06-12-2007, 02:05 PM
I really dont want waste time getting sucked down into Jacks republican hate-fest, but Ill make some comments for the time being.
I am dissapointed in you Jack, I guess I just expected you to read something beyond the attention-whore headlines and pretty graphs, but it sounds like you were using this as an anti-republican springboard anyway. As RJ already mentioned, it doesnt take more than a glance at the actual data to see this isnt an issue limited to republicans.
In terms of the evolution issue itself, anyone paying attention to the issue knows that it is not a 2 (or 3) option issue like the Gallup polls try to portray. There are 5 clearly distinguishable schools of thought on it.
1. Atheistic evolution, in which the earth is 4.5 billion years old, man evolved over millions of years and God played no part in it.
2.Theistic evolution, in which the earth is 4.5 billion years old, man evolved over millions of years and God had a hand in it.
3. Intelligent Design, in which the earth is 4.5 billion years old, and the development of species over time are the results of the design of an intelligent agent, which may or may not be God.
4. Old Earth Creationism, in which the earth is 4.5 billion years old, and man was created fully formed by God within the last 50,000 years.
5. Young Earth Creationism, in which God created the universe, the earth, and man in one week 6,000 years ago.
the questions on the gallup poll are phrased in black and white such that theistic evolutionists and IDers will choose the young earth creationism option, and perhaps more importantly, the questions are phrased such that believing in creationism is directly tied to believing in God, such that pollees would be much more likely to respond to believing in God rather than the evolution issue. poll manipulation at its finest. no better way to paint republicans (and in a nice sly fashion christians) as neanderthals than bring up the who-gives-a-shit evolution non-issue and paint them into a corner with misleading questions. A full 25% of the respondents answered that they believe both is true! There isnt any better indicator of poor poll questions.
Not surprisingly, polls done by Pew Research which makes a point to dissasociate the evolution issue with believing in God, shows a much higher acceptance rate of evolution.
Gallup has come under heavy fire for years for biased polls, and this is no different.
personally Im somewhere between 2 and 3. (along with every other christian/republican that I have every talked with)
Here is an interesting quote from one of the worlds best known Athiests and world experts on Evolution, and author of Darwinian Evolution, Anthony Flew at a Scientific Symposium about a year ago
"What I think the DNA material has done is show that intelligence must have been involved in getting these extraordinarily diverse elements together. The enormous complexity by which the results were achieved look to me like the work of intelligence."
Flew told AP in an interview that his current ideas had some similarity with those of U.S. "intelligent design" theorists, who believe the complexity of life points to an intelligent source of life, rather than the random and natural processes posited by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
There have been plenty of other books and research published poking holes in the pure Darwinian so maybe Jack you can fill me in on the 'facts' ?
and save the cute pictures jack, while Im sure they get you all fired up they dont mean a damn thing. For every 1 picture of 'evil republicans' (who probably arent even republicans) you come up with, I can find 1000 '9/11 was an inside job' pictures.
And its interesting that you bring up homosexual marraige/military etc, as the liberal 'natural' view of homosexuality directly clashes with evolution. speaking of picking and choosing....
I am dissapointed in you Jack, I guess I just expected you to read something beyond the attention-whore headlines and pretty graphs, but it sounds like you were using this as an anti-republican springboard anyway. As RJ already mentioned, it doesnt take more than a glance at the actual data to see this isnt an issue limited to republicans.
In terms of the evolution issue itself, anyone paying attention to the issue knows that it is not a 2 (or 3) option issue like the Gallup polls try to portray. There are 5 clearly distinguishable schools of thought on it.
1. Atheistic evolution, in which the earth is 4.5 billion years old, man evolved over millions of years and God played no part in it.
2.Theistic evolution, in which the earth is 4.5 billion years old, man evolved over millions of years and God had a hand in it.
3. Intelligent Design, in which the earth is 4.5 billion years old, and the development of species over time are the results of the design of an intelligent agent, which may or may not be God.
4. Old Earth Creationism, in which the earth is 4.5 billion years old, and man was created fully formed by God within the last 50,000 years.
5. Young Earth Creationism, in which God created the universe, the earth, and man in one week 6,000 years ago.
the questions on the gallup poll are phrased in black and white such that theistic evolutionists and IDers will choose the young earth creationism option, and perhaps more importantly, the questions are phrased such that believing in creationism is directly tied to believing in God, such that pollees would be much more likely to respond to believing in God rather than the evolution issue. poll manipulation at its finest. no better way to paint republicans (and in a nice sly fashion christians) as neanderthals than bring up the who-gives-a-shit evolution non-issue and paint them into a corner with misleading questions. A full 25% of the respondents answered that they believe both is true! There isnt any better indicator of poor poll questions.
Not surprisingly, polls done by Pew Research which makes a point to dissasociate the evolution issue with believing in God, shows a much higher acceptance rate of evolution.
Gallup has come under heavy fire for years for biased polls, and this is no different.
personally Im somewhere between 2 and 3. (along with every other christian/republican that I have every talked with)
Here is an interesting quote from one of the worlds best known Athiests and world experts on Evolution, and author of Darwinian Evolution, Anthony Flew at a Scientific Symposium about a year ago
"What I think the DNA material has done is show that intelligence must have been involved in getting these extraordinarily diverse elements together. The enormous complexity by which the results were achieved look to me like the work of intelligence."
Flew told AP in an interview that his current ideas had some similarity with those of U.S. "intelligent design" theorists, who believe the complexity of life points to an intelligent source of life, rather than the random and natural processes posited by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
There have been plenty of other books and research published poking holes in the pure Darwinian so maybe Jack you can fill me in on the 'facts' ?
and save the cute pictures jack, while Im sure they get you all fired up they dont mean a damn thing. For every 1 picture of 'evil republicans' (who probably arent even republicans) you come up with, I can find 1000 '9/11 was an inside job' pictures.
And its interesting that you bring up homosexual marraige/military etc, as the liberal 'natural' view of homosexuality directly clashes with evolution. speaking of picking and choosing....