On Thu, 04 Apr 2013 10:46:51 -0700, Marc Carter wrote:
What are we doing wrong? Nothing. But we're fighting
religiously-motivated
belief, and that's a fight not easily won.
I'll keep up the fight, but I'm not betting the farm on winning it soon...
Okay, but let me point out a puzzle:
Why does the percentage of people with antievolution/creationist beliefs
stay constant over the past 30 years while the number of people reporting
"no religious belief" has increased?
For changes in religious affiliation over time see:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/1690/religion.aspx
In the table below the figure, comparing 1982 vs 2012, we have
8% for no belief vs. 14%, respectively. The number of people who
say they have no belief has almost doubled. So, why has the number
of people espousing an anti-evolution/creationist view remained the same?
Have people with no religious belief started to adopt a "young earth
theory"?
If so, why? This makes no sense outside of a literal interpretation of
the Bible. Or, possibly, people without a specific religious belief have
accepted
such a belief uncritically.
-Mike Palij
New York University
[email protected]
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Palij [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2013 12:21 PM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Cc: Michael Palij
Subject: [tips] The Future Of Funding Biomedical Research Is Bleak...
But don't take my word for it, consider this editorial from the Journal
of the American Medical Association; see:
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleID=1675581&utm_source=S
ilverchair%20Information%20Systems&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=JAMA%3
AOnlineFirst04%2F04%2F2013
The article identifies four factors for why funding biomedical research
is in danger (there's no increase in funding this coming year and the
sequestration is cutting about 5.1% of current funding).
Of course, this will affect psychology in a variety of ways from
neuroscience research to research on psychopathology.
So, what's the teaching of psychology have to do with it?
Consider the first reason for the erosion of support for funding:
|First, there is increasing politicization of science in general.
|Despite the massive explanatory power of science and the ability of
|scientific discovery to create amazing inventions that have positively
|transformed many lives-from computers and cell phones to vaccines and
|robotic prosthetics-there is an increasing uncertainty in the United
|States about the value of science. Recent polls show that 46% of
|Americans believe that human beings were created "pretty much in their
|present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so."3 One
|researcher reported that while "public trust in science has not
|declined since the 1970s except among conservatives and those who
|frequently attend church," there has still been a significant
|"politicization" of science.4 Politicization of science means that
|federal funding of science is more contentious and can no longer be
|considered an area of bipartisan agreement.
Here is the report from Gallup on Americans with anti-evolution
beliefs:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/155003/hold-creationist-view-human-
origins.aspx
NOTE: the percentage of people who are anti-evolution has stayed more
or less the same for the past 30 years that this polling has been done.
Even 46% of college graduates are anti-evolution. What are we doing
wrong?
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