Ever wonder why it seems like you are surrounded by idiots?

[NNN0LHI]

Its because you are surrounded by idiots.

http://www.reformer.com/ci_13854532?source=most_viewed

Religion vs. science

On this day in 1859, the age of modern science began.

One hundred and fifty years ago today, Charles Darwin’s "On the Origin of Species" was published.

Even though there are still some Americans arguing about its contents, there is little debate that Darwin’s book helped launch a revolution of scientific inquiry that continues to this day. snip

This idea has never been accepted by fundamentalist Christians, who believe that god created the world in seven days and everything was ready to go from the beginning. Science proves that this is clearly untrue, yet creationism (or intelligent design, as its supporters now call it) is still treated seriously in the United States as a competing idea of how the world was made.

"Evolution is not an idea. It’s a fact," said James McCarthy, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science earlier this year. Citing the recent emergence of drug-resistant microbes and pesticide-resistant insects, McCarthy said that "it’s impossible to deny evolution."

Yet, according to a Gallup poll taken this year, just 40 percent of Americans say they believe in the theory of evolution. Other surveys done in recent years find that about 30 percent of Americans believe in the literal truth of the Bible and about 45 percent believe god created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years or so.

It would be easy to blame the religious beliefs of Americans for this widespread skepticism, since no other country in the developed world thinks this way. But it’s safer to say the bigger problem is the American public’s low level of scientific literacy. More than two-thirds of Americans are unable to identify DNA as the key to inherited traits. Nine out of 10 Americans do not understand what radiation is or its effects on the human body. One in five Americans thinks the sun revolves around the Earth.

[Noseyaboutpollution]

1. Idiots here, as well

I'll ask my neighbors if they are up on their science...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP0PIzs-YVE

[Bobbie Jo]

46. delete/wrong place.

:hi:

[roguevalley]

53. actually, there is a lot of lying when it comes to religion and surveys.

If everyone who ever said they were Christian and went to church the way they say, there wouldn't be enough pews. People lie about religion because they think they have to.

[KaoriMitsubishi]

2. "One in five Americans thinks the sun revolves around the Earth"

We're screwed. :(

[virgogal]

3. I don't consider any of them idiots. They have different beliefs than I do

but I tolerate them and hope that they will eventually see the truth.

People believe what they believe.

[GoneOffShore]

4. Science isn't something you can vote on.

One is entitled to ones own beliefs but not ones own facts.

They have "different beliefs" that they are trying to impose on the rest of us.

After 60 years on this earth I can no longer "tolerate" people who are too stupid to understand evidence.

[BrklynLiberal]

8. DITTO!!!!

[StarfarerBill]

13. Double-ditto.

[malaise]

41. 100% correct

I agree 100%.

[Lyric]

5. Exactly! For example, my neighbor believes that the moon is made of green cheese,

that a magic pink unicorn lives in his toilet, that playing "Halo" for 15 hours a day is a good substitute for going to school, and that eating lots of junk food is the best way to stay healthy.

My neighbor just believes differently. He's not stupid.

:hi:

[hfojvt]

21. is that an actual person or one that you are imagining exists somewhere

[PassingFair]

23. There's a difference?

I thought this thread was arguing that
there WAS no difference.

[jgraz]

51. Hey, I belong to The Church of Lyric's Neighbor

And I find your questioning of my beliefs offensive.

[KaoriMitsubishi]

6. "I tolerate them and hope that they will eventually see the truth"

You tolerate fraud.

[GoneOffShore]

14. Well said.

Far too many people let fools spout their nonsense without challenging them on it.

It's time to stop tolerating fraud in the public sphere.

[Quantess]

40. There is a difference between tolerating people and tolerating beliefs. (no text)

[Atticus]

17. S-I-G-H---------(face palm)---------nt

[mitchum]

20. Jesusfuckingchrist, science is not a belief

May those idiots soon be with their precious lord

[hfojvt]

28. people cannot be taught then

all we can do is kill them or hope for their death. That's the scientific way.

[Atticus]

42. "Ut planto in insipid"

Latin (sort of) for "WTF"?

[pitohui]

22. you don't get to have "different" beliefs abt science

sorry, but "it still moves" as galileo famously said

they will "eventually" see the truth is not good enough when it takes 400 or 500 hundred fucking years

this planet doesn't have 40 or 50 good years left if we continue to humor the flat earthers

idiots who have "different beliefs" -- as in completely idiotic stupid-ass beliefs like 1 in 5 americans think the sun revolves around the earth -- you know what? at this time of century, at this time of crisis, if you're that damn dumb, you need to be publically called on, humiliated, and laughed at every possible moment -- we can't tolerate fools gladly and expect to survive

our tolerance of stupid-ass beliefs is killing entire species -- this tolerance is GENOCIDE

your child sees one frog a year, i used to walk around in my yard and kick up hundreds in a night -- to tolerate stupidity and ignorance is, at this point, wholesale genocide not just of species but of entire families of plants and animals

i'm sick of humoring stupidity

stupid people don't see the light until they personally are badly harmed by which point they have harmed or killed god knows how many thru their hateful ignorance

stupidity/ignorance/religious bullshit is a choice, you are exposed to multiple options and it's time to stop tolerating the ignorant choice, sorry

[we can do it]

32. Sing It Loud!

[Caretha]

44. It's enough to make me "believe" in

a certain kind of reincarnation and karma....all those idiots who believe the sun revolves earth are going to come back as a member of an extinct species. I'm thinking frogs & horny toads here.

[dixiegrrrrl]

49. Those idiots are GOING to be an extinct species.

They refuse to see how they create their own doom, and because teh stoopid is the NORM
they outnumber us, so we get to be dragged kicking and screaming with them as they mindlessly gallop over the cliff of devolution.

[we can do it]

30. Fucking. Idiots. Willfully. Ignorant

[Toucano]

38. Knowledge is not a belief.

I think you are much to kind to stubborn people.

Elsewhere in the world, people manage to maintain their faith without being ignorant about facts.

[Ichingcarpenter]

54. When did ignorance become a point of view?

[cali]

7. I'm not surrounded by idiots. I don't know anyone who's a creationist

I know quite a few people who never went further than high school but none of them are ignorant to that degree.

[pitohui]

26. um, cali, well good? because i must be getting more than my share...

do you really not know anyone who is a creationist or do you not know what they think?

in person i am very quiet, so people talk to me

there are a LOT of creationist fucktards out there, you'd be amazed

a lot of racist fucktards too

practice smiling and looking stupid and interested and not saying anything for awhile...you'll be fucking amazed at what you learn about people

yes, cali, some of your friends believe in creationism they just haven't told you

[we can do it]

33. Me Too- Here In Dumbfuckistan aka Ohio the Stupid Runs Deep

[raccoon]

60. Same here in SC. Lots of people here who believe in creationism. nt

[GoCubsGo]

63. The vast majority of them...

Unfortunately.

[cali]

45. no, not a single one of my friends believes in creationism

and we talk this stuff all the time. Had thanksgivng dinner with 18 of my friends last week. not a one of them is a creationist or a republican. And sorry, I know what my friends think about such things. I don't think I even know a single republican. I for sure don't have any repub friends.

[JoeyT]

50. All that means is that you make a point of not hanging out with dumb people.

Something I can hardly fault you for. ;)

[Fumesucker]

29. I have an overabundance of idiots down here, I'd be happy to send you some ..

For educational purposes of course..

My brother married a fundie about fifteen years ago, in the last three or four years or so I'm starting to notice that he's absorbing some of the stupidity from her and it breaks my heart.

And the sad thing is she's not even one of the virulent ones.

[GoCubsGo]

62. Lucky you.

Come around here, and I'll introduce you to some of my neighbors.

[BrklynLiberal]

9. Because I am????

Every day, in every way, the average American is getting dumber and dumber.....and prouder and prouder of his ignorance and stupidity.

[depakid]

10. Gallop has an agenda here- and I don't buy ONE WORD of what they're saying

If you want ACCURATE research into religiousity- and issues that surround it, go to a credible organization or database like the GSS. You'll see VERY different numbers.

[hfojvt]

19. that last group seems to be inaccessible

http://www.norc.org/GSS+Website/Download/

since they choose not to use PDF files or excel and instead use the esoteric SPSS or STATA.

[justabob]

11. One in five Americans thinks the sun revolves around the Earth

Wow. That is frightening. I knew the stats on evolution, and the Believers of the Bible, and those are disheartening enough. That there are still 20% of Americans that believe the Sun orbits Earth? All I can say is wow. How many people still believe in a flat earth?

[loudsue]

12. The American education system has FAILED our citizens.

It's NOT the fault of the teachers, but the politicians, administrators and laws/policies that fail to optimize the tools students should have. Republicans have had the policy for YEARS of undermining funding for education. If nothing else happens during this time of "change we can believe in", it is that we should educate our population, by any means necessary. And not just the kids.

[hfojvt]

15. I feel like an idiot

for wasting so much of my time studying physics. What a waste of a life that turned out to be.

[Ikonoklast]

55. Maybe not. How's that 'gravity' thingy working out for you?

Still stuck on Terra Firma, and not flying off into space yet, are we?

See, not all bad.

[WillyT]

16. No...

It's pretty obvious.

:evilgrin:

:silly:

:shrug:

:hi:

[Skittles]

18. I never have to wonder - I live in Texas

[OneGrassRoot]

25. ...

:spray:

:rofl:

:hi:

[JoeyT]

52. Yup.

I'm from Alabama. It's the same here. None of my friends from California or the Northeast ever believe the stories of how crazy and/or dumb some people can be.

I've actually had someone claim (With a straight face) that ovarian cysts are caused by a woman not having all the babies God wanted them to. Cervical cancer is caused by the same. Which is made far worse when you know that person was the Health Education teacher in a public school.

[struggle4progress]

24. This means America continues to fail at educating its children well. In particular,

we fail to teach children how to observe facts and to reach conclusions in a critical manner

The current vogue of teaching to tests is exceptionally destructive, because it emphasizes rote "knowledge" over experience, the ability to calculate, and careful argumentative skills

Unfortunately, teaching children to repeat by rote facts, such as "the earth revolves around the sun," will not remove the difficulty. We really need to produce a generation of professionals, who are both well-trained in science and enthusiastic about childhood education; we need to pay them professional salaries; and we need to provide exceptional equipment to them and to their schools

[pitohui]

27. but the failure is intentional, religions profit by the failure

every child removed from public school in the 60s and 70s because of racist hysteria was $$$ in the pocket of the religions

every child removed from getting a good education is $$$ in the pockets of bogus prosperity churches and other bullshit artists

EDUCATING a child and instilling superstition/religion into a child is a conflict, the parent or the society that pretends that you can educate a child well and fill her brain with religious hysteria is lying to itself

the child who thinks for herself will not grow up to be a wallet to be plucked by some church or religion or cult

[Fumesucker]

31. The military- industrial- congressional complex profits also..

People who cannot ask hard questions are far easier to bamboozle into whatever the idiocy du jour might be.

[struggle4progress]

36. No. The data show a considerably more complicated picture: mainline protestants,

catholics, jews, hindus, and buddhists, as well as the religiously unaffiliated, are more likely to accept evolution than Americans at large -- and jews, hindus, and buddhists are more likely to accept evolution than the religiously unaffiliated. See

Religious Differences on the Question of Evolution
Feb. 4, 2009
http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=392

[struggle4progress]

39. Here, I think, is a more useful analysis: the post-WWII GI bill produced a better-educated

population in the mid-1950s, and Sputnik scared Americans into redoubling educational efforts. Improved education and communications produced a generation of baby boomers who were better informed and more critical in their thinking than anyone in America had been for years. The result was about a decade and a half of increasing activism by young people who could see through BS -- including the Freedom Riders, the Free Speech Movement, and the Anti-War Activists -- and it scared the daylights out of the ruling elite, who promptly set out to dumb down the schools and the media in order to regain control

[varelse]

34. One in five Americans thinks the sun revolves around the Earth.

:wtf:

[11 Bravo]

35. Yup, ever since the inception of the "unrec" feature.

[autorank]

37. I figured;) k*r

[Bigmack]

43. Watch the video "Idiocracy".... nt

[Bobbie Jo]

47. Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right...

:hi:

[dixiegrrrrl]

48. Ever watch Who wants to be a Millionaire????

I had to stop watching. Blood pressure went thru the roof.
One guy could not decide what shape the pyramids were.
His choices were : round..square...triangular....rectangular.
I am not kidding.
but he got into the chair by listing tv shows in order of their creation, something I could not do, since I do not watch tv.
Maybe this says more about me than it does him???

[MindPilot]

56. I'm having a tough time with that question too.

What shape are the Pyramids? Well, they are pyramid-shaped. That answer is not on the list. Ask me the shape of the sides or the base and I can give you an answer.

I get your point though. I hate those kinds of shows because of the way they artificially build suspense; it exceeds my attention span.

[MindPilot]

57. the odd thing about Christians' rejection of evolution...

Is exemplified by a discussion I had once with a fundie co-worker. I explained evolution in terms of the moth that darkened with the soot-covered trees. "That's just adaptation" was his response. They cannot even consider the idea that an invisible man in the sky is not in total control of the minutia of Earthly goings-on. he finally said to me "I don't have enough faith for evolution."

[deutsey]

58. Corporate-controlled TV is another contributing factor n/t

[MindPilot]

59. There is a lot of science-oriented programming on TV

Science Channel, Nat Geo, Discovery, PBS...

[deutsey]

61. Funny I don't hear most people around me talking about that, though

Dancing with the Stars, celebrity gossip, etc...now, that's a different story.