46% of Americans believe human beings were created in the past 10,000 years.

[totalnoob]

Given that a new poll was released last week showing that 46% of Americans believe humans were created in their present form within the past 10,000 years, I figured it would be a good idea to compile a quality list of educational resources on evolution for those interested in learning the subject.

Spread these around, and let me know if I missed any good ones.

Frequently asked questions about evolution: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/faq/index.html
Evolution: Fact and Theory: http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/lenski.html
Evolution is a scientific fact: http://www.nationalacademies.org/evolution/TheoryOrFact.html
Understanding Evolution: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/
Evolution 101: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evo_01
More lines of evidence: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/lines_01
Hominid Transitional Skulls: http://i50.tinypic.com/zwaxbp.jpg
Another view: http://i48.tinypic.com/16jlb48.jpg
Human Evolution: http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence
Evolution teaching resources: http://www.evoled.org/Lessons/evidence.htm
More teaching resources: http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/evol.fs.html
15 evolutionary gems: http://www.nature.com/nature/newspdf/evolutiongems.pdf
8 examples of evolution in action: http://listverse.com/2011/11/19/8-examples-of-evolution-in-action/
Partial list of transitional forms: http://www.transitionalfossils.com/
TalkOrigins FAQ: http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/faqs.html
Evidence for Macroevolution: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/
Scientific Evidence Against a Young Earth: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Evidence_against_a_recent_creation
The Tree of Life project: http://tolweb.org/tree/home.pages/abouttol.html
Evidence of Common Descent: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence_of_common_descent
Many amazing evolution documentaries: http://www.youtube.com/user/EvolutionDocumentary
More good videos on evolution: http://introducedrat.com/evolution.htm#EVIDENCE FOR COSMOLOGICAL AND BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION:

 

[JJChicken]

Great idea

 

[HAL9000]

Given that a new poll was released last week showing that 46% of Americans believe human beings were created in their present form within the past 10,000 years.

No fucking way, people can't be that retarded.

In the Uk it's 12% which I still think is high.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/feb/01/evolution-darwin-survey-creationism

 

[DrPizza]

No fucking way, people can't be that retarded.

In the Uk it's 12% which I still think is high.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/feb/01/evolution-darwin-survey-creationism

Yes, Americans can be that retarded. I was recently at an honors ceremony, where one person was recognized for remaining faithful to his faith, despite overwhelming numbers of people challenging him with evidence that disputed what he believed in.

 

[HAL9000]

Yes, Americans can be that retarded. I was recently at an honors ceremony, where one person was recognized for remaining faithful to his faith, despite overwhelming numbers of people challenging him with evidence that disputed what he believed in.

Wow... Insanity

 

[DrPizza]

What killed me is that the ceremony was for something different - people had been nominated for a sort of teacher of the year award from many different school districts. When they read an excerpt of that teacher's nomination, they treated that as if it was a positive thing. I don't find it to be a positive quality when you refuse to reconsider what you believe faced with staggering evidence to the contrary.

I don't mind that people believe that the Earth is 6000 years old. What I do mind is steadfast refusal to even consider any evidence that points to them being wrong. Staggering amounts of evidence - especially when there's no evidence they are correct.

 

[mk]

It's not just creationism. Vast numbers of people still believe in magic, karma, astrology, homeopathy, ghosts/spirits/communicating with the dead etc. Even educated, secular people.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

In other news... Violence in the middle east. More at 11.

 

[LookBehindYou]

46%. That's pretty depressing to think that so many people believe that.

 

[HAL9000]

What killed me is that the ceremony was for something different - people had been nominated for a sort of teacher of the year award from many different school districts. When they read an excerpt of that teacher's nomination, they treated that as if it was a positive thing. I don't find it to be a positive quality when you refuse to reconsider what you believe faced with staggering evidence to the contrary.

I don't mind that people believe that the Earth is 6000 years old. What I do mind is steadfast refusal to even consider any evidence that points to them being wrong. Staggering amounts of evidence - especially when there's no evidence they are correct.

I completely agree, if there was strong evidence countering something I believe strongly in, I may not disregard what I believe straight away, but I'd consider it and reason what I believe against it.

 

[slayer202]

cool, nice list. hopefully the people who need to read it, do

 

[ichy]

Except that a lack of facts isn't the problem with creationists. The evidence is already out there for everyone to see. People have made a choice to be ignorant and will choose to ignore anything that conflicts with their worldview.

 

[Texashiker]

cool, nice list. hopefully the people who need to read it, do

It will not do any good for the religious zealots to read the list. They are blinded by their faith.

People have made a choice to be ignorant and will choose to ignore anything that conflicts with their worldview.

I think you are wrong.

Religious zealots do not ignore the evidence, they consider the evidence lies from satan, and therefor discard any scientific facts they are presented.

 

[WelshBloke]

No fucking way, people can't be that retarded.

In the Uk it's 12% which I still think is high.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/feb/01/evolution-darwin-survey-creationism

That Guardian article is pretty depressing. 22% believe in god based bollocks over scientific theories to explain a scientific process.

Also that poll in the OP must be wrong... please...

 

[ShawnD1]

It's not just creationism. Vast numbers of people still believe in magic, karma, astrology, homeopathy, ghosts/spirits/communicating with the dead etc. Even educated, secular people.

A lot of people simply don't know what homeopathy is. My mom thinks it has something to do with being natural, sort of like how aspirin and cocaine are both chemicals found in plants. James Randi said in one of his speeches that he explained homeopathy to some health organization and they didn't believe him. Other people had to verify that his retarded explanation really is an accurate explanation of homeopathy.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

That Guardian article is pretty depressing. 22% believe in god based bollocks over scientific theories to explain a scientific process.

Also that poll in the OP must be wrong... please...

Well, only 12,000 people. They could have hit a particularity inbred section of the country.

 

[SlitheryDee]

It's not just creationism. Vast numbers of people still believe in magic, karma, astrology, homeopathy, ghosts/spirits/communicating with the dead etc. Even educated, secular people.

Yeah. Good resources for debunking those kinds of magical thinking are R.A. Heinlein's "Expanding Universe" and Carl Sagan's "Demon Haunted World". Heinlein touches on a lot of other stuff in his book, but I think he has the better mix of logic and derision to really drive his point home.

 

[SlitheryDee]

??

That Guardian article is pretty depressing. 22% believe in god based bollocks over scientific theories to explain a scientific process.

Also that poll in the OP must be wrong... please...

I believe it is quite true, but I've noticed over the years of hearing about such polls that the number seems to be shrinking. I recall a time when it was over 60 percent. Also, I think some 16 percent of Americans now identify themselves as non-religious. I find this to be encouraging news all things considered.

I also think that churches here in the south are aware of this trend. They've kind of doubled down in the fervency with which they indoctrinate children. Teen aged kids seem to have church activities nearly every day of the week now. I attended a service where they were playing videos of Penn Jillette of all people and advising the congregation on ways to combat his arguments against religion. I think America as a whole will very soon be nearly as non religious as the rest of the developed world, but the religious who are left will be of the most rabid and despicable type due to current church efforts.

 

[WelshBloke]

A lot of people simply don't know what homeopathy is. My mom thinks it has something to do with being natural, sort of like how aspirin and cocaine are both chemicals found in plants. James Randi said in one of his speeches that he explained homeopathy to some health organization and they didn't believe him. Other people had to verify that his retarded explanation really is an accurate explanation of homeopathy.

Yeah, homeopathy is awesomely weird if you actually look into the way it works (... works not being a strictly accurate word here, but you know what I mean).
The bit I like is that the water has 'memory ' of the reagents that have been dissolved in it, but as tap water has been around the block a bit it should have an awesome 'memory ' of just about everything already.

 

[destrekor]

But... but... the devil and/or God put all that false information out there just to weed out the sinners from those of us who believe in God's Word and all of his creation! It's all a test! Because God loves us so!

 

[SlitheryDee]

Wow. With all the posts the Korean education thread got, I would expect this one to get more attention.


In other words, bump.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

The OP should be a script that runs every time someone posts a thread/post that tries to argue against evolution. If someone reads through that and still has something to say in argument to evolution, it may actually be thought-provoking. If it's another moron using the phrase "just a theory" with no sense of irony, we don't need it.

 

[totalnoob]

The OP should be a script that runs every time someone posts a thread/post that tries to argue against evolution. If someone reads through that and still has something to say in argument to evolution, it may actually be thought-provoking. If it's another moron using the phrase "just a theory" with no sense of irony, we don't need it.

Please, someone do this..

 

[lxskllr]

I also think that churches here in the south are aware of this trend. They've kind of doubled down in the fervency with which they indoctrinate children. Teen aged kids seem to have church activities nearly every day of the week now.

I've noticed that too. Some of the local churches have more "fun stuff" going on on weekends. They try to trick people into thinking they're going somewhere to have fun, and then try to indoctrinate them once they get there. Dishonest cults...

 

[frostedflakes]

Except that a lack of facts isn't the problem with creationists. The evidence is already out there for everyone to see. People have made a choice to be ignorant and will choose to ignore anything that conflicts with their worldview.

The problem I think is a lot of religious people don't realize that you can believe in both evolution and a god/creator. They think they have to reject their religion to believe in evolution when that isn't the case.

And what's more disappointing to me is how little polling on that question has changed since 1982 when Gallup started asking about it. It would at least be encouraging if 46% believed we were created in the last 10,000 years, but that number was down from 60% or something like that 30 years ago.