YouGov's latest research shows that 41% of Americans think that dinosaurs and humans either 'definitely' (14%) or 'probably' (27%) once lived on the planet at the same time. 43% think that this is either 'definitely' (25%) or 'probably' (18%) not true while 16% aren't sure. In reality the earliest ancestors of humans have only been on the planet for 6 million years, while the last dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago.
There is a religious split on this question. While most Americans who describe themselves as 'born again' (56%) believe that humans and dinosaurs once shared the planet, most Americans who do not describe themselves as born again (51%) think that they did not. Only 22% of born again Americans think that dinosaurs and humans did not coexist.
Anybody surprised that religion plays a huge part in the American people's ignorance?
Leave it to Fundamentalists to think that the Flintstones is a documentary.
Lord have mercy on us all.
ReplyDeleteHow did we arrive as a nation at this point of abysmal arrogant ignorance and conscientious stoopidy?
dowl
Homeschooling.
Delete"In reality the earliest ancestors of humans have only been on the planet for 6 million years, while the last dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago."
ReplyDeleteGryphen, were you there?
You weren't there! Only Jeebus was there. And Adam and Eve. And Oog.
How can you write about something when you weren't there? Who writes about things when they weren't even there? I feel sorry for you. smh
Personally, I envy the people of olden times who played records with a pterodactyl's beak. While it was still attached to a living pterodactyl. How awesome is that!!
Beldar, is that you babe?
DeleteAnonymous?? Is that you???
DeleteHello, Beldar, if it is you! We have missed you!!
DeleteAs far as "were you there" in the real world:
I was taking an anatomy class, and one of the students kept insisting she believed that humans were created 6,000 years ago in their present form. ...and, well, "were you there?"
Finally fed up, (she did this EVERY session, and wasted so much of our time), the teacher said that yes, in fact, he was there.
She first dismissed this with an eye roll, but then when he calmly persisted got more and more upset, insisting that he couldn't possibly have been there.
He responded finally that come on, if SHE wasn't there, how did she know that HE wasn't there??
Much huffing and puffing on her part. The rest of the class just started laughing.
Beldar, if that's your real name, which I highly doubt, welcome back! Anonymous misses you when you're gone! Me Too, Also!
DeleteForget religion, I like the show 'Ancient Aliens', they had an episode called 'Aliens and Dinosaurs'. ;) Enjoyed watching that show.
ReplyDeleteLet me take a crack at this. Yes, I read this blog daily, I like a lot of what Gryph has to say. Yes, I am a born again Christian. I do not like the criticism on Christians because I think Gryph paints us with a very broad brush.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, these Christians that responded that dinosaurs and humans walked the earth together are nuts. Clearly scientific evidence exists that dinosaurs walked the earth millions of years ago. There is no such evidence that man is as old. Yes, I believe in science and I believe that Jesus is my Lord.
The bible, Genisis 1 indicates that God created the earth, animals, humans etc in 7 days. I believe that too. Now, how do I reconcile that. God does not operate or think as human beings. It doesn't say in the bible that this was done in 7 consecutive days. God may have created earth on one day and waited 20 million years in between to create animals. Then humans.
I take the bible literally but I also know that God has not made me a freaking idiot. If you don't believe in God it will be difficult for you to understand my argument. But essentially I'm saying Gods ways are not our ways. If you just assume that God exists, then you will see that what I'm saying makes sense.
In addition, I am a passionate, climate change believer. God told us to be stewards of the Earth. We are not to destroy it.
Now I will wait for all of you Intolerant people to bash me. I will Still read IM. I will still will enjoy Gryphens writing. In fact I love the stories of him being a dad and what he shares about his daughter and I think it would make a great book.
Disagreement does not equal intolerance. You frame the conflict quite well in this sentence: "If you just assume that God exists, then you will see that what I'm saying makes sense.". For those of us who do not believe that gods exist as their followers claim, there aren't a whole lot of options. What you say is comprehensible but we cannot accept your assumptions or conclusions. It's not personal.
DeleteYou sound like much too nice a person to bash. :) If you're going to be a Christian, I think you've chosen a great, open-minded way to follow your beliefs. Wish there were more like you.
DeleteI am always happy when a real Christian speaks up. Real Christians have been too polite and probably too busy being kind to others and feeding hungry children (as Jesus taught) to shout down the fake ones.
DeleteIf more of you speak out you can take back your religion from those with loud, hateful and ignorant voices that have been the only ones talking. You have let them go on for way too long.
Of course fundamentalists think Catholics aren't really Christians, but at my son's Catholic high school evolution is enthusiastically embraced by the science department and the philosophy courses encourage asking "why?"
DeleteI think it is quite funny when fundamentalists bash Catholics. With all due respect to the Catholic Church and its flaws, the Catholics have been the keepers of Christianity for a LONG time.
DeleteBefore the '80's, as I recall, the fundamentalists in this country were creepy cults that no one ever saw until the FBI had to come rescue the abused children.
How long is a God day?
DeleteSince when would God use the earth's 24 hour cycle as his day? He has all of the planets in all of the solar systems in all of the galaxies in all of the universes to choose how long his day is.
What kind of hubris demands that God shackle himself to anything related to just the earth?
If nothing else, this is useful information for people who can't past a perplexed state at how individuals like Santorum, Cruz, Jindal, Inhofe, Louis Gohmert, Ken Cuccinelli and so many others actually get political traction. It's also troubling substantiation that the Republican agenda of dumbing down America is coming along just fine.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so 41% of Americans are just stupid. Quite frankly, given who they vote for, what they watch on the magic television machine, and what organizations and corporations they support this is, sadly, not surprising.
ReplyDeleteGod help us all if we do not shout these people down.
I don't think a 5 point split is a "huge part" of the split. Also this survey requires self-identification which is always dicey. The easy takeaway here is that people or even certain people are just ignorant. But there is likely a more interesting issue. Why do people believe things that intellectually they know to be untrue? Why do we still talk about a chill causing colds when we know it's caused by virus? Why do people believe that the sugar in honey is better than the sugar in a bag when they are chemically identical? Is it mere cognitive dissonance or is there something more interesting at work?
DeleteBut humans ARE living with dinosaurs even to this very day! They're called Republicans.
ReplyDeleteActually, they're called birds.
DeleteThere are that many home schooolers amongst us?
ReplyDeleteThis is frightening.
I'm getting out of here very soon.
See ya!
The important question is: is this an indictment of Americans, or an indictment of Americans who respond to surveys.
ReplyDelete'Cause I for one have never even been asked.
Hmm, good point. Was the survey done by calling people with land lines?
DeleteAnd now we have Jurrasic World to confuse the dim-bulbs even more....
ReplyDeleteHumans + dinosaurs makes perfect sense. And the reason the dinosaurs became extinct is because all of the Republicans blasted them to hell with their shotguns and assault rifles!
ReplyDeleteI thought they all died in the coliseum in Rome? Along with the unicorns and saber toothed cats.
DeletePart of it is just that they have no idea what a dinosaur was. They think that mammoths and other large mammals were dinosaurs. More poor education.
ReplyDeleteWe do live alongside some dinosaur descendants: birds.
ReplyDeleteBut why do we think that dinosaurs didn't speak to each other? The fact is we don't know cuz we weren't there.
ReplyDeleteRead this!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/06/25/giant-earthquakes-are-shaking-greenland-and-scientists-just-figured-out-the-disturbing-reason-why/
Well, the power of Hanna Barberra cartoons, along with a tv series like "The Dinosaurs" (a family of speaking puppets with a baby that was smart as hell), had a lot of sway with kids who take everything they see as "truth". "Land of the Giants" etc etc were meant as entertainment. My aunt is a faux Christian Fundamentalist New Earth/ Left Behind novel reader, and there's no way to change her mind.
ReplyDeleteShe takes the story literally, God created man and all creatures (including Dinosaurs), and tasked Adam with naming them all. The bible says it, and I believe it. But what she "believes" is her interpretation. If the pastor recommends a book or books, it's got the seal of approval and is deemed true.
I gave up arguing, what's the point?
Well, since birds are the descendants of dinosaurs, I suppose we still do.
ReplyDelete