Only 39% of Americans believe in evolution

[JesusFightClub]

Thanks, Renting with Raggles - I had misunderstood you, and that is very interesting about Islam. You are right, and I can count the amount of Christian creationists I have ever met in the UK on the fingers of one hand. Also, they were all foreign nationals (mostly from the US).

My school (not Catholic) got round the issue by saying that Adam and Eve were God's way of explaining some facts to mankind because they couldn't understand the complicated truth at that time. However, they were fairly shaky about what other parts of the Bible were literally true and told us that Leviathan was a dinosaur, so I had rather a confused impression of the whole business as a child. The best explanation I have had of evolution I got from a kindly FJist who answered my questions recently.

[hathorlive]

I was at the Smithsonian a few months ago and my friend and I laughed at the "Evolution corners" placed throughout the building.

Here's a homo habilus, look at how it's skull is different from ours.

Here's misc. animal A. Look at the differences in the spine from the old to the newer model.

You could tell they were sliding in evolution every chance they got. Not to mention the huge display on Darwin.

We had fun with it as her family are fundies and we got them all Darwin themed shirts.

[Vex]

I read a study a few years ago that concluded about 89% of Americans believe in creationism and 94% identify as Christian, so I'm not surprised. I'd love to know more about the studies, like who participated, where the people were from, what questions were asked.

[doggie]

There should be funding for sex ed. It's stupid to just tell teenagers 'don't do it'. I think it's absolutely vital to tell teenagers how to tell themselves how to protect themselves sexually. If you don't that's how sexual myths like 'you can't get pregnant the first time' spread. I think it is beyond irresponsible to go on abstinence only. If you want the teen pregnancy rate to go down you have to educate people how to actually have safe sex.

CDC: Many teen moms didn't think it could happen

Story user rating:

MIKE STOBBE

Published: Yesterday

ATLANTA (AP) - A new government study suggests a lot of teenage girls are clueless about their chances of getting pregnant.

In a survey of thousands of teenage mothers who had unintended pregnancies, about a third who didn't use birth control said the reason was they didn't believe they could pregnant.

Why they thought that isn't clear. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey didn't ask teens to explain.

But other researchers have talked to teen moms who believed they couldn't get pregnant the first time they had sex, didn't think they could get pregnant at that time of the month or thought they were sterile.

"This report underscores how much misperception, ambivalence and magical thinking put teens at risk for unintended pregnancy," said Bill Albert, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

Other studies have asked teens about their contraception use and beliefs about pregnancy. But the CDC report released Thursday is the first to focus on teens who didn't want to get pregnant but did.

The researchers interviewed nearly 5,000 teenage girls in 19 states who gave birth after unplanned pregnancies in 2004 through 2008. The survey was done through mailed questionnaires with telephone follow-up.

About half of the girls in the survey said they were not using any birth control when they got pregnant. That's higher than surveys of teens in general, which have found that fewer than 20 percent said they didn't use contraception the last time they had sex.

"I think what surprised us was the extent to which they were not using contraception," said Lorrie Gavin, a CDC senior scientist who co-authored the report.

Some of the teen moms were asked what kind of birth control they used: Nearly 20 percent said they used the pill or a birth control patch. Another 24 percent said they used condoms.

CDC officials said they do not believe that the pill, condoms and other forms of birth control were faulty. Instead, they think the teens failed to use it correctly or consistently.

Only 13 percent of those not using contraception said they didn't because they had trouble getting it.

Another finding: Nearly a quarter of the teen moms who did not use contraception said they didn't because their partner did not want them to. That suggests that sex education must include not only information about anatomy and birth control, but also about how to deal with situations in which a girl feels pressured to do something she doesn't want to, Albert said.

The findings are sobering, he added. But it's important to remember that the overall teen birth rate has been falling for some time, and recently hit its lowest mark in about 70 years.

Albert said it would be a mistake to come away from the report saying, "They can't figure this out?" ''Most of them are figuring it out," he said.

[Mama Mia]

I would like to see the actual wording of the questions.

I was 20 before I met a real live human being who said they didn't believe in evolution - and I was shocked. I really had no idea that there were people who didn't believe in it ! Of course that was back before the internet and the bizarre swing to the far Christian right that has happened in the past twenty or so years.

[LIzzieB]

I went to an Anglican school, but it was highly academic and religion, though present in morning assemblies, was pretty much absent in daily lessons. We were free to practise and express our own spirituality and to question religion. We did have "Christian Education" classes with our chaplain every week, and I remember when we in Year 8 or so, someone challenged our chaplain by asking, "So, do you believe in evolution?" The class went quiet, waiting to see how he would handle this provocative question from a fairly belligerent teenager.

Our chaplain took a deep breath and said very calmly, "I believe that the story of creation as told in Genesis is a simple people's way of describing something very complex. Don't forget they didn't have the scientific knowledge we have today. I believe that they used the story of the seven days of creation as a metaphor to explain something that occurred over millions of years."

"So do you believe in the Big Bang, then?"

"Yes, I do. But I believe that God was the one who started it off."

I think every student, regardless of personal faith or belief, walked away that day satisfied that the question of faith and science had been well addressed and explained. I always thought he was a great teacher, and a funny guy, but after that day, I really respected the way he handled that.

[virginmojito]

I don't want to be OT here, but I have recently received mails and looks like other theories are emerging besides just evolution and creation. At first I thought it was a joke but I have seen websites and hundreds of thousands of people are giving credit to "other" creation theories. (Let's just put it this was: there's friggin aliens involved and people are giving credit to these ideas which totally make creation seem reasonable!) Creation can be comfortable for people who want to think less, but these new theories...? They are not just ignorant or fairytale like, they are downright crazy. I know I should not pay attention but given the large number of the followers, it concerns me a great deal! If you have not heard of these nutcase ideas -you lucky ducky you! - google: annunaki. It is really concerning. I'm trying not to pay attention but I wonder what happened to people buying into fucknuttery like this. It's not the theory again, it could be a joke. But the number of believers, now that's plain scary. Hundreds of thousands of educated people believe that. I just needed to add this.

[Mama Mia]

So the CDC went to the trouble to do a large study of teen mom birth control practices and didn't bother to ask the WHY they didn't think they could get pregnant :roll:

And managed to come to the shocking conclusion that teen moms had a lower rate of birth control usage than the general teen population....hmm...that's shocking ! I wonder if that would hold true for other age groups :doh:

I hate poorly done surveys.

[Hane]

That is not entirely true. Catholic dogma holds that Adam and Eve were the first humans and there existed a fall of man as a result of Adam's sin. The Catechism states, "The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents" (CCC 390).

A couple of points here. This does not imply a denial of biological evolution. Nor does it imply a strict reading of the Genesis timeline. Catholics are free to accept current scientific understanding of these concepts. Concerning human evolution, the Church has a more definite teaching. It allows for the possibility that man’s body developed from previous biological forms, under God’s guidance, but it insists on the special creation of his soul. In that sense, the creation story is not so much about the story of the first two human bodies, as it is about the first two human souls God created.

Back in the Pleistocene when I was in Catholic religious instruction (early '60s), we were taught that the Adam and Eve story was figurative--that it represented the fallibility of humanity as a whole.

[freejoytoo]

Wrong thread :oops:

[Rosa]

So the CDC went to the trouble to do a large study of teen mom birth control practices and didn't bother to ask the WHY they didn't think they could get pregnant :roll:

And managed to come to the shocking conclusion that teen moms had a lower rate of birth control usage than the general teen population....hmm...that's shocking ! I wonder if that would hold true for other age groups :doh:

I hate poorly done surveys.

Just a guess...I bet they included "didn't think I could get pregnant" on list of reasons for not using birth control, and were very very surprised to find such a high number of women checked it.

I knew teen moms (one an 8th grader) when I was that age, who thought you

* couldn't get pregnant the first time

* couldn't get pregnant if he pulled out

* couldn't get pregnant while having your period

I'm guessing #1 and #2 are things skeevy 20 year old dudes tell the 14 year olds they're macking on, and #3 is a common perception of people given just rudimentary "why you have your period" or secondhand NPF teaching about how their bodies work.

And I can't really scoff. it wasn't til I was nearly 30 and had an ectopic pregnancy that I learned that my fallopian tubes were just, like, floating there not actually attached to the ovaries. If someone had told me early on that sperm can float free in my abdominal cavity, or that in rare cases a fertilized egg can implant in your liver or intestines, I would have NEVER had sex with a man.