Saturday, July 31, 2010

 

A Matter of Opinion?

According to statistics reported to me by some of my friends, nearly half of the American people do not believe in the idea that present species, including homo sapiens, evolved from previous species through random mutation and natural selection. That is, they reject Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Biologists and breeders of animals have seen so much evidence in favor of Darwin's explanation that they no longer regard it as a theory. It exists. Living forms mutate. One can select living things, plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, etc., and select mutated forms and grow them. In that way we humans have created a great variety of plants and animals for food, show, and other purposes, some useful and some not. The Great Dane and the Chihuahua have evolved with human help from the wolf. Percherons, Clydesdales, Arabians, and other breeds of horse have similarly evolved from the wild horses of Asia.

In spite of this evidence, almost a majority of Americans do not accept Darwin's theory. A majority of church-going Americans reject Darwin. In contrast, people in other advanced countries accept the Darwin concept of evolution, including the idea that humans evolved from other smaller-brained creatures and that we humans are genetically related to the great apes. In fact, among our closest genetic relatives are the chimpanzees of Africa.

Since many Americans have an unscientific belief regarding the origin of species it should be no surprise that many Americans have unfounded and unprovable beliefs about politics and policy. An example is the persistent belief that President Obama is a Muslim Socialist and was born in Kenya. Another is the belief that government in general and the President in particular is powerful enough to bring an end to this recession without spending any money and that the reason he isn't ending the recession is that he has some evil socialist plot.

You see my point. The public is mistaken and has strange superstitions.

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