Pools of beliefs in USA

[Roller]

Hello!

I recently had a creationist pull an argument that since such and such number of people believe that creationism is true, that should settle it. He mentioned the results of some pool. Now, I've seen a couple of pools on Carl Zimmer's blog webpage (at least I believe it was his) that lists all kinds of strange beliefs colleced from various pools. Anyone knows what I'm talking about? If so, a link to that page would be great. From what I remember, Carl pulled this information around the time when Dover ID case judgement came out. Someone used the similar argument about how people believe in creationism. Carl then pulled (at least thats what I remember - however, a lot of drinking happened since that time and today so my memory is not the best...) this list of various silly beliefs compiled from different pools.

Thanks!

[llanitedave]

Basically you're looking at arguments from the shallow end of the gene pool.

[Roller]

Basically you're looking at arguments from the shallow end of the gene pool.

Well, I wanted to show how silly such argument is. OK, people believe that creationism is true, but they also believe that they are abducted by aliens. Stuff like that, I believe, shows how silly any ad populum argument is.

[Roller]

Found it.
Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and
Understanding (http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind04/c7/c7s2.htm#c7s2l2)

[Sven]

I recently had a creationist pull an argument that since such and such number of people believe that creationism is true, that should settle it. He mentioned the results of some pool.
Well, then somehow creation is true in the USA and evolution in Europe.
It's a strange world... :D

[Hnefi]

Pool? You mean poll? There's a huge difference you know.

[Alter]

Um, if you polled Europeans 1000 years ago, the idea of a flat earth would've probably gotten about 98% of the vote. That doesn't make it correct.


A quote on the topic:

“No amount of belief makes something a fact.�
-- James Randi

[Ulrich]

I recently had a creationist pull an argument that since such and such number of people believe that creationism is true, that should settle it.

This is an argument ad populem, and such arguments are considered fallacious and without merit. This has been the case since logical schools of thought were first proposed several thousand years ago.

[Matty]

Exactly. You could point out that vast vast numbers of people once believed that the world was flat and monsters lived over the edge, that disease was cause by demons, that the earth was the centre of the universe and was orbitted by the sun (which was also believed by many people to be the chariot of the gods being pulled across the sky lets not forget) and any number of other ignorant human-centric beliefs since shown to be utter bollocks. Why should god squadism not be numbered amongst them?

Plus the phrase "never underestimate the power of large groups of stupid people" (cant remember who said this, any help?)is possibly a factor, especially when that power has been actively put to work for a few centuries promoting their dumbass beliefs.

Basically you're looking at arguments from the shallow end of the gene pool.
heheh, nicely put.

[Cynthia of Syracuse]

This is more of a E/C topic, so off it goes.

[espritch]

A consensus of the ignorant is still ignorant.

[Djugashvillain]

Argumentum ad populum. Bor-ing.

[FFT]

Plus the phrase "never underestimate the power of large groups of stupid people" (cant remember who said this, any help?)
Well, it's "never understimate the power of very stupid people in large groups." I always heard it was from Einstein.

One page I visited said it was John Kenneth Galbraith.

[Zygote]

A consensus of the ignorant is still ignorant.

Case in point: the majority of the worlds population believes in (various flavors of) a supernatural deity.

Reality is not subject to popular opinion.

[Roller]

Pool? You mean poll? There's a huge difference you know.

:o

Well... This would explain why I had hard time finding this info :D
Yeah, this is a classic argumentum ad populum. I was looking for that chart so I can show that people hold all kinds of strange beliefs that have no grounding in reality.

[Santas little helper]

I recently had a creationist pull an argument that since such and such number of people believe that creationism is true, that should settle it.
Errrm , a much larger number of people do not believe that creationism is true. In fact a much larger number of Christians do not believe that creationism is true.

[Thief of Time]

Yes but those people don't count, just as the sun doesn't count as an external source of energy.

Seriously guys.