(February 17, 2024 at 7:59 am)arewethereyet Wrote:

(February 17, 2024 at 7:36 am)neil Wrote: I've come across many individuals out there who reject evolution, and I'm referring to friends & co-workers, not random people off the street. In contrast, I've never come across anyone in person (friend, co-worker, acquaintance) who's a flat-earther.

Almost 1 out of every 5 (18%) of Americans reject evolution & think humans have always existed in our current form:
For Darwin Day, 6 facts about the evolution debate | Pew Research Center

For the US adult population, that's close to 50 million people!

I think you are hanging out with the wrong people.  To the best of my knowledge, I don't know anyone who rejects evolution.

With my friends who are like that, I didn't find out until much later on that they're like that.

Most of the people I've known who are like that were co-workers. The first one I came across was when I was 18 years old & worked for an HVAC contractor; the owner branched out to the DC metro area where I live from Texas, and many of the employees there were also from Texas. The others I've come across were in healthcare organization IT department, which is where I work now.

(February 17, 2024 at 8:12 am)neil Wrote:

(February 17, 2024 at 7:59 am)arewethereyet Wrote: I think you are hanging out with the wrong people.  To the best of my knowledge, I don't know anyone who rejects evolution.

With my friends who are like that, I didn't find out until much later on that they're like that.

Most of the people I've known who are like that were co-workers. The first one I came across was when I was 18 years old & worked for an HVAC contractor; the owner branched out to the DC metro area where I live from Texas, and many of the employees there were also from Texas. The others I've come across were in healthcare organization IT department, which is where I work now.

I've been iin Texas since 2006.  It's not a Texas thing.

(February 17, 2024 at 8:05 am)Ahriman Wrote: I would honestly just be embarrassed to reject evolution in front of people.

Do you reject it at all?

It's one thing for someone to believe in the tooth fairy (I don't mean you, just people in general), but for someone to turn down treatment for health problems, especially deadly ones, because of religious beliefs is rather messed up.

(February 17, 2024 at 8:13 am)arewethereyet Wrote:

(February 17, 2024 at 8:12 am)neil Wrote: With my friends who are like that, I didn't find out until much later on that they're like that.

Most of the people I've known who are like that were co-workers. The first one I came across was when I was 18 years old & worked for an HVAC contractor; the owner branched out to the DC metro area where I live from Texas, and many of the employees there were also from Texas. The others I've come across were in healthcare organization IT department, which is where I work now.

I've been iin Texas since 2006.  It's not a Texas thing.

For the States it's a bible belt thing & the bible belt crosses over into part of Texas.

(February 17, 2024 at 8:13 am)arewethereyet Wrote:

(February 17, 2024 at 8:12 am)neil Wrote: With my friends who are like that, I didn't find out until much later on that they're like that.

Most of the people I've known who are like that were co-workers. The first one I came across was when I was 18 years old & worked for an HVAC contractor; the owner branched out to the DC metro area where I live from Texas, and many of the employees there were also from Texas. The others I've come across were in healthcare organization IT department, which is where I work now.

I've been iin Texas since 2006.  It's not a Texas thing.

Not to mention Joel Osteen is based in Texas and him and his followers DO believe in evolution. I know they do.

(February 17, 2024 at 7:36 am)neil Wrote: I've come across many individuals out there who reject evolution, and I'm referring to friends & co-workers, not random people off the street. In contrast, I've never come across anyone in person (friend, co-worker, acquaintance) who's a flat-earther.

Almost 1 out of every 5 (18%) of Americans reject evolution & think humans have always existed in our current form:
For Darwin Day, 6 facts about the evolution debate | Pew Research Center

For the US adult population, that's close to 50 million people!

I'm sure there are plenty of people like that in the world. People get in their insulated zones and believe all kinds of crazy things. 

I just meant to say that on this forum, I don't think we've had any creationists for a while now. 

Years ago Amazon had discussion forums, and the religion section was particularly active. There was a wide variety of people who posted there, including creationists. The evolution/creation thread was always active. 

The most articulate and well-informed guy who argued consistently against the creationists was a Presbyterian nuclear scientist. He really knew his stuff.

(February 17, 2024 at 8:20 am)neil Wrote:

(February 17, 2024 at 8:13 am)arewethereyet Wrote: I've been iin Texas since 2006.  It's not a Texas thing.

For the States it's a bible belt thing & the bible belt crosses over into part of Texas.

Not all the religious reject evolution.

(February 17, 2024 at 8:29 am)Belacqua Wrote:

(February 17, 2024 at 7:36 am)neil Wrote: I've come across many individuals out there who reject evolution, and I'm referring to friends & co-workers, not random people off the street. In contrast, I've never come across anyone in person (friend, co-worker, acquaintance) who's a flat-earther.

Almost 1 out of every 5 (18%) of Americans reject evolution & think humans have always existed in our current form:
For Darwin Day, 6 facts about the evolution debate | Pew Research Center

For the US adult population, that's close to 50 million people!

I'm sure there are plenty of people like that in the world. People get in their insulated zones and believe all kinds of crazy things. 

I just meant to say that on this forum, I don't think we've had any creationists for a while now. 

Years ago Amazon had discussion forums, and the religion section was particularly active. There was a wide variety of people who posted there, including creationists. The evolution/creation thread was always active. 

The most articulate and well-informed guy who argued consistently against the creationists was a Presbyterian nuclear scientist. He really knew his stuff.

I understood that you meant on this forum & I agree that there are plenty more people outside the US who reject evolution.

I mainly focus on what's happening here in the US since this is where I live; perhaps there's also some bias on my part in the form of affinity for the US, since it's the only nation with a Bill of Rights (as well as amendments for abolishing slavery and race/color/women's suffrage), particularly the first clause of the 1st Amendment - which is specifically freedom from religion & separation of church and state, as well as freedom of speech and of the press in the other 1st A. clauses. Supposedly some other countries have the same (I personally have my doubts about that), but there are definitely many countries that do not. I wouldn't trust political & religious data from foreign sources (not that I do trust domestic sources LOL), whether it's Russia, Red China, the British Empire, any theocratic nations, etc.

During the time period in which the American Founding Fathers were around, nearly everyone in the United Kingdom was a Creationist. The Founding Fathers didn't want this for their own country, and that's why part of the 1st Amendment has to do with freedom of religion.

(February 17, 2024 at 8:54 am)neil Wrote:

(February 17, 2024 at 8:29 am)Belacqua Wrote: I'm sure there are plenty of people like that in the world. People get in their insulated zones and believe all kinds of crazy things. 

I just meant to say that on this forum, I don't think we've had any creationists for a while now. 

Years ago Amazon had discussion forums, and the religion section was particularly active. There was a wide variety of people who posted there, including creationists. The evolution/creation thread was always active. 

The most articulate and well-informed guy who argued consistently against the creationists was a Presbyterian nuclear scientist. He really knew his stuff.

I understood that you meant on this forum & I agree that there are plenty more people outside the US who reject evolution.

I mainly focus on what's happening here in the US since this is where I live; perhaps there's also some bias on my part in the form of affinity for the US, since it's the only nation with a Bill of Rights (as well as amendments for abolishing slavery and race/color/women's suffrage), particularly the first clause of the 1st Amendment - which is specifically freedom from religion & separation of church and state, as well as freedom of speech and of the press in the other 1st A. clauses. Supposedly some other countries have the same (I personally have my doubts about that), but there are definitely many countries that do not. I wouldn't trust political & religious data from foreign sources (not that I do trust domestic sources LOL), whether it's Russia, Red China, the British Empire, any theocratic nations, etc.

Here in Japan the constitution gives us freedom of expression (Article 19) and freedom of religion (Article 20). Of course the Americans had a hand in drafting the laws -- the Americans were here because of some big deal in the 1940s, I forget what. 

Historically there was some opposition to evolution as it's currently understood. As far as I know, people didn't oppose the idea of new species emerging, but they did think that the Buddhist laws of karma, etc., ruled out the kind of natural selection that Darwin described. In other words, the way in which things evolved would be somewhat guided by karmic principles. 

That was mostly among the Nichiren Buddhists, as I understand it. These days the vast majority of people are only religious in a ceremonial sense, so I doubt that dogma interferes with high school science much at all.