# What's the religious composition of evolution/vaccine/climate change deniers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 27, 2017, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-religious-composition-of-evolution-vaccine-climate-change-deniers/805375 "2017-12-27T08:18:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-religious-composition-of-evolution-vaccine-climate-change-deniers/805375/41 "2018-01-09T10:41:53Z")
On evolution and creationism, I find alot of people unsure. They believe in a wide spectrum like where either a supreme being created the earth and left it to develop on its own, a supreme being made the earth and plants and animals but some evolution has occurred, to the people who believe the earth formed naturally but some outside group like aliens came in and introduced the various plants and animals. On global warming deniers. Around here in the midwest its obvious the winters havent been near as harsh which is something we dont mind when you consider the horrible blizzards of the past. Something we dont mind. Whereas someone from Florida wants cooler temperatures. So where does WANTING some global warming put a person? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-religious-composition-of-evolution-vaccine-climate-change-deniers/805375/42 "2018-01-09T12:16:16Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > On evolution and creationism, I find alot of people unsure. They believe in a wide spectrum like where either a supreme being created the earth and left it to develop on its own, a supreme being made the earth and plants and animals but some evolution has occurred, to the people who believe the earth formed naturally but some outside group like aliens came in and introduced the various plants and animals. > > On global warming deniers. Around here in the midwest its obvious the winters havent been near as harsh which is something we dont mind when you consider the horrible blizzards of the past. Something we dont mind. Whereas someone from Florida wants cooler temperatures. So where does WANTING some global warming put a person? A person in favor of [fire](https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/12/12/16762120/los-angeles-california-fire-climate-change) and [highwater](https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/03/miami-shanghai-3c-warming-cities-underwater)… ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-religious-composition-of-evolution-vaccine-climate-change-deniers/805375/43 "2018-01-09T13:54:12Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > I’d be more interested in the religion of persons who go along with just about everything put out by the government and who never question things. Got any examples of such persons? It’s fine to “question things”, but not to uncritically swallow every meme someone posts on Facebook, on the grounds that “you can’t trust the government” and “they don’t want you to know”. Therein lies the religion of stoopid. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-religious-composition-of-evolution-vaccine-climate-change-deniers/805375/44 "2018-01-09T16:42:57Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > To use someone else’s metaphor: it’s like there’s a big bag of Pringlesque conspiracy theories. You can’t just have one, you’ve got to reach in and glom onto a big handful. Just a nitpick, the brand of potato chips with the slogan “Bet you can’t eat just one” was Lay’s. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-religious-composition-of-evolution-vaccine-climate-change-deniers/805375/45 "2018-01-09T17:12:30Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > Just a nitpick, the brand of potato chips with the slogan “Bet you can’t eat just one” was Lay’s. > > Carry on. Wake up, sheeple! Can’t you see he’s just a shill for ‘Big Chip’! ---
**Author:** ![DtypeJag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@DtypeJag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DtypeJag)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-religious-composition-of-evolution-vaccine-climate-change-deniers/805375/46 "2018-01-14T21:33:58Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Around here (Brooklyn, NY), the anti-vaxxers are affluent, politically and socially liberal lefties. They tend to be highly educated. I’d bet that nearly half of them have graduate degrees, and virtually all of them have a college degree. It’s inexplicable. > > It scares me about the future, too. In my experience you are undoubtably correct but its not quite inexplicable. I would be willing to bet if you took a survey, the vast majority of these people have degrees in the liberal arts and the remainder in business. Its basically the same here on the left coast. Very few physical science or engineering types are anti-vax. Something about the novel idea of proof, I think. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-religious-composition-of-evolution-vaccine-climate-change-deniers/805375/47 "2018-01-14T21:43:47Z")
I’m in a fairly conservative upper middle class area. We have a facebook page devoted to the area where people ask about services and businesses, the going on’s around town, stuff like that. People often ask for recommendations for pediatricians, and it is not infrequent that they have something like “and I’m looking for a doctor that will respect my wishes as regards to vaccination.” ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2018, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-religious-composition-of-evolution-vaccine-climate-change-deniers/805375/48 "2018-01-15T01:28:21Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Hey, I did write it a few posts up about Brooklyn. I don’t live in Park Slope (I’m in Brooklyn Heights), but I’m all too familiar with the Park Slope thing. > > I’d bet the rent that there’s significant overlap between Brooklyn non-vaccinating parents and Park Slope Food Co-op membership. > > These people are insane. As I said above, they’re generally highly educated and affluent. They have no excuse. They should be prosecuted for, well, something. Not only are they endangering their children, they’re endangering those who actually can’t, for one reason or another, be vaccinated. > > Don’t these morons have parents or grandparents? My father remembers when polio was commonplace. If I ever told him I wasn’t having my kids, his grandchildren, vaccinated, he’d shoot me and take custody of the kids. The site I linked to in post #38 posits that if your kid does get the measles or any other such disease, fill 'em full of vitamins and they will heal just fine. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2018, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-religious-composition-of-evolution-vaccine-climate-change-deniers/805375/49 "2018-01-15T14:44:22Z")
In the bible-belt in the Netherlands, vaccination rates have always been low. They’re Calvinist Protestants who believe that vaccinating is interfering with god’s will. The GGD (municipal public health authority) cooperates with secret & discreet home visits to vaccinate, to keep up the levels. Apparently many parents are quite happy to secretly protect their children from god’s nasty will. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2018, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-religious-composition-of-evolution-vaccine-climate-change-deniers/805375/50 "2018-01-15T19:07:50Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > In the bible-belt in the Netherlands, vaccination rates have always been low. They’re Calvinist Protestants who believe that vaccinating is interfering with god’s will. The GGD (municipal public health authority) cooperates with secret & discreet home visits to vaccinate, to keep up the levels. Apparently many parents are quite happy to secretly protect their children from god’s nasty will. That’s fascinating. My wife is working on a book about the controversy. Are there any news articles about this you can point me to? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-religious-composition-of-evolution-vaccine-climate-change-deniers/805375/51 "2018-01-17T08:04:42Z")
> [@Arizona\_Mike](#): > > More leftists probably believe in the dangers of GMO foods, the relative health risks of nuclear power plants, and fracking, for instance, as well as the ability to change one’s gender from what one’s DNA reflects Hijack, but what you’ve got there is a misunderstanding of the concept of gender that generally underlies support for transgender rights. Supporters of transgender rights aren’t claiming that there exists any mystical “ability to change” one’s chromosomal structure or birth sex. What they’re arguing, and with AFAICT a lot of scientific justification, is that gender identity is not automatically determined by one’s chromosomes or genital anatomy at birth, any more than sexual orientation is. If having a penis and XY chromosomes automatically made you sexually attracted to women, there wouldn’t be any male homosexuals. And if having a penis and XY chromosomes automatically made you instinctively identify as male, there wouldn’t be any transgender women. But in fact, it turns out that both sexual orientation and gender identity depend on other factors besides chromosomes and anatomy. Because the vast majority of people are cisgender-identified and heterosexually oriented, it’s easy for them to naively believe that same-sex sexual attraction or transgender identity is just a ridiculous delusion or an unhealthy abnormality. In reality, though, both of them are natural and normal among humans, although relatively rare. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-religious-composition-of-evolution-vaccine-climate-change-deniers/805375/52 "2018-01-17T14:25:44Z")
In which state have 7% of kindergarten kids been given exemptions from the Measles/Mumps/Rubella vaccine? Bible belt, red Mississippi? Nope. Mississippi doesn’t allow religious or ideological exemptions from vaccination. It’s Oregon, as in “Portlandia.” It’s Birkenstock-wearing, granola eating, spiritual but nonreligious moms who shun vaccinations. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-religious-composition-of-evolution-vaccine-climate-change-deniers/805375/53 "2018-01-17T17:06:30Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > Just a nitpick, the brand of potato chips with the slogan “Bet you can’t eat just one” was Lay’s. Yeah, but Pringlesque conspiracy theories are more unpalatable. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-religious-composition-of-evolution-vaccine-climate-change-deniers/805375/54 "2018-01-17T17:35:18Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > Just a nitpick, the brand of potato chips with the slogan “Bet you can’t eat just one” was Lay’s. Nitpick nitpick: And that slogan was [originally borrowed](https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/no_man_in_the_world_has_more_courage_than_the_man_who_can_stop_after_eating/) from turn-of-the-century catchphrases about the difficulty of eating just one salted peanut. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-religious-composition-of-evolution-vaccine-climate-change-deniers/805375/55 "2018-01-17T23:11:35Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > In which state have 7% of kindergarten kids been given exemptions from the Measles/Mumps/Rubella vaccine? > > Bible belt, red Mississippi? Nope. Mississippi doesn’t allow religious or ideological exemptions from vaccination. > > It’s Oregon, as in “Portlandia.” It’s Birkenstock-wearing, granola eating, spiritual but nonreligious moms who shun vaccinations. The Times had a fascinating article on vaccination rates in California today. In 2014, only 70% of counties (or it might be cities) had vaccination rates of 95%, which is needed for herd immunity. After the new law, this has climbed to 97%. Places with low vaccination rates have become much higher. The article says that some of this was due to the elimination of the personal exemption based on belief, but much was due to the elimination of conditional enrollment, where parents could enroll unvaccinated kids in school with the promise of later vaccination. Now vaccination records are required. So regulations do help. And Mississippi was way ahead of California before, I don’t know where they are relatively today, but I think both are in good shape. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-religious-composition-of-evolution-vaccine-climate-change-deniers/805375/56 "2018-01-18T13:21:57Z")
Speaking of religion - Mother Earth worship has taken a ludicrous turn, especially on the West Coast, with people seeking out [raw water](https://globalnews.ca/news/3966855/vancouver-raw-water-trend/?utm_source=GlobalBC&utm_medium=Facebook). After all, Giardia and Cryptosporidium are Natural. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-religious-composition-of-evolution-vaccine-climate-change-deniers/805375.md?page=2)