I saw an article the other day saying that 45 percent of the U.S. population believes that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. That would certainly explain the election results of the past few years, but I don’t believe it. A near majority of Americans simply cannot be that retarded. I looked on the Web and did find a claim that a 2004 study showed this. But it provided no cite and I haven’t been able to find any such study. Does it exist, or is this just an urban myth being passed witlessly around by the lower grade of media? (Don’t use my name if you publish this, as it could affect my military contracts.) –Anonymous, via e-mail
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Before you start excoriating the numbskulls, bub, you’d better make sure you’ve got the facts straight yourself. Though some percentage of Americans doubtless believes in a “young earth” (i.e., that our planet is less than 10,000 years old), as far as I can tell that wasn’t the subject of the 2004 study. Most likely what you heard about was a 2004 Gallup poll that asked about the less bizarre though still pretty out-there belief that humanity is less than 10,000 years old. Gallup first surveyed U.S. adults on this score in 1982 and has asked the same question several times since, most recently in May 2006. Participants can choose one of three answers:
a”Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process.” I’ll term this the naturalist view.
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