Poll: 49% Of Republicans Don't Believe In Evolution

Forty-nine percent of Republicans don't believe in evolution, a new Public Policy Polling survey found Tuesday.

The poll by the Democratic-leaning firm found that 49 percent of Republicans said they do not believe in evolution while 37 percent said they do believe in evolution. Another 13 percent said they were not sure.

In a sign that the issue still carries weight with GOP primary voters, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) recently refused to say whether he believed in evolution.

The poll was conducted among 316 Republican primary voters. The margin of error was plus or minus 5.5 percentage points.


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/polltracker/gop-evolution-49-percent-don-t-believe

Small sample right enough but I'm running with it lol

Perhaps because they never evolved?

Just saw this thread -- I always think it's funny how Republicans tend to believe people are divine creations, but espouse that dog-eat-dog "social Darwinism" crap at the same time -- while Democrats are more likely to believe human beings are just another animal species, but expect us to act more like angels

I'm a tad surprised its not higher

I think that, again, is the problem with polls.  There is no way to distinguish between a factual answer and a polemical answer.

Respondents are not dumb.  They have grown up with polls.  They know how polls are used, and are just as likely to answer with a mind toward appearance rather that truth.  Evolution is currently a controversial subject, and a respondent may well believe in it, but wish to support the other side...because it comports with, say, right-wing politics and they are RW.

So what you are saying Quill, is that admitting to being stupid, is a political plus for a republican????

well thats a new one on me...most politicians I know of are desperately trying to prove they are NOT stupid...(and failing dismally)

darknessss wrote:So what you are saying Quill, is that admitting to being stupid, is a political plus for a republican????

well thats a new one on me...most politicians I know of are desperately trying to prove they are NOT stupid...(and failing dismally)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD18ybMDYiI

He might run for president next year:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/11/26/bobby-jindal-2016-president-republican-nomination/2064821/

And he's really hoping that his party doesn't find out his real first name is Piyush.

darknessss wrote:So what you are saying Quill, is that admitting to being stupid, is a political plus for a republican????

well thats a new one on me...most politicians I know of are desperately trying to prove they are NOT stupid...(and failing dismally)

No, I give them more credit than that.  They are just answering questions, after all.

What I am saying is that pollsters don't give their respondent's credit for figuring out why they are asking the questions.  Even Republicans can see where they are going, to use the vernacular.  Hence, they can calculate what effect their response will have.

If you ask someone if he believes in evolution, and he calculates his answer will vindicate a good 'ol fashioned fundamentalist Christian cause...he's going to say, no...he doesn't believe in evolution.  It doesn't matter what he really believes--after all, who could escape evolution these days--he's wise to the political effect his answer will have and he shapes his answer accordingly.

Words have many effects.  They are used not just for information or truth, but for other things as well.  Attorneys recognize this all the time.  They call them 'speech acts'.

darknessss wrote:So what you are saying Quill, is that admitting to being stupid, is a political plus for a republican????

well thats a new one on me...most politicians I know of are desperately trying to prove they are NOT stupid...(and failing dismally)

in some cases it is, trying to pull I'm an 'everyman' candidate line.

recent example down here is Kevin Rudd originally seen as squeaky clean, all planned and considered... got busted visiting strip club while on a trip to the US.... admitted it was a dumb move apologised and it did come across as the not cool kid(Kevin) getting to party with the cool kids(US delegates) and getting a little carried away. Made him much more likeable, more like a real person and he did get elected.

I didn't know we were talking about politicians. I had simply assumed that this was an anonymous poll.

In an anonymous poll it doesn't matter what you admit...they don't know who you are. It's just between you and the numbers.

Anyway, when talking about right-wingers, they don't know when they are sounding stupid. Some of them actually quote the bible.

Original Quill wrote:I didn't know we were talking about politicians.  I had simply assumed that this was an anonymous poll.

In an anonymous poll it doesn't matter what you admit...they don't know who you are.  It's just between you and the numbers.

Anyway, when talking about right-wingers, they don't know when they are sounding stupid.  Some of them actually quote the bible.

If 51 percent of Republicans accept the theory of evolution, a) they're playing it very close to the vest or b) they think "God" directed it or some similar bullshit.

I get the idea of goofing on a poll, British Jedi style, but do you really think Republicans are likely to do that? They strike me as more of the "The Rep should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington" type.

darknessss wrote:So what you are saying Quill, is that admitting to being stupid, is a political plus for a republican????

well thats a new one on me...most politicians I know of are desperately trying to prove they are NOT stupid...(and failing dismally)

i think he is saying agreeing with the stupid who elect you is a political plus it gets you votes
and he is not wrong

korban dallas wrote:

darknessss wrote:So what you are saying Quill, is that admitting to being stupid, is a political plus for a republican????

well thats a new one on me...most politicians I know of are desperately trying to prove they are NOT stupid...(and failing dismally)

i think he is saying agreeing with the stupid who elect you is a political plus it gets you votes
and he is  not wrong

Not at all; there is a significant number of Americans who are very anti-intellectual. I think they're mostly people who weren't very smart to begin with and have been manipulated into feeling that smart people are the ones ruining their lives -- just look at how many of us think we doomed ourselves when we stopped allowing teachers to lead their students in daily prayer.

Of course, not-so-smart people are pretty easy to manipulate -- http://www.newsfixboard.com/t2201-are-most-killings-in-the-uk-now-committed-by-foreigners

Never mind the outspoken Christian leaders who reject the Big Bang and human evolution; nearly 70 percent of rank-and-file evangelicals in the United States say they don't see religion and science as being totally at odds, a new survey found.
"Although many politicians and the media at large portray evangelicals as distrustful of science, we found that this is more myth than reality," Elaine Howard Ecklund, a sociologist at Rice University who orchestrated the survey, said in a statement.
Among evangelical Christians, about 48 percent said they see science and religion as complementary to one another, while 21 percent think science and religion refer to different aspects of reality and see them as entirely independent of one another, the survey found.


http://www.livescience.com/50162-most-evangelical-christians-dont-feel-hostile-to-science.html

They are some things that have to be watched to get a real sense of the issues and a feeling for your constituents
watch as reasoned and well spoken republican ask the really tough questions

As we used to say at Berkeley, don't over-intellectualize the movement.

I thought this was just an average poll, and I was thinking that Republicans were "goofing on a poll" (that's a new one on me, but I understand what you mean).  But then Vic said it was a poll of politicians...and they wouldn't want to be thought stupid.  I don't know.  Lol.

Both korben and ben are right.  The politician could be matching himself to his constituency, and he doesn't care rat's-ass about his general reputation for stupidity.  GWB used to do this.

But, as ben says, there is a strong strain of anti-intellectualism to the right-wing, anyway.  They are actually proud of their own stupidity, because it is antipathetic to 'liberal' smart guys.  Does anybody remember when Sen. Roman Hurska said: "[T]here are a lot of mediocre [people in government] who are entitled to a little representation, aren't they..."  This has become famous for the notion that 'mediocrity needs representation, too'--an expression that seems somehow counterintuitive.   Lol.

So you are both right.  Yes, stupid Republicans want to identify with stupid constituents, so they can get reelected.  But, too, anti-intelligence is rooted in the platform of Republicans and conservatives generally.  Maybe it is a kind of bi-polar levelling.

Me?  I content myself with what John Stuart Mill said:  "I did not mean that Conservatives are generally stupid; I meant that stupid persons are generally Conservative."  

this is basically the republican mantra

Great! I lov it.

Original Quill wrote:As we used to say at Berkeley, don't over-intellectualize the movement.

I thought this was just an average poll, and I was thinking that Republicans were "goofing on a poll" (that's a new one on me, but I understand what you mean).  But then Vic said it was a poll of politicians...and they wouldn't want to be thought stupid.  I don't know.  Lol.

Both korben and ben are right.  The politician could be matching himself to his constituency, and he doesn't care rat's-ass about his general reputation for stupidity.  GWB used to do this.

But, as ben says, there is a strong strain of anti-intellectualism to the right-wing, anyway.  They are actually proud of their own stupidity, because it is antipathetic to 'liberal' smart guys.  Does anybody remember when Sen. Roman Hurska said: "[T]here are a lot of mediocre [people in government] who are entitled to a little representation, aren't they..."  This has become famous for the notion that 'mediocrity needs representation, too'--an expression that seems somehow counterintuitive.   Lol.

So you are both right.  Yes, stupid Republicans want to identify with stupid constituents, so they can get reelected.  But, too, anti-intelligence is rooted in the platform of Republicans and conservatives generally.  Maybe it is a kind of bi-polar levelling.

Me?  I content myself with what John Stuart Mill said:  "I did not mean that Conservatives are generally stupid; I meant that stupid persons are generally Conservative."  

To me it can be like the phenomenon of a band that sells out to get some success, where the band isn't really into what it's doing, but the fans are. That said, I've no doubt that many Republican politicians believe what they say.