Americans and ignorance of science

[Hokie]

How many Americans do not know how long it takes the earth to make one revolution around the sun?

If you guessed 50% you would be right. An even more disturbing result is the 25% believe the sun revolves around the earth.

http://tinyurl.com/b3nlw

[Canuckistanian]

1. It's just a "theory" after all

Everyone knows that the universe revolves around the United States.

I think the epicenter is somewhere in Texas.

[tatertop]

2. isn't that just crazy

[IndianaGreen]

3. The Bible says that the Sun revolves around the Earth!

Do you doubt the word of GAWD?

:toast:

[FormerDittoHead]

4. Republicans have managed to send 25% back to the 14th century...!

Next step: FEUDALISM

[Igel]

6. But if this is serious

(and I'm still hopeful that it isn't) ...

Americans outdid the Europeans this time. Not by much. But it looks like a valid statement.

You know, I've read really strange--lic. 'scientifically illiterate or naive'--articles in various non-US publications over the years. I've always wanted to think there was some marketing ploy. Now I realize it's just that their reporters are closer to their reading public.

[ladjf]

5. I'm hoping that this is a joke.

[Odin2005]

7. Talking about ignorance of science...

This poster doesn't even know what a microbe or a mutation is, and thinks Avian flu is cause by GM crops.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2147347&mesg_id=2147684

:wow:

[depakid]

9. LOL

Yep- and misery must love company, for you weren't alone among the unwashed....:evilgrin:

[Codeine]

10. But....but....but....

We don't even know what *causes* bird flu!! :eyes: :crazy:

Big Pharma causes bird flu, that's the new meme, baby.

[DrGonzoLives]

11. I thought Bush created bird flu

when he was developing AIDS in the 1970's to decimate the black population. He gets around, you know.

[Meldread]

8. It isn't all bad! Oh, thank god...

I encourage everyone to read it. Just after reading the first paragraph posted here my heart sank and my stomach started doing back flips. The first thought to my mind was, "Damn it, we're doomed."

However, it isn't all bad. It isn't stupidity, it's ignorance! Here read a bit more:

---
"...And (Americans) believe that being a scientist is the country's most prestigious occupation.

These facts - gleaned from public opinion surveys conducted around the world - are simultaneously reassuring and disturbing to American scientists. On one hand, U.S. citizens strongly support government funding of science, including basic research. On the other, the ignorance of the majority of Americans (and, in some cases, the majority) fuels opposition to some scientific endeavors now and raises warning flags about the future.

The good news for American scientists is that U.S. citizens overwhelmingly believe that science is a good thing and is more likely to make life better than to make it worse. Not only do more Americans than Europeans say they are interested in science and technology (90 percent vs 45 percent, according to Michel Claessens of the European Commission's research directorate), Americans prove their interest by visiting libraries, zoos and museums of science and technology more often than Europeans do."
---

So, there is hope, at least. There needs to be some real money dumped into public education on science and technology. Pronto. A full scale effort to educate the public.

Geeze. I can't believe this many people are ignorant. I mean, I knew some were, but this many? And not just in America? Oh, Lord...

[Nikia]

15. For being so prestigous, science is not paid well

Some top PHD scientists at top companies make a lot of money, but PHDs at universities are middle class. Scientists with only Bachelor's degrees don't make much at all. I have seen job postings for lab work people with a 4 year science degree paying $9-$10/hour.

[Meldread]

16. There is a crisis of ignorance in not only America, but the entire world.

I was shocked to read that Europeans are more likely to be less accepting of Technology and Science. I thought it would be completely the other way around. It is encouraging to know that the American people at least WANT to know more, it means they hunger for understanding but just lack methods of getting the information they crave.

I think, ultimately, the scientific community must accept at least part of the blame. It is their job to educate the people, you really can't blame the government because they are just as ignorant. The first step should obviously be to educate our elected leaders, and then have them push for legislation that will allow better education of the American people. Other countries should take similar steps.

Of course, battles need to be fought to educate children, but there is a crisis of adult ignorance at the moment which is even more troubling. Children don't have the power to vote.

Frankly, there needs to be a full scale, heavily funded mass education program - because the technological revolution that will hit us with Nanotechnology within the next few decades... it's going to change everything. It's going to make our "modern world" look like the Stone Age in comparison. It is going to frighten the public more than anything, not to mention all the possible dangers that lurk with the possibility of Nanoweapons... People naturally fear what they don't understand, and if they don't understand the coming revolution they are going to rebel against it.

[Odin2005]

17. Reminds me of an HP Lovecraft quote.

"We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."

Technophobia, chemophobia, nucleophobia, it's all nuts.

[Meldread]

18. I agree.

Soon, very soon, within our lifetimes soon, Science will bring us the ability to have unprecedented prosperity on this planet. The powers that will be placed into our hands will require immense responsibility that the Human race may not be able to handle.

We are standing at a fork in the road of Humanity. Down one road leads unprecedented peace and prosperity. Down the other leads unparalleled ruin and ultimate destruction. Only if Humanity is able to cast off it's ignorance will there be any hope.

The things that will be possible... they boggle the mind. The imagination and the laws of nature will be the only limits that we find placed upon us. There will be no aspect of our lives that will remain unaltered.

I am personally both afraid and hopeful. I am hopeful because I see all of the good that can be done, so many of the ills that have plagued this world since life first evolved can be eliminated. So much of the unnecessary suffering of Humankind can be alleviated. Yet I am also afraid, because there are Humans who will use the knowledge to destroy the world and cast us all into an age so unimaginably dark. There are so many things that need to be done to prepare Humanity, and yet most Humans are ignorant of what is coming. Ignorance may be our downfall. Even if we master the Technology and the Science if Humanity isn't ready then it will be all for nothing.

[Avalux]

12. They love it - but

A great many Americans have no critical thinking skills and don't have the capacity to understand science. It's not that they don't want to, they just can't. In my line of work, I talk about bacteria, viruses, cells, etc. If a person doesn't have the basic working knowledge of what these things are - any discussion about avian flu, emergent bacterial infections, immune system function, anti-infectives.....can't be comprehended.

[sutz12]

13. The problem is exacerbated....

by those who think Creationism or ID is science.

[Odin2005]

14. And this is related from another problem.

Schools are so scared of looking biased that students get the idea that all opinions are equally valid, hence the "teach the contraversy" BS by creationists used to scare school districts and implanting the ideal in peoples heads that there is a contrversy where none exists.