It’s more complex than I thought?

I always like finding things that expand my understanding. A recent blog post on the history of the American creationist movement did just that. Like so many things in history, the story is more complex than it looks before you study it. Which is pretty much par for the course with anything involving people.

Read PZ Myers summarize Ronald Numbers’ history of the creationist movement in the United States.

Is this idea contagious or something?

Poll data suck and the sample is small, but the trend shown in a recent poll printed in the Guardian is still disturbing. Apparently, the Brits have caught the creationist bug, too. 54% of respondents said that creationism should be part of the national science curriculum along with evolution. *sigh*

And then I find more polls from the BBC. I’ll just let the article summarize itself.

More than half of adults in a survey of 10 countries [Argentina, China, Egypt, Great Britain, India, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Spain, and the USA] thought school science lessons should teach evolutionary theories alongside creationism.

*sigh*

Read the article from the Guardian.

Read the article from the BBC.

It’s a worldwide case of the crazy?

It’s not just the Christian fringe that’s deluded itself into challenging the validity of evolution. Islam has its own anti-evolution fringe.

I can’t say I’m surprised. I am surprised, though, by just how whacky the fringe’s loudest voice in Turkey, Haroun Yahya, can sound:

When I asked how so many evolutionary biologists could be wrong, he replied, “We need to talk about the Masons’ role because Masons manage the world through a scientific dictatorship.” When I suggested that scientists would be surprised to hear this, he said that’s because the Masons’ “essential characteristic is that they act secretly and they are invisible.”

A “scientific dictatorship”? Whoa. And I thought blaming the Masons went out of style a while ago. Guess it’s too good a theory to let go.

Read the article at Slate.

Thanks to Richarddawkins.net for pointing this one out. (I lurve my Twitter feeds!)