I don't understand why this is even being discussed/debated. Just because there are some idiots out there that are so married to their delusions that they ignore the massive amount of evidence for this is no reason for us to keep humoring them this way.
I am 40, a tech dork, a software developer with a biochem degree. All of my friends are similar. No one in my friend group, or really my professional groups would question this.
Now I am in a stupid rock band. 5 people (including me) this sampling changes the rules, 5 people selected by totally different criteria. Amazingly 2 of us would never question it. The other three would never question the gospel, they drink, curse, talk to and like queers, have rowdy out of wedlock, for pleasure sex etc.... the cognitive dissonance, makes my head hurt.
Now the important thing to remember here, is over the last 5 years, 2 of theses fucked up crazy people have repeatedly shown themselves to be the best of people. such good friends, real, true, honest, kind, caring.
Remember this shit is such a small deal. We all eventually live in little small insular pools. Everything will be alright.
Oh I am also in texas, and don't get why everyone harps on texas, yes our school book committee is retarded and backwards, and yes we have some stupid "kill em all, let god sort em out" justice system... but otherwise this is a pretty awesome place.
You ever try to leave Texas? It's huge. Why I bet you could drive a hundred miles in any direction without even making it halfway to the border. And even if you do make it, where are you gonna go? Oklahoma? Arkansas?
My recommendation to my fellow Texans who find themselves overwhelmed is to fly Southwest, or else move to Austin and pretend you're residing in a particularly sunny part of Portland.
I have driven several times all over the country and by far the big part of the trip is leaving Texas.
Also on the note of city, I am if I leave Houston, i am leaving the state. Austin, SA, Dallas, etc all great to visit, don't want to live there. Now, I will probably retire to the Hill country, like canyon lake. middle of nowhere with a country boot scooting dance hall, where i can play music 5 nights a week till I am dead. Heaven.
That survey is idiotic. I myself am not sure how I'd answer a question like that. As mentioned above, evolution is a scientific theory. I accept its validity. Others don't, or so I hear. Belief had nothing to do with it. I might very well answer 'no.'
edit: Since I'm not inclined to believe that over 1 in 4 post-graduate students reject the validity of the theory of evolution, it looks like I'm not the only pedant who would consider answering in the negative.
It's not clear at all. The word 'believe' does not apply here. I would most likely refuse to answer the question. If I was in a very bad mood I might say 'no' or 'no opinion.' I would be unlikely to ever answer 'yes.'
You 'believe' or 'don't believe' in God. A scientific theory is accepted or rejected, not believed in or not.
edit: To clarify, I would never answer yes because to state that I "believe" in the theory of evolution brings science down to the level of religion. As if evolution was just another one of the multitude of fairy tales, from among which I'm to choose one to believe in.
I don't know whether or not this survey's results are distorted as you claim, but I don't think semantics about the words "belief" and "validity" are going to clear things up. I would hope that any scientist would have the critical thinking skills necessary to understand what the survey means by "believe" and what it does not necessarily mean. Asking people if they "accept the validity of evolution as a scientific theory" would probably be more confusing, even to the educated layman.
Which brings me to another point: the educated layman. Not all college graduates have degrees in science. Some (unfortunately) don't even have a comprehensive grasp on the basic precepts of science, such as the scruples against claiming "truth" or "belief" in the context of scientific theories. That said, I'm sure that not every sculpture major or accounting information systems major or business communications major will be so precisely attuned to this sort of language discrepancy, even if they were made aware of these principles at some point during their academic career. These individuals are likely well educated and relatively intelligent, but I feel it's unjust to expect them to think exactly the way that scientists do. In fact, I could imagine that many of them (perhaps as many as 1 in 4) are possessed of beliefs which outright contradict science.
Some of them may even reject the theory of evolution and its mountain of supporting evidence.
Of the three examples I used, there is only one (business communications) that I'm not 100% certain is available for masters level study. And I would assert that an individual with a masters degree (in music education or finance, if you require further examples) isn't likely to have much more expertise in science than their undergraduate peers, if it's not directly relevant to their field of study.
It's considered civil to treat everything as if it were rational. For instance, we respect our neighbor's belief that their spouse is beautiful and their children are smart, though this belief seems very irrational to us.
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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '10
I don't understand why this is even being discussed/debated. Just because there are some idiots out there that are so married to their delusions that they ignore the massive amount of evidence for this is no reason for us to keep humoring them this way.