Americans won't believe in evolution until we weaken religion’s death grip on America.

[웃 910]

Dr. Coyne gets religious pushback

I am dispirited. I’ve just returned from a two-hour lecture and Q&A session at the Woodlawn Charter School, a public school run by the University of Chicago on the South Side of the city. Some of the high-school biology students are reading Why Evolution is True, and I gave a presentation on the evidence for evolution—with a tiny bit about why religion prevents Americans from accepting evolution, for I was asked to mention that topic—followed by an hour of questions.

Some of the questions were good, and some of the students really interested, but there was also a lot of religious pushback. One student, I was told, sat through the entire lecture muttering about how she shouldn’t be forced to listen to this stuff since it went against her faith. Another student’s “question” was to inform me that she was offended that I said that Adam and Eve never existed (I talked about the human bottleneck of 1200 people), and asked me how I knew that.

And the teacher who invited me told me she encountered stiff resistance from many of her kids about evolution—resistance based solely on their religious upbringing.

It’s all a bit depressing. These kids are not southern fundamentalist Bible-thumpers: they are disadvantaged black kids who were simply brought up in religious homes or among religious peers. And there’s no doubt that that upbringing is rendering many of them resistant to the idea of evolution. I spent an hour showing them the evidence for evolution, and some of them were simply impervious.

The problem with America and evolution is not the lack of instruction. We have more evolution education than ever (after all, these kids are reading my book), and we tons of books and eminent scientists lecturing about evolution. We have Dawkins, and the works of Sagan and Gould, the shows of Attenborough, and high-school textbooks that deal in depth with evolution. But statistics show that acceptance of evolution in America has hardly changed since 1982.

The problem is religion. Until America becomes less religious, we have no hope of educating people about the wonders of evolution. Remember thisfrom the Pew Forum website:

When asked what they [Americans] would do if scientists were to disprove a particular religious belief, nearly two-thirds (64%) of people say they would continue to hold to what their religion teaches rather than accept the contrary scientific finding, according to the results of an October 2006 Time magazine poll. Indeed, in a May 2007 Gallup poll, only 14% of those who say they do not believe in evolution cite lack of evidence as the main reason underpinning their views; more people cite their belief in Jesus (19%), God (16%) or religion generally (16%) as their reason for rejecting Darwin’s theory.

Religion poisons everything. The National Center for Science Education can put out the fires in school boards and courtrooms, and the rest of us can teach ourselves silly, but not much will change until we weaken religion’s death grip on America.

http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/dr-coyne-gets-religious-pushback/

[^_^ 5,021]

A poll with one option?

[slim 1,533]

A poll with one option?

Sponsored by the democrats.

[웃 910]

A poll with one option?

I'm not interested in seeing who believes in the facts.

Sponsored by the democrats.

You evolved from an ape. Do you know that?

[Misha & Ira 113]

A poll with one option?

After they get a death grip on any political system, they become ballots with just one candidate.

[slim 1,533]

You evolved from an ape. Do you know that?

Even apes have cognitive reasoning skills.

[Misha & Ira 113]

You evolved from an ape. Do you know that?

YMMV?

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

Religious belief not only prevents people to accept scientific facts, but it's the source of all evil on this planet. Combine the lives of all the people killed in the name of the various gods and it's so staggering that you would hire Stalin and Hitler as school teachers.

[Misha & Ira 113]

I beg to disagree Brother...take religion away and people will still find reasons to kill each other....only the ideologies change. The same type of people that use religion now and in the past will just find another ideology to use to justify killing others. If the example of Stalin, Mao, the Kmer Rouge, Pol Pot does not teach you this, then what can I say?

You Christ preached on just such thingas when he warned of the Pharisees...

When people truly come to understand the message...only then will we have hope.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Religious belief not only prevents people to accept scientific facts, but it's the source of all evil on this planet. Combine the lives of all the people killed in the name of the various gods and it's so staggering that you would hire Stalin and Hitler as school teachers.

Human nature is the source of all evil on this planet.

If religion didn't exist, nothing would change.

There will always be leaders and followers, and there will always be Gods. It has nothing to do with the idea of religion.

[웃 910]

You Christ preached on just such thingas when he warned of the Pharisees...

When people truly come to understand the message...only then will we have hope.

Jesus Christ was not a God. He either didn't exist or was just another moron walking around in a bathrobe and sandals with horrible hygiene and lack of intelligence.

[Misha & Ira 113]

Jesus Christ was not a God. He either didn't exist or was just another moron walking around in a bathrobe and sandals with horrible hygiene and lack of intelligence.

You have scientific proof of your claim?

[Danno 1,228]

You have scientific proof of your claim?

Yeah I would like him to -Show us his work.

[Danno 1,228]

<<<<Americans won't believe in evolution until we weaken religion’s death grip on America.>>>>>

Under a Christian atmosphere America has Flurished and brought more freedom and prosparity to more people than even known before.

Under the death grip of Atheisim , hundreds of millions perished and the rest languished in poverty compared to us.

Joseph Stalin, the Premier of the Soviet Union from May 6, 1941 to March 5, 1953, founded the League of Militant Atheists, whose chief aim was to propagate militant atheism and eradicate religion.

The cover of a membership card of the League of Militant Atheists of the USSR

A Soviet propaganda poster disseminated in the Bezbozhnik (Atheist) magazine depicting Jesus being dumped from a wheelbarrow by an industrial worker as well as a smashed church bell; the text advocates Industrialisation Day as an alternative replacement to the Christian Transfiguration Day.

A People's Republic of China propaganda poster stating "Destroy the Old World & Forge the New World," with a worker smashing a crucifix, a Buddha murti, and a classical Chinese sacred text; 1967.

Edited December 8, 2011 by Danno

[Robby999 1,024]

Amen!