I just double checked it and found rather credible sources, this being one of them: Why doesn't America believe in evolution? - being-human - 19 August 2006 - New Scientist

It has to be said that Austria ain't doing all too well either

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Yall are too close to Bavaria. Damn those Bavarians!!! When you greet someone with Grüß Gott, you know you're in a crazy place.

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I checked this story out on National Geographic, which is a credible source:

Evolution Less Accepted in U.S. Than Other Western Countries, Study Finds

So it seems 40% believe in evolution, 40% do not and 20% are not sure. Oh well, pretty pathetic, but the US is more religious than Western European countries.

All of the evolution posts will be moved to a new thread as they are off-topic.

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Just because the meaning of Grüß Gott is "God bless you"? See we say it more often than your President


To the thread topic: I am shocked to see how Austria scored in that survey.

Sorry for the offtopic post on the other thread.

You say that the US is "more religious" than Western Europe. From the feeling I get this is true, but statistics tell a different story actually. If you noticed on that figure about evolution, Italy ranks pretty much in the top third while according to Wikipedia (Religions by country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) the amount of atheists in the US is actually higher than in Italy, and the amount of Christians is pretty similar (Italian figures range from 70 to 90% while the US figure is 78%). Ireland has even fewer atheists - I didn't bother to compare the other countries, but I guess you get the idea.

In any case, considering Italy and its "affiliation" with the Vatican, I'd say Italy is a pretty religious country yet public oppinion of evolution is high. I know what the bible, specially the old testament, and other religious books say about the creation of the world but personally, eventhough I'm a Christian, I don't find evolution and religion to be contradticting.

Maybe European attitude towards religion is more pragmatic than that of people in the US, maybe the "God bless America" after every speech by a politican is getting to some people's head, I don't know. But from the numbers I showed you it could well be that religion per se is not necessarily the cause for it.

EDIT: According to this source (http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/a..._report_en.pdf), 95% of people on Malta confirm their belief in God, and yet Malta is far ahead of the US in the evolution statistic.

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I don't know, I'm skeptical about that data. I have a feeling that you have a lot of people saying they are Christian, but they are really non-practicing Christians, and thus are really atheists. Look at the number of Christians vs atheists for France:

30% - 83.3% Christian
4% Atheist

Meanwhile in the US, they say:

78% Christian
15% Atheist

So I believe France (the birthplace of existentialism, to my knowledge) is more atheist than the US and possibly more atheist than Germany (25%) atheist.

I think that the real reason you have this gulf between the US and Europe is that we have so many evangelicals, those are really hardcore Christians, they're like zealots in a way. I suspect that in Europe, you just have more atheism, with people putting on a piece of paper that they are Christian, but the last time they went to a church was like 5 years ago. Just a hunch.


WEB

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My parents are Roman Catholic go to church on the weekend and would surely deny to be atheists. While their believe is not dogmatic its in my very impression very typical for the believe of many Roman catholics who are still defining themselves as religious. My parents would not say that evolution is wrong.

I think many religious people here believe in theistic evolution. Thats a concept that creationists hate and fear like the devil, as it makes the religious believe and the scientific knowledge competible with each other. As far as I know also many church officials believe in that concept, at least the progressive ones do. I sincerely hope they are not atheist.

There exists something between atheism and Christian evangelic fundamentalism. The majority of the religious catholic Christians in Europe for example I would dare to claim. Being no fundamentalist does not mean that you have to be a fake Christian.

Actually, the first article I posted talks about possible reason of the phenomenon. Sucks when you the guy posting the article himself only takes a look at the statistical stuff

-"Ironically, the separation of church and state laid down in the US constitution contributes to the tension. In Catholic schools, both evolution and the strict biblical version of human beginnings can be taught. A court ban on teaching creationism in public schools, however, means pupils can only be taught evolution, which angers fundamentalists, and triggers local battles over evolution.

These battles can take place because the US lacks a national curriculum of the sort common in European countries."-

I'm not sure about what "national curriculum" they are talking there - I guess they mean the biology classes, which is where I learned about evolution. We have religious classes as a part of the national curriculum (however, it's not mandatory. You are sort of subscribed to them in the beginning but can opt out at an time without any reason) - I remember these classes as being very open for discussions and critical thoughts on all sorts of stuff, but yet we never even touched the topic of creationism.

To trace it back to different approaches to education does seem reasonable to me.

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Evolution is just a theory. Who does a majority of people need to believe in a theory?

Here in Louisiana they have stopped teaching evolution in schools. And rightfully so. It is not a law, so it needs to quit being taught as one.

Simple as that.

Just b/c 40% dont believe in it doesnt mean they are some alien bred swine.

Evolution is a theory, nothing more.

Evolution is a fact. How and why it occurs is a theory. We are as sure of evolution as we are of gravity.

To not teach it in schools is to appease religious fundamentalists who will deny anything that is in conflict with their mythology.

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