Public Acceptance of Evolution

The paper titled 'Public Acceptance of Evolution', published in Science [11 August 2006: Vol. 313. no. 5788, pp. 765 - 766] gives percentage distribution of responses to a question about evolution in 33 countries.

Surveys were conducted in 2005. Acording to NYT, people were asked whether to respond “true,” “false” or “not sure” to this statement: “Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals.”

The results are not very encouraging for US, which had the second-highest percentage of adults who said the statement was false and the second-lowest percentage who said the statement was true. [See image for distributions for different countries.]

I was, maybe not shocked, but saddened by these numbers. {What was I expecting honestly? Evolution _and global warming_ are myths, as we all know.} Then, there was the kicker:

"Only adults in Turkey expressed more doubts on evolution."

Ouch! OK, Turkey is the only Muslim country on the list, and Koran is 600+ years younger than New testament. {Remember what you learned about Europe in 13 or 14th century?} But, still...

While discussing this study with friends, somebody said the following. I've also received an e-mail from a friend with the almost exact same content:

Although Turkey is worse then US in her response to evolution {that's my take on the numbers; if you think US is actually in a good shape 'saying no to evolution,' good luck to you.}, other issues usually mentioned alongside evolution do not exist for Turks. {That's the view from Bay Area :}

First of all, current trend is fundemantalist, the goverment too; but I don't think people are trying to push 'intelligent design' into science courses {apparently, there is no need.} Plus, issues such as abortion, prostitution, stem cell research, cloning, topless beaches are not discussed and currently accepted in the country.

Maybe Turks don't care, maybe they don't have time to discuss these issues {Because, you have to feed yourself first, than comes the discussion on things not directly related to survival?}. But, the fact that US is 'spending too much time' on issues such as abortion and stem cell, compared to countries accepting these as de facto standards, or those who simply don't care -even tough they seem to be significantly more fundamentalist- just doesn't look right. We should have better things to discuss.

I am terribly sorry for us all.