There Goes My High Horse

I was in the midst of a post in which I lamented the state of scientific understanding in our nation when this Gallup poll reports that “Only about a third of Americans believe that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is a scientific theory that has been well supported by the evidence” and more facts like it. In the wake of the election, I of course equated the bulk of the other two thirds with all the “values voters” who kept Bush in office.

Then I read this CBS News article that reports that more that half of Kerry voters would like both creationism and evolution taught in schools, and almost a quarter of Kerry voters would like creationism taught instead of evolution.

Granted, the numbers for Bush supporters are higher, but WTF? Almost one in four Kerry supporters thinks that creationism should be taught instead of evolution. This is really more dispiriting than the loss in the Presidential election.

Dan Gillmor posts on the same topic in Why the U.S. Will Become a Second-Rate Power. I think that title is a bit of hyperbole, but this probably is a cause for concern.

I’d love to see similar poll results from other industrialized countries.