http://www.texastribune.org/stories/2010/feb/17/meet-flintstones/
Anther nugget from the same poll:
Is Texas competing with South Carolina in a race to the bottom?
Just another reason textbook publishers should never allow Texas to dictate what goes into science books.
Not that I’m thrilled by this, but do these numbers differ significantly from the US as a whole? My sense is that Texas isn’t much of whack with the rest of the country.
I am sure that nearly half the states in the country share a similarly dismal level of education. I don’t think pointing that out lessens the disgrace it sheds on America. If there were similar polls in every state, I would post them here as well.
This has nothing to do with the right to one’s religious beliefs; it is blind, stubborn ignorance. Plenty of Christians do not share this fatuous credulity. I just wish those who do were not so influential.
I just don’t know what to think about polls like that. Willful ignorance? Some people are really gullible and believe the first thing that they are told.
My mother thought that Forrest Gump was based on a real person (plenty of other examples as well) and yet she can beat me in chess about half of the time and I’m not too shabby. < shrug >
There’s quite a race going on for the bottom. There’s Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana – Kansas is always in the running for the most anti-evolutionary education system. And then there’s Florida and Arkansas as dark horse candidates.
At this point I wouldn’t place any bets.
It’s unfair to single out Texas for young earth-ism beliefs.
[QUOTE=Cecil]
Gallup first surveyed U.S. adults on this score in 1982 and has asked the same question several times since, most recently in May 2006. Participants can choose one of three answers:
…
Between 1982 and 2006, the number subscribing to the creationist view has ranged from 44 to 47 percent…
[/QUOTE]
You may be about 3 years behind the times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/14/us/14brf-evolution.html?fta=y
I can also offer this: http://www.kansas.com/opinion/story/1000802.html
My guess is that the OP is worried about Texas influencing the content of text books.
Me, I’m not really worried. We are not going to see creationism taught in public schools.
Too bad for many that reality is not a democracy where the “idea” with the highest public support is the one that is correct.
Or three years ahead. Every elections cycle or so, the people lose focus on education, and a bunch of creationist loonies get thenselves elected to, er, some kind of educational board. And then they try and find some kind of new scheme that sidesteps the court rulings against them from the last time. And then the state becomes a national laughingstock, again, and they get tossed out in the next cycle. It’s like a Jesus Horse Merrygoround. I think this has happened like 2 or 3 times.
Ya know, there are ignorant assholes in other states, too! Like Iowa, got ignorant assholes. North Dakota, some, but not many, but not many people anyway! New York is full of 'em! You can’t expect the entire state to be as advanced and enlightened as Waco, or Odessa!
Just sayin’, is all.
I’m honestly to the point where I no longer care that people have erroneous information. I mean, I’m all for fixing the problem, but I lack any ability to get emotionally involved.
I’d say it is. If I knew what the heck a Jesus Horse Merrygoround was.
Here’s one version of a Jesus Horse – it’s all about people and dinosaurs coexisting.
Wow. I’m not sure if I’m more amused at the “coloring hints”, the names of the crayon colors, or the suggestion that Jesus rode velociraptors bareback.
When I was taking Biology 101 as an undergraduate in Arkansas I witnessed what I thought to be am amazing demonstration of willful ignorance. There a small group of people in my class who were routinely making high marks on every exam. I would usually squeak by with an A or a high B but these folks were consistently scoring in the hi 90s. We all got together before classes to study for the tests and when it came time for the section covering evolution many of them just shut down. Comments like “I just don’t believe it” and “It means nothing to me so I don’t want to study it” was what I heard them say. When we got our tests back they ended up making grades in the high 70s and low 80s. It was absolutely amazing, I had honestly never seen anything like it before in my life.
Only Jesus could do that safely. Normal people needed a saddle and a muzzle, and got the raptors declawed first.
No doubt an innocent observation, but subject to sniggering and perverse misinterpretation.
Oh yeah, I forgot condoms from my list.
As the son of two Texas highschool teachers(who despite their creationsit views support teaching evolution in school because they think education should be secular) I will say this:
No matter what material is presented to a student, the student will only learn it if they care enough to pay attention. No amount of education reform will make highschool students care more. It’s really shocking how much apathy there is in today’s classrooms. For both my parents it’s their greatest source of stress.
