[meteorite-list] Family Claims MeteoriteFellInTheirCourtyardinIndia

[Chris Peterson]

I've read what I consider some credible analyses of these types of polls 
suggesting that they do not accurately reflect actual beliefs. This is 
in part because of the way questions are designed, and in part because 
in matters of dogmatic belief, people often answer pollsters in a manner 
consistent with what they think they _should_ believe, not necessarily 
what they _do_ believe. So I don't particularly trust the numbers in 
these polls, even though I do think the actual numbers are far higher 
than I'd like!

In any case, I did treat creationism in the U.S. and belief in 
homeopathy in Europe as examples where there was public acceptance of 
pseudoscience (and in the latter case, institutionally acceptance). I'm 
certainly not saying that any country in the world is fully enlightened 
scientifically (certainly not the U.S.), only that it is unrealistic to 
think that the public and institutional views of science are the same, 
or even close to the same, in all countries. They are not.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "batkol" <batkol at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Chris Peterson" <clp at alumni.caltech.edu>; 
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 6:16 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Family Claims 
MeteoriteFellInTheirCourtyardinIndia


> "Furthermore, even amongst the general public, there seems to
> be an understanding of what makes an expert credible, and unscientific
> beliefs are largely kept separate from scientific beliefs."
>
> where do you live?
>
> The Gallup Organizations periodically asks the American public about 
> their beliefs on evolution and creation. They have conducted a poll of 
> U.S. adults in 1982, 1991, 1993 and 1997. By keeping their wording 
> identical, each year's results are comparable to the others.
>
> Results for the 1991-NOV-21 to 24 poll were:
>
>      Belief system Creationist view Theistic evolution Naturalistic 
> Evolution
>      Group of adults God created man pretty much in his present form 
> at one time within the last 10,000 years. Man has developed over 
> millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided 
> this process, including man's creation. Man has developed over 
> millions of years from less advanced forms of life. God had no part in 
> this process.
>      Everyone 47% 40% 9%
>      Men 39% 45% 11.5%
>      Women 53% 36% 6.6%
>      College graduates 25% 54% 16.5%
>      No high school diploma 65% 23% 4.6%
>      Income over $50,000 29% 50% 17%
>      Income under $20,000 59% 28% 6.5%
>      Caucasians 46% 40% 9%
>      African-Americans 53% 41% 4%