Creationism in Schools

From the NY Times:

"In a finding that is likely to intensify the debate over what to teach students about the origins of life, a poll released yesterday found that nearly two-thirds of Americans say that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public schools.

The poll found that 42 percent of respondents held strict creationist views, agreeing that "living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time."

In contrast, 48 percent said they believed that humans had evolved over time. But of those, 18 percent said that evolution was "guided by a supreme being," and 26 percent said that evolution occurred through natural selection. In all, 64 percent said they were open to the idea of teaching creationism in addition to evolution, while 38 percent favored replacing evolution with creationism."

Anyone want to bet that if they took a poll of 16th century Italians, at least 2/3 of them would support teaching that the universe revolves around the earth in school? Sometimes the majority is a little slow in picking up on things for whatever reason. I personally think it's because they just don't care to try and get information on a given topic, or can't understand, or choose not to. To some extent, our government exists in the form that it does, so that these decisions can be made by educated and informed individuals.