Science losing out in death match with Religion

We've all heard the stories of how "Religious" Americans are. For many of us, that probably seemed like a good thing, but it depends a lot on what exactly being religious entails.

For example, if as a Christian you believe religiously in carrying out your savior's moral teachings, that's not so bad. Turn the other cheek; the meek shall inherit the Earth; love thy neighbor as yourself; give away all your possessions and follow him; and so on.

If on the other hand, you believe in the Bible as the true and only Word of God, transmitted by the Holy Spirit through the Prophets and Gospel writers, that's more problematic.

The main problem with such a view as the latter is that much of what is in the Bible, when read as a guide to the universe, is in direct contradiction to accepted Scientific thought. And, as you might remember, we sort of fell into that trap once before in what was known as "The Dark Ages".

The backward, reactionary thinking that tends to accompany fanatical religiosity is back in vogue, as demonstrated by the story below. Let's hope the benighted masses catch on soon that the many advances in Scientific thought over the past couple millennia aren't such a bad thing.

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

People in the United States are much less likely to accept Darwin's idea that humans and apes share a common ancestor than adults in other Western nations, a number of surveys show.

A new study of those surveys suggests that the main reason for this lies in a unique confluence of religion, politics, and the public understanding of biological science in the United States. ...

In the U.S., only 14 percent of adults thought that evolution was "definitely true," while about a third firmly rejected the idea. ...

The only country included in the study where adults were more likely than Americans to reject evolution was Turkey.