Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Pollcats
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Zogby’s report is contained in a pdf file that demonstrates how the results are manipulated. Here are the relevant questions and results:
Which of the following two statements come closest to your own opinion?
Statement B: Biology teachers
should teach Darwin’s theory
of evolution, but also the
scientific evidence against it. ...........69%
Statement A: Biology teachers
should teach only Darwin’s
theory of evolution and the
scientific evidence that supports it. .....21%
Neither/Not sure...........................10%
Strongly agree ..........51%
Somewhat agree ..........26
Somewhat disagree ........6
Strongly disagree .......13
Not sure .................4
Totals: Agree 77%; Disagree 19%
The problem is that the ID movement couldn't find enough of that supposed "scientific evidence" to even get a conservative Republican judge to say it was close enough to science to give it the benefit of the doubt.
Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree with the following statement: "When the theory of evolution is taught in school, teachers should be able to proselytize your children to join their religion."
Wanna bet that the percentages would change considerably?
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WingNutDaily . . . opps, WorldNetDaily is reporting on the Discovery Institute’s new Zogby Poll (which is what the Discovery Institute spends its money on, since it has no science to actually do).
Zogby’s report is contained in a pdf file that demonstrates how the results are manipulated. Here are the relevant questions and results:
Which of the following two statements come closest to your own opinion?
Statement B: Biology teachers
should teach Darwin’s theory
of evolution, but also the
scientific evidence against it. ...........69%
Statement A: Biology teachers
should teach only Darwin’s
theory of evolution and the
scientific evidence that supports it. .....21%
Neither/Not sure...........................10%
Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree with the following statement: "When Darwin’s theory of evolution is taught in school, students should also be able to learn about scientific evidence that points to an intelligent design of life."
Strongly agree ..........51%
Somewhat agree ..........26
Somewhat disagree ........6
Strongly disagree .......13
Not sure .................4
Totals: Agree 77%; Disagree 19%
So the poll first begs the question by assuming as part of the premise that there is any evidence against the Theory of Evolution (ignoring for the moment the DI’s equivocations about "Darwinism") and for Intelligent Design. Naturally, Americans, who highly esteem "fairness" will, even if they don’t really know the issues involved, opt for the answer that seems evenhanded. [Update March 9, 2006: It was brought to my attention that Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on Science, had an article on Zogby polls that discusses one as far back as August of 2001, with the exact same question as the second one above with almost identical results: 78% of respondents agreed, with 53% agreeing strongly. The real import of these polls may just be that the American public doesn't care about the issue and is not listening to either side.]
The problem is that the ID movement couldn't find enough of that supposed "scientific evidence" to even get a conservative Republican judge to say it was close enough to science to give it the benefit of the doubt.
.
How about a fair question instead?:
How about a fair question instead?:
Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree with the following statement: "When the theory of evolution is taught in school, teachers should be able to proselytize your children to join their religion."
Wanna bet that the percentages would change considerably?
