Tuesday, July 7, 2009

US High in Anti-Evolution views again

So I came across this article today: http://www.scientificblogging.com/adaptive_complexity/blog/us_ranks_high_antievolution_beliefs which links to this story: http://www.britishcouncil.org/darwinnow-survey-global.pdf.

I think the article says enough by itself in summarizing what is going on but I just wanted to make a quick statement on why this is bad. While yes we have clearly heard of Darwin and Evolution in this country (71% according to the survey) most Americans don't accept the theory of Evolution. This is a problem if we want to keep being known as the leader in science and medicine. The more we fight against Evolution the more we are setting ourselves back when it comes to the fight against disease. The majority of new drugs still come from the US but if we decide that disease causing agents can't change, can't evolve, then why should we keep researching new ways to fight disease? Why should we improve our antibiotics or even our vaccines? I just feel that this view is missed and is what needs to be stressed most to those who deny evolution.

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