Did someone bring up religion again? Oy.
The CNN poll data seems consistent with other reports:
In his book, How We Believe, Michael Shermer reports that, "about 45
percent of Americans reject evolution and accept a strictly literal
interpretation of the Bible creation story...[while] only 7 percent
do in Great Britain and even less in Germany, Norway, Russia, and the
Netherlands" (p.73).
In The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan writes (p.325) that, "Only 9
percent of Americans accept the central finding of modern biology
that human beings (and all other species) have slowly evolved by
natural processes from a succession of more ancient beings with no
divine intervention.... (When asked merely if they accept evolution,
45 percent of Americans say yes. The figure is 70 percent in China.)"
Both authors rely on Newspaper sources for their data on this matter, however.
Do any of you know of more valid sources for data on this material?
If so, please pass along a reference or two. Thanks.
--> Mike O.
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Michael S. Ofsowitz
University of Maryland - European Division
http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~mofsowit
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