An interesting poll was conducted in the beginning of 2009 to see what America's average populace thinks about evolution. The results were surprising to me and very encouraging. The
report about the survey stated:
According to the poll, Democrats (82%) and liberals (86%) are even more likely than Republicans (73%) and conservatives (72%) to support the academic freedom of teachers and students to discuss the “strengths and weaknesses of evolution.”
The poll also shows a dramatic 9-point increase over 2006 in the percentage of likely voters who agree that “Biology teachers should teach Darwin’s theory of evolution, but also the scientific evidence against it.” Support for that position has jumped to 78%, up from 69% in 2006. The percentage of likely voters who favor teaching only the evidence for evolution suffered a corresponding decline of 7 points, from 21% in 2006 to just over 14% this year.
“Clearly, the Darwin-only crowd is losing public support,” said Dr. John West, Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute, “There seems to be a backlash against the strong-arm tactics that have been used in recent years to censor and intimidate scientists, teachers, and students who raise criticisms of Darwin.”
Here is how the Poll was conducted:
QUESTION: I am going to read you two statements about Biology teachers teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. Please tell me which statement comes closest to your own point of view—Statement A or Statement B?
Statement A: Biology teachers should teach only Darwin’s theory of evolution and the scientific evidence that supports it.
Statement B: Biology teachers should teach Darwin’s theory of evolution, but also the scientific evidence against it.
Statement A 14%
Statement B 78%Neither 5%
Other/Not sure 2%
So apparently Atheists, which represent about one percent (1%) of the population, has influenced 14% of the population to believe their religious dogma.
Which still is an accomplishment but understandable with the backing of the media and secular scientists influence. We need to gain that 14% back so the atheistic scientific elite do not "convert" the minds of our nation.
Some States are doing the right thing.
In the news, the Texas Board of Education chose science over dogma and adopted science standards improving on the old "strengths and weaknesses" language by requiring students to “critique” and examine “all sides of scientific evidence.” In addition, the Board—for the first time— specifically required high school students to “analyze and evaluate” the evidence for major evolutionary concepts such as common ancestry, natural selection, and mutations.
The new science standards mark a significant victory for scientists and educators in favor of teaching the scientific evidence for and against evolution.
All this in spite of the push, from Atheists, to declare that Intelligent Design is merely a religious doctrine. This claim is, of course, an absurd point. Even some of our founding Fathers did not believe what the Atheists are now claiming.
Jefferson did not believe that intelligent design was a religious doctrine.
In a
letter to John Adams on April 11, 1823, he declared: "I hold (without appeal to revelation) that when we take a view of the Universe, in its parts general or particular, it is impossible for the human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and indefinite power in every atom of its composition."
By insisting that his defense of intelligent design was made “without appeal to revelation,” Jefferson clearly was arguing that the idea had a basis other than religion. What was that basis? He went on to explain:
"The movements of the heavenly bodies, so exactly held in their course by the balance of centrifugal and centripetal forces, the structure of our earth itself, with its distribution of lands, waters and atmosphere, animal and vegetable bodies, examined in all their minutest particles, insects mere atoms of life, yet as perfectly organised as man or mammoth, the mineral substances, their generation and uses, it is impossible, I say, for the human mind not to believe that there is, in all this, design, cause and effect, up to an ultimate cause, a fabricator of all things from matter and motion, their preserver and regulator while permitted to exist in their present forms, and their regenerator into new and other forms."
In sum, Jefferson believed that empirical data from nature itself proved intelligent design by showing the natural world’s intricate organization from the level of plants and insects all the way up to the revolution of the planets. (
Evolution News)
UPDATE: Speaking of
Surveys apparently God is making a difference in the lives of the Hispanics. Hispanics are becoming more protestant, and believing that a person can earn their way to Heaven is also down. Glory to Christ.
There is some statistics that are relevant to recent discussion about kids and religion. The results in the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) were interesting and quite revealing. Apparently the comparison of past to present claims of religious status is changing America in a big way.
The less happier you are, the less God is in your life. Do you now see a void of hope in the lie of Atheism? Where is the justification for those Death Camps? So why don't you let those kids choose happiness/spirituality instead of indoctrinating them? Let them grow up and choose for themselves. What do you have against happiness?
