Americans more prone to supernatural nonsense

Americans are more likely to believe in supernatural bollocks than almost anyone else in any other Western country. That's the clear and unfortunate conclusion of research recently published in 'Science' magazine.

Surely proof if proof were needed that freedom is a greater indicator of prosperity than clear-headedness.

That's a graph on the right collating the results of surveying 32 European countries, the US and Japan which reveals "that only Turkey is less willing than the US to accept evolution as fact." You might view it as a 'sanity ranking.' Said the study's author of the US's position:

American Protestantism is more fundamentalist than anybody except perhaps the Islamic fundamentalists, which is why Turkey and we are so close.

The result is disturbing for those who value science and reason. Of reason and science and evolution, James Watson, co-discover of the secrets of DNA had this to say:

One of the greatest gifts science has brought to the world is continuing elimination of the supernatural, and it was a lesson that my father passed on to me, that knowledge liberates mankind from superstition. We can live our lives without the constant fear that we have offended this or that deity who must be placated by incantation or sacrifice, or that we are at the mercy of devils or the Fates. With increasing knowledge, the intellectual darkness that surrounds us is illuminated and we learn more of the beauty and wonder of the natural world.

Let us not beat about the bush — the common assumption that evolution through natural selection is a "theory" in the same way as string theory is a theory is wrong. Evolution is a law (with several components) that is as well substantiated as any other natural law, whether the law of gravity, the laws of motion or Avogadro's law. Evolution is a fact, disputed only by those who choose to ignore the evidence, put their common sense on hold and believe instead that unchanging knowledge and wisdom can be reached only by revelation.

Sadly, the number of people in the world's most prosperous country "who put their common sense on hold" is increasing rather than decreasing. Rationality is on the slide. Twenty years ago the percentage of people in the US who accepted the idea that the earth was created only six-thousand years ago and that Joshua made the earth stop turning for twelve hours were just 55 percent of the population.

But now the number of nutters who believe that what their imaginary friend said is superior to reason and evidence-based science has increased to sixty percent!

It's hard really to know who is the least sane. Those who believe in the supernatural, or those who follow the equally irrational postmodernism lampooned in yesterday's post. Science is under attack on both fronts.

In any case, my heart goes out to anyone with a brain living in Kansas. All I can offer you in recompense is this account of the crucial and highly entertaining cross-examination of William Jennings Bryan in the Scopes Monkey Trial, and a link to my own three-part series on Unintelligent Design.

LINKS: Public acceptance of evolution - Jon D. Miller et al, Science Magazine
Unintelligent Design, Part 1 - Not PC (Peter Cresswell)
Fighting evidence-based medicine with postmodernist bollocks - Not PC (Peter Cresswell)
Darrow vs. Bryan - website for Positive Atheism Magazine

RELATED: Science, Religion, Nonsense