An interesting documentary charting the war between religions creationist (Intelligent Design) theologies versus modern science's theories.

Good documentary. I must say, between the Military Commisions Act, the Patriot Act, anti-abortionism, and this anti-science bullshit, I'm really really glad not to be in the states these days.

There definitely seems to be an anti-intelectual movement in the states, check out these stats from here

58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.

42% of college graduates never read another book.

80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.

70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.

57% of new books are not read to completion.

This January 2005 survey of almost 2,000 Canadians 16 and older shows that a vast majority of Canadians - 87% - read a book for pleasure in the past year. Over half of Canadians read books for pleasure “every day” or “almost every day”. On average, Canadians indicated that they read 17 books for pleasure in 2004.

The Canadian Heritage survey indicates that 81% of Canadians bought a book for pleasure in the past year, while a recent report on book spending, based on a broad consumer spending survey, showed that 48% of Canadian households purchased a book in 2001 (see below). According to the Canadian Heritage survey, the strongest factors in books purchase decisions are topic or type of book, the author, and the price. On average, respondents spent $147 on books in 2004.

In responce to djsunkid, see http://www.videosift.com/story.php?id=18739
I firmly belive that we need to stop saying were #1 and start acting like it.
Sucks to have every other country think that Americans are such idiots but the sad fact is that the majority are...

djsunkid: maybe a bit harsh, but you got some quite good points.

A recent issue of Discover Magazine discusses a shift in DNA thought:

http://www.discover.com/issues/nov-06/cover/?page=2

Even if they could succeed in proving ID, that wouldn't prove the existence of a God. Some other intelligent species could have evolved on another planet and seeded Earth with genetically engineered life.

I think my school district came up with a pretty good compromise: In 8th grade we went on a series of field trips to santuaries of 5 different religions: Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and Lutheran Christianity. This reinforced my atheism.

If they're going to teach creation myths, they've no constitutional grounds for enforcing one religion's creation myth over another religion's creation myth. A school board requiring teachers to mention Genesis would violate the establishment clause of the first amendment.

dsjunkid- I don't think it's being smug, but rather, honest. Being myself an American, I am terribly shamed by the statistics that you present. Of course, I'm not summed up in any of those statistics which may explain why I have felt the need to leave my home country and only return on an intermittent basis. I am extremely fearful that the United States will devour itself in a fit of anti-intellectualism, bravado, and egotism. In fact, I think in many ways that we've already reached the tipping point and I don't want to be there when the s*** hits the fan.

Really well done. Great sifting.

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"Will they try and turn the internets into a police state too?"

Yes.

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