It depends on what church they go to.

It's not from American public schools or State Colleges.

This is not by accident, which makes it even sadder. No wonder other countries laugh at us.

Dec 21, 2010 -- 4:43PM, appy20 wrote:

American culture has a strong anti-intellectual streak that is going to be our downfall if we don't get a handle on it.

I think it's because most of us are descended from immigrants. Many immigrants came here because they wanted more freedom or opportunity, but many came because they were just too stupid, incompetent or weird to cut the mustard at home.

Dec 21, 2010 -- 4:43PM, appy20 wrote:

American culture has a strong anti-intellectual streak that is going to be our downfall if we don't get a handle on it. It is a reason we can't be proactive on many problems that we have.  You can't motivate the ignorant and intellectually lazy to be proactive. 

I don't know the solution because that kind of idiocy is bred and nurtured in the family. 

It is nurtured in other places as well.  Like the halls of Congress and the offices of the likes of Karl Rove - in league with or at the behest of, naturally,  various corporate board rooms where this kind of attitude is at least smiled upon if not outright encouraged.  Science on matters such as the environment, public health and tobacco,  is not generally looked upon favorably by many such institutions.  And, in the age of outsourcing, these gentlemen are not likely to be disturbed if places like India surpass us in science education.

Dec 21, 2010 -- 3:41PM, solfeggio wrote:

The results of a new Gallup poll show that four out of ten Americans are creationists who think that humans have been around for only 10,000 years, while 38% of Americans, although believing that evolution took millions of years, still think that a god had a part in it.  Only 16% of Americans believe that this god had no involvement in evolution.  But, this 16% figure is up somewhat from past years:

You should look at the bright side: the number who believe in evolution is somewhat up from recent years.  The number of strict creationists is somewhat down according to the data (about 7% down from the peak).  Although progress is slow it seems to be developing in the right direction.