1 in 4 Americans unaware that Earth circles Sun

By Hum
in Science News & Discussion

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

compl3x

Posted
Posted

 

No but many religious (and evolutionist) people think so "God created us immediately" idea.

 

 

If you accept evolution you wouldn't think "god created us immediately" (by "immediately" I assume you mean in our current form).

 

 

Nothing shocks me when it comes to America anymore.

 

Not particularly fair. Scientific literacy in my country, Australia, is pretty woeful, too. I think both countries suffer with a similar problem: an indifferent attitude towards science from the general public. I would think the only difference is that there are factions in the U.S. who actively try to oppose and undermine science while here in Australia there is just an apathy towards it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

macrosslover

Posted
Posted

You are aware that we lived a 1000 years without any progress right? That the moment we started to put Christianity to a secondary position when we started to thrive.

However, most early scientists where religious. Attempting to prove the word of god. Even today there's plenty of scientists that are religious. Einstein for example worked together with several. They can both go together. The basic story is practically the same "Once there was nothing, then moments later, there was everything.".. Evolution also does not disprove god.

 

 

Also, the world is flat!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_Society

I think it was more Europe that did not have any progress whereas Asia, more specifically China, and the Central/South American Indians did progress.  They also had organized religion, however their science and math was very advanced for the time.  You can't just say the one reason that Europe did not advance (Dark Ages and what not) was specifically because of Christianity.  There were many factors and I believe that even if Europe did not dominantly practice Christianity they would have still had something that hindered their progress during that time.

  • KingCracker and Anibal P
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

Nagisan

Posted
Posted

Why not, in medieval times the answer to every question was God.

I'm not sure I understand your statement....medieval times = those 1000 years that you talk about, which were heavily affected by Christianity (in a negative way). The belief as to whether or not God exists is not only a Christianity thing, I'm simply pointing out that it was caused by a specific religion, not the belief of whether or not a God exists (God used as an ambiguous term to label a being capable of creating life as we know it).

 

My statement wasn't directed as to refute your statement, but rather as to reinforce that it was religion, not belief of God (or lack thereof), that led to the dark ages.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Experienced

HellboundIRL

Posted
Posted

Yeah blame the churches lol. Its always the churches fault but yet the study makes no mention of the peoples religious background.  Its funny though that Europe was the hot bed for Christianity for 100's of years and is responsible for bringing it to the new world and now europe denounces it. Blame yourselves.. 

 

If a church tells someone to disregard what science tells them and instead look to an ancient book for answers then I do think they're at fault and they've a large part to play in the US which is mostly a Christian country. I don't think it's the only reason but it's still a major one.

 

I visited a natural history museum in Oklahoma city a few years back and couldn't believe the amount of notes posted in the feedback section by kids telling the museum that they were liars and to stop telling people that the world was billions of years old, if they refuse to accept basic science then it leads to results shown in this survey. I'll only blame the people who should know better today, no point going back hundreds of years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

adrynalyne

Posted
Posted

^ Funny how 'science' pushes the idea that Earth is billions of years old, yet Humans couldn't have been here for millions of years. ;)

Right up there with people who can't seem to get a non-blurry shot of UFOs or Bigfoot.

 

At any rate, humans as we know them today have not been here for millions of years.

Meh. I doubt I've met a single person in my entire life who doesn't know the Earth orbits the sun. The conclusion from that 2200 person study is ridiculous.

I don't know anyone who doesn't know this either.  That includes children.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

adrynalyne

Posted
Posted

Nothing shocks me when it comes to America anymore.

Nothing surprises me when it comes to what other people not in the US will say about America anymore.  No, they won't bother doing further investigations, but instead will believe any media no matter how respectable (or not) it is.  Or in this case, think a survey of 2,200 people accurately describes 1 in 4 Americans.  If its bad news and includes the US, it must be true.

 

Seriously.  These surveys mean little because the people who are willing to take these surveys aren't exactly the smartest tools in the shed.  Nobody I know thinks what this survey claims, and nobody I know would waste their time on a stupid survey like this either.

  • Sly006, +Raze and The Evil Overlord
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

Tomoko

Posted
Posted

How do 2,200 participants in a survey = 1 in 4 of all Americans?

Most of these "surveys" are nonsense. They cherry pick people to get the results they want and there are never enough participants for it to mean anything.

  • The Evil Overlord
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

adrynalyne

Posted
Posted

Most of these "surveys" are nonsense. They cherry pick people to get the results they want and there are never enough participants for it to mean anything.

I agree.  Really, the people who are willing to waste their times on a survey this silly are probably not the brightest lights out there.

  • The Evil Overlord and timster
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Community Regular

AMPSV

Posted
Posted

I thought the earth was the center if the universe and everything circles around it?? Not to mention the earth is also flat!!!

LOL What century did you come from the 11th  LOL  :rofl:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

The Evil Overlord

Posted
Posted

Nothing surprises me when it comes to what other people not in the US will say about America anymore.  No, they won't bother doing further investigations, but instead will believe any media no matter how respectable (or not) it is.  Or in this case, think a survey of 2,200 people accurately describes 1 in 4 Americans.  If its bad news and includes the US, it must be true.

 

Seriously.  These surveys mean little because the people who are willing to take these surveys aren't exactly the smartest tools in the shed.  Nobody I know thinks what this survey claims, and nobody I know would waste their time on a stupid survey like this either.

That's probably the most likely,

No one other than those 2200 were stupid enough to take that survey, and regrettably, the stupidest amongst us (I mean globally) are the ones who usually shout the loudest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Veteran

link6155

Posted
Posted

I don't think this study is very accurate at all. I have not met a single person that doesn't know that the earth orbits the sun (not circles).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mentor

Clirion

Posted
Posted

I'm not sure I understand your statement....medieval times = those 1000 years that you talk about, which were heavily affected by Christianity (in a negative way). The belief as to whether or not God exists is not only a Christianity thing, I'm simply pointing out that it was caused by a specific religion, not the belief of whether or not a God exists (God used as an ambiguous term to label a being capable of creating life as we know it).

 

My statement wasn't directed as to refute your statement, but rather as to reinforce that it was religion, not belief of God (or lack thereof), that led to the dark ages.

 

I think you are discounting the Black Death and the Viking invasions a little to much if you say that the reason there was no progress is because of the Catholic Church.

You lost 1/3 of the population of Europe in that time frame.  On top of the Viking invasions, you had other incursions from the East, and from Middle East/Africa. 

The Catholic church is what a lot of the books and knowledge of the time and before that is still around.  It had a much more educated population than the rest of society. 

 

 

The truth is it is much more complex that...... Its the Churches Fault.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

+jamesyfx Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted

It's common knowledge that the earth orbits the sun.. you can't avoid this information.

 

Every now and again something wants to poke fun at Americans about their seeming lack of common knowledge. :p

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

+JHBrown Subscriber¹

Posted
  • Subscriber¹
Posted

I must admit I never learned this information until an Astronomy class in my first year of college almost two decades ago. Could be that during my Junior High and High School years, I was into girls and sports.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

Nagisan

Posted
Posted

I must admit I never learned this information until an Astronomy class in my first year of college almost two decades ago. Could be that during my Junior High and High School years, I was into girls and sports.

You must not have paid much attention in schools earlier than Junior High/High then.....my nephews (neither of which have even made it to Junior High yet) know the Earth revolves around the Sun. It's something that I honestly cannot remember a time that I didn't personally know it to be true. It's taught in Elementary schools and is so commonly mentioned in the years after that, that it would be almost impossible to not know it unless you went to some really crummy K-12 schools.

  • The Evil Overlord
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing