1 in 4 Americans Believe the Sun Revolves Around the Earth

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Why all this controversy over science? I kinda like science but in some ways I don't. What I dislike is anything that views itself as infallible because I really think humans can only have partial awareness at all times and cannot see the entire picture. So, what you learn in school is pretty much just a facsimile of reality anyway, as experienced through human CNS and sensory organs, along with human reasoning skills. But what does it really mean?

So I only have slightly more faith in Science as I do other disciplines but more in science than I do what's in the Bible. In other words, I am a confirmed doubter.

1 in 4 Americans read the bible and think that science is the devil and that we were made out of dirt and ribs.

I googled around some more and found the website of the people who did this. It has tables and sample questions.

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/i ... 7/c7s2.htm



This rules out pranking. The oldest people answered incorrectly at a higher rate than the younger people, and the younger people are the ones most likely to answer wrong on purpose "for the lulz".

The wording of the key question was:

"Does the Earth go around the sun or does the sun go around the earth?"

Would there be parsing errors with this question? There might be. If it is multiple choice and you have to check the correct box, the nearly identical wording could make it possible to check the wrong box if you were careless. It is worth noting that 83% of Americans correctly answered that the continents have moved in the past and this movement continues. I find it implausible that more people would know about continental drift than know about earth going around the sun. It just doesn't add up. I stronly suspect that many of the wrong responders actually do know and it is an artifact of wording.

I'd be interested to see what the results would be if people were shown a picture of the sun going around the earth and a picture of the earth going around the sun and asked to pick the correct picture. I suspect that a lot more people would get it correct (nearly all, probably).

In another section of the website the researchers did give examples of how the responses to various questions changed when they tinkered with the wording.
bolding mine
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That is a pretty huge difference just based on wording. So maybe what they are uncovering is the way people process information rather than scientific literacy.

Last edited by Janissy on 05 Mar 2014, 6:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yep because in the Bible it says knowledge is evil and of the devil. Adam became conscious of his humanity when he took the apple from Eve and bit it. If Eve had any sense she would have just eaten it all herself hehe.

If "the public" funds the classroom, "the public" decides what may/may not be taught. If "the public" supports science, then "the public" will trust science to place appropriate content in the textbooks.

I don't think it's necessarily "science," whatever that means, that's the enemy, though. The problem I think religious people have is HOW the material is presented. "Based on evidence X, we believe Y" is not the same as "X=Y." When a teacher says, "X=Y and THEREFORE no God," the teacher has moved from a purely empirical position to a theological position. Or, more likely, "X=Y, therefore the Bible is WRONG." It's not up to "science" to decide that. What religious people are worried about is the tendency for some certain "bright people" to overreach beyond the arena of pure science into the religious arena. To say the Bible is wrong about X is different from saying "evidence shows X, therefore Biblical fact Y cannot be true in sense Z, therefore passage W must mean something else."

It looks like that survey was answered by a bunch of Tea Party Conservatives.

My avatar is Raven stealing the sun; it's one of the many myths of humanity stealing wisdom and knowledge from the god(s), very similar to the story of Prometheus. Eve is more along the lines of Pandora. A slightly different version is Anansi, who took knowledge from his friends and neighbors rather than from the god(s), and only shared it after a personal revelation. What the stories all share is that knowledge and wisdom are not the birthright of humans, but had to be actively taken and shared.

I can understand why they reach that conclusion and I have noticed the same only I don't attribute it to stealing or borrowing knowledge from gods.

Is that why the U.S. is in the top three for patents issued?

ruveyn

"The public" largely thinks that astrology is real science and that the government is concealing space aliens in Area 51. Do you want to take a vote about whether those should be taught in science and government classes, respectively?

You're right that it is not the place of a science teacher to say, 'there is no god,' or that 'the bible is wrong,' but it definitely isn't 'the public's' place to decide what is, or is not, appropriate for a science class.
http://controversy.wearscience.com

Last edited by LKL on 05 Mar 2014, 8:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I don't either - I just like the metaphor.

Your initial response does not reflect the complete quotation, but rather only the part of it pertaining to Muslims, which seems an insidious and dishonest way to attack Obama unfairly. The complete quote, in proper context, is a completely different string of syllables than what you initially implied.

Hilarious article. Here's another:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/robinedds/its-t ... he-us-stat

Unfortunately I can't FTA quote, as it's a very visual gag at our (British) expense. I actually cried laughing.

Lighten up everybody, stupidity is universal.

If ""the public" votes, pays taxes, and has kids in school then that makes them right, in a sense, even if they're dead wrong. I'll take the risk of "the public" in some places being wrong than to remove "the public" in general's voice on education.

I can't help but wonder where those 1 in 4 people that believe the sun orbits the earth live. I've visited several backward places in this country and even lived in one or two but I have yet to hear nonsense like that being spouted. Maybe I just haven't gone far enough back into the hills yet. We seem to be holding our own in science and technology in the world. We invent it and the rest of the world uses it so we dumb Americans must be doing something right.

We seem to be holding our own in science and technology in the world. We invent it and the rest of the world uses it so we dumb Americans must be doing something right.
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Ever stop to think how many of the things we "dumb Americans" are doing right," are being done by people who are first or second generation immigrants living in America who may or may not be US citizens? Or are significantly involved in the teamwork process that generally facilitates the things we "dumb Americans" are achieving?