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The Best Educated Idiots...
Believe in Magical Creation

Roughly one-third of Americans surveyed by a Michigan State University researcher say they do not believe in evolution. In fact, the only country in the world where the concept of evolution is greeted with more skepticism is Turkey, said Jon D. Miller, a professor of integrative studies.

“One in three American adults firmly rejects the concept of evolution, a significantly higher proportion than found in any western European country,” Miller said.

In Iceland, Denmark, Sweden in France, for example, 80 percent or more of the surveyed adult population accept the idea of evolution. In Japan, the percentage is 78 percent.

Miller said the most significant factor for the disparity was the strong influence of fundamentalist religions in the United States. Further, the issue of evolution is highly politicized in this country.

“In the United States, there are people who think it is a political advantage to discount evolution,” Miller said.

But most alarmingly, researchers say too many Americans are scientifically illiterate. For example, only one-third of Americans surveyed agree that more than half of human genes are identical to those of mice, and only 38 percent recognize that humans have more than half of their genes in common with chimpanzees.

In fact, humans and chimps share more than 99 percent of the same genetic material, according to a 2003 study out of Wayne State University in Detroit.

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