Creationism (Intelligent design) vs. Evolution

I saw this yesterday in my Observer newspaper -

On the seventh day, America went to court

I am a fan of the USA and there are some things they can do really well, technology is one thing that springs to mind, as well as some really good TV as well. But in recent years they are going down a road in terms of religion and science in particular that is worrying especially as the US is seen as a world leader in so many things. To me it seems like the puritan past is coming back with a vengeance.

It makes me laugh that there is such a debate between evolution and creationism. We in Europe settled this over 100 years ago when Darwin managed to convince us that evolution exists and has played a major part in how we are where we are now.

This thought that creationism should be taught as a science in schools is extremely damning of a country that was seen as a forerunner for so much science in the past. I actually pity anyone who studies in certain states where they are denouncing evolution; any science related studies you can imagine are going to be worthless to most of the outside world.

What is more scary is that there are creationist museums which show humans existing with dinosaurs. Like what is that, come on, that isn’t feasible in any shape or form, it is well known we wouldn’t have been around then. The movie 1 million years BC is a movie not reality. You do have to ask how intelligent the people pushing intelligent design are, seriously. It is almost a sketch from Bill Hicks about how un-evolved these folks are, how close together their brows are.

Here is some of the stats from the article, scary reading

The American world view

64 per cent of people questioned for a recent poll said they were open to the idea of teaching creationism in addition to evolution in schools, while 38 per cent favoured replacing evolution with creationism.
40 per cent of Americans believe God will eventually intervene in human affairs and bring about an end to life on Earth, according to a survey carried out in 2002. Of those believers, almost half thought this would occur in their lifetime with a return of Jesus from heaven.
1 adult American in five believes that the Sun revolves around Earth, according to one study carried out last summer.
80 per cent of Americans surveyed by the CNN TV news network believe that their government is hiding evidence of the existence of space aliens.
70 per cent believe it likely that Saddam Hussein was involved personally in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Looking at these you would seriously think 20% at least of Americans are seriously uneducated. We have proven the Earth goes around the sun, yet still there are people whom think that it is the other way around, next they will be saying the earth is flat. I do have wonder just of those 1 in 5 Americans who believe the sun revolves around the earth are from the south. Bad Stereotype maybe, but you are left wondering. And this is also a country that has nukes, mmm, not a good combination.

It makes for worrying thoughts, that such a country as the US can be like this, not a good thing at all.