My take on the creation of man is that we evolved. Genesis 2:7 God made man of the dust breathed into his nostrils and man became a living soul. From there I see the symbol next to Genesis 2:8 that lets me know I am missing something that used to be there but someone thought it no longer necessary to include because from 2:7 we go to the Lord planting a garden. So what am I missing here? It is hard to study anything that has missing parts God intended to be there. But I work with what I have.

[md2576]

I retract that, I have not yet read the old testament completely.

[md2576]

I was also taught in my younger years by preachers that the serpent tricked Eve or deceived her.
Yet the serpent did not deceive her.
Exactly what the serpent said would happen, did happen. When Eve says she was beguiled by the serpent I believe this to be charmed her.
Genesis 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Also, nowhere does it say Eve tricked Adam into eating of the fruit. Just says she gave it to him and he ate it. Doesn't say unknowingly. Adam even says in 3:12, And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
Another thing that intrigues my instinct that we were evolved is that in Genesis 3:21, Unto Adam also and to his wife did the good Lord God make coats of skin, and clothed them.
Then in 3:22 And the Good Lord said, Behold, the man is become as one of us (like the serpent said) to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.
So these are some reasons I try to do my own interpretations and then discuss instead of saying it is what it says.

[drlevy88]

And ultimately she did die

[md2576]

Ah! Very true, thank you for that.

[PatrickHenry]

Archival ping.

[Oztrich Boy]

One for The Nation of Islam

[Rudder]

Not surprising when you consider the fact that 50% of Americans have an IQ of 100 or less.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Evolutionist theory rests entirely upon a presupposition that life is an immaculate conception.

Think about that one for a minute...

The “origin of species” is rooted in the idea of a singularity: the mechanics of the DNA molecule. All species of Terran life has it. Like the singularity of the “Big Bang” theory, the two are categorically inseparable as immaculate conceptions. It only takes a mere application of logic.

The perplexing question of human origin from a common ancestor to apes is even more problematic. According to evolutionary theory, humans (homo sapiens) did not descend from apes, but from some “missing link.” Although Dr. Louis Leaky spent decades searching and found zinjanthropus and homo habilis, Olduvai Gorge gave no answers. Logic also suggests in order to “descend,” there has to be something you descend from and something you ascend to.

Evolutionary theory, rooted in the universal human dissatisfaction for mortality is a vain search for human origin(s), an attempt to rationalize a yearning for connection to something eternal.

Now, since nobody really knows the answers, it is only a scientific method to consider all points of view on the issue in educational settings. To do otherwise would be like students dancing around totems, with professors as witch doctors proclaiming intellectual taboos and making sacrifices.

This is far worse than what the ersatz secularists accuse the creationists of doing!

[Right Wing Professor]

The “origin of species” is rooted in the idea of a singularity: the mechanics of the DNA molecule. All species of Terran life has it. Like the singularity of the “Big Bang” theory, the two are categorically inseparable as immaculate conceptions. It only takes a mere application of logic.

The primacy of RNA has been known for decades. Try to keep up. And your statement about human evolution is false. We have excellent fossil remains or a number of species very close to the main line of human evolution.

But then if you creationists didn't post falsehoods, you'd have nothing to post at all.

[Rudder]

Evolutionist theory rests entirely upon a presupposition that life is an immaculate conception.

No, that's the story about Jesus Christ.

Whatever you have been reading about evolution is either wrong or you have mis-read it entirely.

[Junior]

The CrevoSci Archive Just one of the many services of Darwin Central "The Conspiracy that Cares"

• PatrickHenry's famous List-O-Links

CrevoSci threads for the past week:

1. 2005-10-23 Americans Review Evolution, Creationism
2. 2005-10-23 Majority of Americans Reject Secular Evolution (Gallup Poll, Sep. 2005)
3. 2005-10-22 Evolution Shmevolution
4. 2005-10-22 "Intelligent design debate: confusion vs. suppression -""scholars"" worry ID creates U.S. science gap"
5. 2005-10-22 Nonprofit group criticizes proposed Kansas science standards [that attack evolution]
6. 2005-10-21 A test nobody wants to take
7. 2005-10-21 Cornell president condemns intelligent design
8. 2005-10-21 Dover school chief says he doesn't recall creationism talk [daily thread for 21 October]
9. 2005-10-21 Ken Ham Caught Agreeing with Young-Earthers
10. 2005-10-21 "Margaret Sanger's Warped ""Gospel of Redemption and Salvation"""
11. 2005-10-21 Media Continues Deceptive Coverage of Dover Trial
12. 2005-10-21 The Design of Evolution
13. 2005-10-20 1st Euro Conf. on Intelligent Design Features Scientists From Biology, Paleontology & Astrophysics
14. 2005-10-20 A test nobody wants to take [more ross exam, Dover Evolution trial, 20 October]
15. 2005-10-20 Barf Alert: ACLU's 'intelligent design' in Dover case
16. 2005-10-20 Being Stalked by Intelligent Design
17. 2005-10-20 Darwin Takes the Fifth: What Really Happened at the Kansas Evolution Hearings
18. 2005-10-20 Geoscientists and educators take on antievolutionists (Say Evolutionists: 'Don't debate')
19. 2005-10-20 Intelligent design not science: experts [70,000 Aussie Scientists liken I.D. to 'spoon bending']
20. 2005-10-20 Kangaroo Court (Professor Michael Behe, appearing at the left's verision of the Scopes trial...)
21. 2005-10-20 The Republican War on Science
22. 2005-10-20 UCSD Study Shows 'Junk' DNA Has Evolutionary Importance (Evolutionists don't get it)
23. 2005-10-19 Anti-ID stance is good old intolerance again
24. 2005-10-19 Behe backs off 'mechanisms' [Cross exam in Dover Evolution trial, 19 October]
25. 2005-10-19 Geocentrism 101 Supplement: Discussion of the Position of Scriptures and Church
26. 2005-10-18 Alternative Theory to Evolution Sparks Debate
27. 2005-10-18 Creeping crinoids! Sea lilies crawl to escape predators, new video shows (Maybe it's designed!)
28. 2005-10-18 Evidence of Swimming Dinosaur Found
29. 2005-10-18 Harvard researcher ready to wash her hands of space aliens
30. 2005-10-18 ID and President Bush—the deeper issues
31. 2005-10-18 Nothing new under the sun: media report hypes evolution claims (Response to Washington Post)
32. 2005-10-18 Professor [Behe]: Design not creationism [Evolution trial, 18 October]
33. 2005-10-18 "Rape, Evolution, and ""Right to Life"""
34. 2005-10-18 Scientists Study Gorilla Who Uses Tools
35. 2005-10-17 Cyborg cells sense humidity
36. 2005-10-17 Fred on Everything: Fred Plans To Devolve
37. 2005-10-17 'Hobbit' tools found near remains
38. 2005-10-17 Ichthyosaur bones found off U.K. coast
39. 2005-10-17 Intelligent Design is not Science (Kenneth Miller Speaks at Lehigh)
40. 2005-10-17 Jurassic Bark: Tree Thought Extinct Returned to the World
41. 2005-10-17 New Planetoid Discovery Sets Off Feud
42. 2005-10-17 Prof Speaks at 'Intelligent Design' Trial
43. 2005-10-17 "Scientists Back Dover - [85 scientists request scientists, not Judges, to define ""science""]"
44. 2005-10-17 Spitzer's Stunning Portrait of Andromeda
45. 2005-10-17 Supernova Storm Wiped Out Mammoths?
46. 2005-10-17 Tracks of Swimming Dinosaur Found in Wyoming
47. 2005-10-17 University separates itself from professor in Dover intelligent design suit

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CrevoSci Warrior Freepdays for the month of October:
 

2005-10-12 Alice au Wonderland 2003-10-09 antiRepublicrat 2004-10-10 Antonello 1998-10-18 AZLiberty 1999-10-14 blam 2000-10-19 cogitator 2001-10-21 Coyoteman 2004-10-26 curiosity 1998-10-29 Dataman 2000-10-29 dila813 2005-10-07 Dinobot 2004-10-13 DoctorRansom

2001-10-14 dread78645 2005-10-14 EasyBOven 1998-10-03 Elsie 1998-10-17 f.Christian 2002-10-08 FairOpinion 2001-10-26 Genesis defender 2000-10-09 Gil4 2000-10-08 guitarist 2005-10-01 holeinchilada 2004-10-10 joeclarke 1998-10-03 js1138 2001-10-24 k2blader

2001-10-22 kanawa 2000-10-08 LibWhacker 2002-10-25 m1-lightning 2001-10-10 Michael_Michaelangelo 2001-10-09 Mother Abigail 2004-10-25 MRMEAN 2004-10-03 Nicholas Conradin 1999-10-28 PatrickHenry 1998-10-01 Physicist 2003-10-19 Pipeline 1998-10-25 plain talk 1998-10-12 Restorer

2005-10-04 ret_medic 2001-10-23 RightWingNilla 2005-10-08 SmoothTalker 2004-10-09 snarks_when_bored 1998-10-04 Southack 2004-10-16 StoneGiant 2002-10-22 sumocide 2004-10-21 WildHorseCrash 2001-10-23 yankeedame 2002-10-20 Z in Oregon 1998-10-29 zebra 2

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In Memoriam
Fallen CrevoSci Warriors:

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ALS Area Freeper Aric2000 Askel5 bluepistolero churchillbuff ConservababeJen DittoJed2 dob Ed Current

f.Christian followerofchrist general_re goodseedhomeschool gopwinsin04 gore3000 Jedigirl JesseShurun Kevin Curry kharaku

Le-Roy Marathon medved metacognative Modernman NoKinToMonkeys Ogmios peg the prophet Phaedrus Phoroneus

pickemuphere ret_medic RickyJ SeaLion Selkie Shubi Tomax tpaine WaveThatFlag xm177e2

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Bring back Modernman and SeaLion!

Glossary of Terms

Crevo:  Creation vs. evolution
CrevoSci:  Creation vs. evolution/Science
CrevoSci Warriors:  Those who take part on CrevoSci threads
Freepday:  The day a Freeper joined Free Republic

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[Sir Francis Dashwood]

But then if you creationists didn't post falsehoods, you'd have nothing to post at all.

I'm not an orthodox atheist like you... there is no such thing as an ecumenical atheist.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Since nobody really knows the answers, it is only a scientific method to consider all points of view on the issue in educational settings. To do otherwise would be like students dancing around totems, with professors as witch doctors proclaiming intellectual taboos and making sacrifices.

This is far worse than what the ersatz secularists accuse the creationists of doing!

You don't have a clue...