The headline says, Evolution Less Accepted in U.S. Than Other Western Countries, Study Finds, but here is the money shot: "The only country included in the study where adults were more likely than Americans to reject evolution was Turkey." My liberal friends often make fun of the "inbred" Creationist yokels who inhabit the hinterlands of this great nation, and contrast them with the sophisticated secularity over the waters. On the other hand, many Americans, especially culturally sensitive progressives declare that the EU should let Turkey in to show that it is "open minded" and not a "Christian club." But the reality is that Turkey is secular and Western by the standards of the Islamic world, not the Western world. An acquaintance of mine recently mocked "Red America" as "dumb fuckistan," well, if Turkey is the secular and progressive promontory of the Islamic world, then the Dar-al-Islam must be "really dumb fuckistan." Below is the fold is a graphical comparison of 34 nationss....
This chart depicts the public acceptance of evolution theory in 34 countries in 2005. Adults were asked to respond to the statement: "Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals." The percentage of respondents who believed this to be true is marked in blue; those who believed it to be false, in red; and those who were not sure, in yellow. [caption source - National Geographic Magazine] The full paper is out in Science today (though as of now the site is down for me). But the authors point to three primary issues of interest:
Americans are much more fundamentalist than Europeans. The authors point to the congregational and decentralized nature of American Protestantism. I think there is something to this.
In the United States there is a strong correlation between pro-life and right-wing views and Creationism. In Europe there is no correlation between being right-wing and pro-life and Creationist.
Adults with some understanding of genetics were likely to be more accepting of evolution.
I'll have to see the full paper when the Science site is back up.
