New poll says Big Bang theory a big question for many Americans

"Science ignorance is pervasive in our society, and these attitudes are reinforced when some of our leaders are openly antagonistic to established facts," said 2013 Nobel Prize in medicine winner Randy Schekman of the University of California, Berkeley.

The poll highlights "the iron triangle of science, religion and politics," said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication.

And scientists know they've got the shakiest leg in the triangle.

And with that attitude you aint gonna get much popular support either.

While scientists believe the universe began with a Big Bang, most Americans put a big question mark on the concept, an Associated Press-GfK poll found.

Yet when it comes to smoking causing cancer or that a genetic code determines who we are, the doubts disappear.

When considering concepts scientists consider truths, Americans have more skepticism than confidence in those that are farther away from our bodies in scope and time: global warming, the age of the Earth and evolution and especially the Big Bang from 13.8 billion years ago.

On some, there's broad acceptance. Just 4 percent doubt that smoking causes cancer, 6 percent question whether mental illness is a medical condition that affects the brain and 8 percent are skeptical there's a genetic code inside our cells. More -- 15 percent -- have doubts about the safety and efficacy of childhood vaccines.

About 4 in 10 say they are not too confident or outright disbelieve that the earth is warming, mostly a result of man-made heat-trapping gases, that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old or that life on Earth evolved through a process of natural selection, though most were at least somewhat confident in each of those concepts. But a narrow majority -- 51 percent -- questions the Big Bang theory.

Foxnews

And just to remind you:

Earth revolves around the sun? 1 in 4 Americans say nope

I will say this time Americans are not dumb and they know the stuff, its the wording of the polls what make them look ignorant.

Rather than quizzing scientific knowledge, the survey asked people to rate their confidence in several statements about science and medicine.

Oh well its a theory, its good to question theories until proven, of course this one got many evidence that support it, so are Americans ignorant or the polls are made to make them look that way, after my other thread i would say the rest of the world is not much different, and after all you don't get to be #1 by being dumb, so at least there is a minority controlling the bulk of American population in order to be #1 country in many aspects, perhaps they are really being dumbed down for easier control after all.

"And scientists know they've got the shakiest leg in the triangle."

Already false. I need not read further I guess.

Of course they don't like the big bang. It directly refutes the creation story. And politicians play sides, so they don't want to piss off creationists, cause they're very emotional.

BTW it's called the Big Bang Theory cause it's just that - a theory. But hater's are gonna hate anyways.

a reply to: JohnTheSmith

You need to read no further based on the opinion a nobel price winner have on the reach science have over people compared to religion and politics?

Ok

after all you don't get to be #1 by being dumb,

Number 1 in what exactly?
Oh you are probably meaning military spending.

originally posted by: alldaylong
Number 1 in what exactly?
Oh you are probably meaning military spending.

Don't forget National debt and incarceration rates!

a reply to: crazyewok

Or just economy and all that derivates from that.

Just becouse you hate the place does not means you could value their virtues you know

originally posted by: Indigent
a reply to: JohnTheSmith

You need to read no further based on the opinion a nobel price winner have on the reach science have over people compared to religion and politics?

Ok

They gave one of those to Obama as well. lmao.

I'm pretty sure I was agreeing with you, the point of your OP is that Americans are too dumb to accept science, but they coddle ridiculous fantasy religions without blinking an eye, right? Right?!

originally posted by: Indigent
Or just economy and all that derivates from that.

A economy based on deficit spending and unsustainable debt is not number 1

I could take a million dollar loan out today and live like a rock star, but does living on that borrowed money mean Im successful or a fraud?

originally posted by: Indigent
Just becouse you hate the place does not means you could value their virtues you know

Who says I hate it ?

Im just pointing out facts.

Just because im not rolling over and worshiping the US does not mean I hate it.

UK is the same **** hole too so don't think Im holding up my own country as a example!

a reply to: JohnTheSmith

Nope the point of my op is there is a poll that say that and i cannot believe its true

They have too many nukes so i refuse to be true

a reply to: crazyewok

Ill remember that the next time i eat at a mcdonnalds, drink a coke, use a pc with windows or a mac, or simply interact with any of the US companies that exist in 90% of the world.

USA is not USA government, USA economy moves the world you like it or not.

Ill just wait for some american to wake up and defend their country

a reply to: Indigent

So, far from being ignorant of the science, you suggest that the mere wording of the questions is a problem? I have to say, if mere comprehension of the language they speak is the problem, then ignorance is not an appropriate word to describe the problem. Catastrophic idiocy would probably cover it better.

The fact of the matter is, that there is no way to look at a basic lack of understanding of the written language that one has grown up with, as anything other than a vast failure in either education on the part of the teaching establishment over the last few decades, or a general lack of any form of intelligence in the vast majority of people whose opinions were sampled for the purpose of this poll.

I have no idea which it really is in this case, but they are the only two possibilities. First rule of answering a question, is to understand the one you are asked. If a person cannot do that, and does not have some sort of learning disability, or diagnosed malfunction of the mind, then that person simply has not got the wit to understand even the written versions of the theories being discussed, AND therefore their opinions could not have less merit.

In order to opine upon a theory, it is necessary to understand not only the theory, but the question one is asked about it. For example, if I am asked whether the Earth revolves around the Sun, I do not have to rely on my knowledge of theory. It is a physical fact, established by countless efforts of science and technology over many hundreds of years now. If people are REALLY tripping over a grammatical baffle in that query somewhere, then these are surely people who have to sit and look at their shoes for a considerable time, before figuring out which foot they are supposed to be on. Why ask someone who cannot understand a simple question, what their understanding of the Big Bang is, and whether or not they think it a theory of merit?

The exercise is entirely pointless, because the people being asked have not even the merest form of raw intelligence. That is the only conclusion which can be drawn from the results of this poll. Furthermore, it does no field of research, no scientific pursuit, any favours, to insist that it continue only down the paths which are pleasant and reassuring to persons who lack the basic wit to be able to answer one of the simplest questions in astronomy.

If the entire world of computing was being held back to the level of understanding that the majority have about the internal function of a processor, we would still be using Acorn computers with green on black eight bit graphics, and capable of producing one document per hour, with difficulty. Thankfully, we have moved on past that point.

Now, the Big Bang theory is indeed a theory, not an entirely proven fact, or even one that we are close to proving. Indeed, in order to prove the theory, we could be looking at needing thousands, perhaps millions of years of deep space travel, and experience in the wider universe, to fully prove. More probable yet, is that as our understanding of the universe improves, better theories, or amendments to previously existing ones, will be made. Additional data will be collected, and so will be added to the vast libraries of data already accumulated on the subject.

It is simple understanding of the language, which makes it possible for me to understand that belief in a theory is not the right terminology to use. Belief is for faith. Scientific observation, the collected knowledge of ancestors and contemporary thinkers alike, all of which we have access to should we wish it, suggests that of all the possible theories which explain the basic parameters of the universe as it is, and seek to illuminate its state in the earliest times after its creation, the Big Bang theory is easily the most complete, even with its myriad deficiencies.

But unless a person has the ability to reason thus, how are they to evaluate how confident they ought to be in the solidity of any theory or idea from any area of science? How much value does the opinion of a determinedly, willfully under informed individual have, when compared with the opinion of someone who has actually looked into these theories, and has a passion for the understanding of them, for sifting the wheat from the chaff where such things are concerned?

The poll was created on a foolish premise, to examine the opinions of those who have isolated themselves from the tools they would need to create an opinion of any import what so ever.

originally posted by: Indigent

Ill remember that the next time i eat at a mcdonnalds, drink a coke, use a pc with windows or a mac, or simply interact with any of the US companies that exist in 90% of the world.

And thanks to you government it all built of a fragile house of cards that could collapse at any moment.

originally posted by: Indigent
USA is not USA government,

No but the decisions your government has made as made your economy fragile and fake.

originally posted by: Indigent
USA economy moves the world you like it or not.

Yup that the worry. When (not if but when) it goes tits up its going to take a lot of other country's down with it!

originally posted by: Indigent
Ill just wait for some American to wake up and defend their country

Defend against what?
The truth?
You economy is based on lies and false hope, that's a fact.

That the problem with you guys your to busy trying to preserve you pride and false illusions than wake up and smell the crap and actually make some changes. You would rather bury you heads in the sane and pretend everyone going great!

a reply to: TrueBrit

Awesome post as always, i could never write something like that but just imagine something as asking its the big bang true yes or not? Someone could say no until proven, as its a theory at the moment. An educated answer that would still count as an ignorant no to the poll.

a reply to: crazyewok

What does rajoy has to do with all this?

See my government is not US and you should see your bias is blinding you

originally posted by: Indigent
a reply to: crazyewok

Ill remember that the next time i eat at a mcdonnalds, drink a coke, use a pc with windows or a mac, or simply interact with any of the US companies that exist in 90% of the world.

USA is not USA government, USA economy moves the world you like it or not.

Ill just wait for some american to wake up and defend their country

For something to be stable it has to be built on solid foundations
The US economy is built upon shifting sands. Ready to collapse any time soon.

a reply to: Indigent
How many countries have you lived in? I don't know if you have noticed the massive drug problem, failing economy, willingness to invest trillions in acts of war, poor education, highest teenage pregnancy rate in the first world, obesity rate, incarceration rate, corruption level of politicians, house foreclosures, percentage of people killed by fire arms, most advanced space program in the world unable to launch a human into space, etc. Which one were you referring to?
Number 1 in which one?

POLL

I wonder what is your confidence on the matter that the universe is 13.8 billion years old. Or if you believe smoking cause cancer, do you know how it cause it?

See the question was not big bang yes/no it was a very concrete date yes or no, the wording does matter.

a reply to: arrakis624

How many countries have you lived in?

7

Number 1 in which one?

Cultural control over the world, military power, world influence. say no to this with examples if you dare.

a reply to: Indigent
I'm more concerned with the amount of american citizens that still believe that america is number one. Even if your country had a billion citizens each citizen would have to pay about $16000 dollars per head to break even with your national debt, including children and the handicapped. Hint : you have a lot less than a billion citizens. You guys are first on the slippery slide into to the sh*t pit. I suppose that's a number one. Instead of beating your chests and screaming "were #1" try fixing the country instead of worshipping it, oh and easing up on the whole war thing while you're at it.

a reply to: arrakis624

I'm also concerned of random people that join forums to attack a country its not their own, nor have the courtesy to read I'm not American. Neither have the ability to focus on the thread topic. or at the very basic have the intelligence to read the T&C of the site.

If USA is not the most influential country in the world let me know who it is, and this is the meaning of #1