More Americans Believe in the Devil Than Darwin

Evolution is based on scientific study of the natural world. One does not believe 'in it'. Rather, one, per study of the details in our world, believes the theory's viability per the natural evidence found. As one noted earlier in the foregoing comments, a theory is always being tested.

Religions on the other hand are based on the supernatural in which one can only believe blindly - there is no proof to be had. It is dogma and does not like being tested with any facts - even blantant contradictions in their own dogma are not for consideration. Additionally, most children every where are taken into a religion before they are given a choice in the matter - they are indoctrinated. It is no wonder then that many young adults around the globe believe blindly in this or that supernatural teaching.

Humans like mystery and are mentally creative beings - think of your dreams for an explicit example. Ergo, whence humans could not explain the world around them, they created stories/fictions to explain it. The better the story teller, as it turned out, the greater the control that person had over his/her audience. Thus the birth of religion which ultimately is a way to control the masses - and still is used for this to this day.

At base, we are spiritual beings - inspired always to wonder 'why'. Science gives us the studied and arduous approach to answers we may not like to know. Religion gives us comforting answers that ask us not to think further on the topic - to accept unequivically what we are told.

There are more and more new religions croping up in recent time because humans are constantly learning and thus needing a spiritual release that is less and less restrictive and more and more inclusive of the morays, values and realities around us. So, although, in the USA, polls note the increase in religious bents from those available (not your 9 to fivers or those with cell phones) to answer the polls - we are also a nation of others, atheists, agnotics and undeclared.

If polled, I would say there is no heaven, hell or devil. All the more reason to do the best we can for one another on this little green planet - so rare and so fragile.

Of course I believe in the devil, dont we call him mr. president!

I find it funny how the majority of people who write on these comment boards consider themselves tolerant of other cultures when in fact they are only tolerant of those who think the way they do.

Ryan Parker - you tell 'em:

"95% of the Christians I come into contact with would be good Muslims in Iran, good Hindus in India, on and on and on...

People are easier to control when you control their thoughts and keep them ignorant to things."

I couldn't agree more.

I'm an audiovisual artist, I work on a computer. nothing to do with field paleontology. but the most FASCINATING class I ever took in college was a paleontology class. To really take a close look at the fossil record... you'll understand evolution much more than you ever did before.

ok, ALL religions don't like darwin cause he doesn't give props to ALL the gods. all religions equally steal bits of darwins theory because it's impossible to deny so much overwhelming evidence. but they take the proven truths and distort them to fit their cause with little fact to justify their claims (panda bears). religions don't want too many facts, cause then people will lose their faith. fact: santa claus is a myth. when you learn this, you lose your faith in him, or at least the ideal of him as a person and fill that void with good tidings or some such drivel to painkill your feeling of betrayal.

lets review...all religions make stuff up, because it suits their purposes or justifies their existence. when scientists make stuff up, they are discredited, disproven, and the correct facts are reported (to which religion does just the opposite, it instead splinters off into new sects which more/other people adopt the new b.s. think john smith). but these mistruths usually have a basis in some sort of fact or they'd be summarily dismissed on contact. so they actually provide grounds to which new discoveries of fact are found. besides it's easy to bash the cult of christians. jews and muslims don't take bashing or their cults too kindly, and will sing songs of your demise for centuries...if not erase your family from existence.

praise hell satan! there'd be no fun without him! of course, we'd all be stupid without darwin....doh! looks like some of us still are....

Also, in answer to Woody's question, Darwin's theories apply to the natural world. Heaven and Hell are mythological. So yeah, one could believe in heaven and hell and still believe in Darwin theoretically, unless they were instructed by their pastor, priest, parents etc., to disregard Darwin.

This is pure nonsense! Call me an optimist, but I like to think that we are living in an era of enlightenment and not the dark ages! Furthermore, statistics and polls, as we all know, can be manipulated to say whatever we want them to. I agree that the media has become a MAJOR problem, but that is what I am hoping and praying that we can fix with innovative new ideas like CURRENT.

Hey woody,
I think that anything is possible; and I mean anything!

But, what came to mind when I watched your video question was this.

Evil is an evolution just as much as Good. We human beings have proven that just about anything that we can imagine we have the power to create and/or discover.

So if Satan evolved as the personification of evil-lution, then he would have preceded humanity by millions of years, which would infer that perhaps this Satan person came from another planet that provided the genetic material to create human life on this planet out of the primative hominid hunter gatherers that inhabited this planet some 15,000 years ago and the millions of years preceding this time.

Something happened that changed human evolution and history around 15,000 years ago but science hasn't figured exactly what that was. We know that the end of the last Ice Age had a lot to do with human development, we know that agriculture also had a tremendous influence on the human development and allowed for wealth to be created and ownership of land to be made possible from a sociological and anthropological points of view. Language is another huge development, along with the discovery of fire and the development of tools and forging of metals.

The pyramids date some 8,000 years, while most ancient texts can recount approximately some 7,000 to 10,000 years of history, Is there more history that is yet to be discovered? Yes! Could this change our opinions about how humans made the leap from primitive hominids to modern man in such a short period of time; less than 5,000 years is remarkable and could very well have been influenced by visitors from other worlds. Something sparked peoples imaginations to get out of the caves, start cutting down some trees, and building some houses.

That visitor could have been this Satan personification of evil because he took us out of our Eden paradise and gave us a world of money, power, and privilege that has kept our world at war for almost 97% of our recorded history.

Not only that, but Hel is actually the name of the Norse/Germanic goddess of the Underworld, where sissy Vikings went to be tortured forever if they failed to die in battle.
How perfect was that plan?
Europe is overrun by Germanic barbarians? The church needs political power and a way to control people one generation removed from scalp-hunting death worshipers?
No prob!
Just use what they already believe to scare them into submission!

Screw you Charlemagne.

It is sad what polls show. Let us also note who is most likely to be in the set of polled folks. Not your cell phone carriers. It is mostly those at home and who only have landlines. What does that tell you? Also, I submit the book MONKEY GIRL a very enlightened read.

Does he look like Jack Nicholson?

Sounds like to me they polled from a very Christian demographic. Polls like these don't really represent the big picture that well and it's very easy to sway them to the out come you'd like to see.

After all, they only polled 2,455 Americans. Hardly enough to say that most of ALL Americans believe in the Devil over Darwin. Other variables can cause it to come out a certain way such as location and the means the survey was administered. Many surveys like this are done over the phone and all phone numbers are likely collected out of the phone book. I'm 22 and I don't know a single person my age with a land line and cell providers don't release numbers to the public. So right away the sampling populace is narrowed down dramatically.

The only way to truly know what most Americans actually believe is to poll everyone.

I think that we are devolving as a country. Look at who modern heroes are:
Fergie
Paris Hilton
Gwen Stefani

I've been saying this forever... We're viciously fucked as a country. Socially, economically... you name it.

I really agree with what ryanparker said, I'm an atheist, and I've actually heard from alot of people that they hate me or something to those regards, just from my denomination. I'm considering leaving, have fun with emperor Bush, I wish you guys didn't have as much faith in him as you do in invisible beings.

I will acknowledge the possibility that the Devil is real, if people who take the bible literally will acknowledge the possibility that evolution is real.

The theory of evolution is a theory. A theory is an educated scientific guess that is based upon observation. It is true that there are holes in the theory of evolution; however, there is no good proof against the theory. As time passes and more observations are made, the theory will either be edited to fill in the holes, or it will be changed altogether. I'm thinking that it will most likely be edited slightly to explain what it fails to now.

The next generation will be hippie. They will shout "peace and love" but christians will be downtrodden and labeled as intollerant. The devil is real, but its just no fun thinking about him. Hell is real too, but we wont necessarily know when we are living in it.

I hate it when people say stuff like "Americans always ____." Do you believe in everything you see on TV? Me either! And look! We're both Americans!
Strange.

But yeah, it's not so much believing "everything on TV" as it is believing "everything their parents told them from the time they were little tykes."
95% of the Christians I come into contact with would be good Muslims in Iran, good Hindus in India, on and on and on...

People are easier to control when you control their thoughts and keep them ignorant to things.
History 101.

I'm gonna go drown myself in alcohol.

Oh, and stop wishing an economic crisis on the US.
That's just rude.

Americans believe anything that is put on TV and the news. It seriously sickens me. Our entire country is heading down the pipes --> I just wish China would switch to the Euro and send us into a depression already, hopefully the people would rise and revolt. We seriously need to get back to processing thoughts and encouraging education.

Hey, we're better in that aspect than we were a century ago, or even 50 years ago, I'd venture.
I think we are evolving...reeeeaaally slowly...

We should round up all the religious leaders and throw them into pens. Anyone caught muttering about a belief in any sort of God or archaic mythology will disappear from their beds, never to be seen again...

Oh yes, that's the perfect answer. Totally.

...or, we could drastically improve the quality of education nationwide. As in, stuff our fists in and turn it inside out, no matter what awful sort of mess it leaves on the floor.
Time will mop it up; after a while, it will even start to smell good.