1. Unscientific American: US Almost Last in Understanding Evolution

Comment #18686 by gersheimer on January 22, 2007 at 12:11 pm

I am from the Czech Republic. Our country really is generally non-religious (only 25-30% of the population refer to themselves as religious, those are mostly Catholics or moderate Protestants similar to Unitarians) and the creationist propaganda was totally unheard of here until some four, five years ago. I am only 26 so I remember having been taught the basics of evolution in 7th grade at the elementary school and then, to greater detail, again at the secondary school. This hasn´t changed, I suppose. So no one should put evolution in doubt - but I think I understand the situation. I presume that the respondents have been, in many cases, caught by surprise with the question and some of them gave erratic responses that were counted as a disagreement. I remember one similar poll before the fall of Communism when random people at the streets of Prague were asked whether Sun revolves around the Earth or vice versa - and were insisted on immediate reply. A whopping 30% gave the wrong answer...

2. Creationism Song

Comment #17777 by gersheimer on January 16, 2007 at 8:48 am

In case you didn´t know, there is a song with which we can more than adequately counter this offensive - and two or three leagues higher if it comes both to the poetic value and informational content:

Cat Faber - Word of God (1994)

(the author is a charming lady, a middle-aged high-school teacher, singer and songwriter - see www.echoschildren.org - living in Oregon, U.S.)

From desert cliff and mountaintop we trace the wide design,
Strike-slip fault and overthrust and syn- and anticline. . .
We gaze upon creation where erosion makes it known,
And count the countless aeons in the banding of the stone.
Odd, long-vanished creatures and their tracks & shells are found;
Where truth has left its sketches on the slate below the ground.
The patient stone can speak, if we but listen when it talks.
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the rocks.

There are those who name the stars, who watch the sky by night,
Seeking out the darkest place, to better see the light.
Long ago, when torture broke the remnant of his will,
Galileo recanted, but the Earth is moving still.
High above the mountaintops, where only distance bars,
The truth has left its footprints in the dust between the stars.
We may watch and study or may shudder and deny,
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the sky.

By stem and root and branch we trace, by feather, fang and fur,
How the living things that are descend from things that were.
The moss, the kelp, the zebrafish, the very mice and flies,
These tiny, humble, wordless things---how shall they tell us lies?
We are kin to beasts; no other answer can we bring.
The truth has left its fingerprints on every living thing.
Remember, should you have to choose between them in the strife,
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote life.

And we who listen to the stars, or walk the dusty grade,
Or break the very atoms down to see how they are made,
Or study cells, or living things, seek truth with open hand.
The profoundest act of worship is to try to understand.
Deep in flower and in flesh, in star and soil and seed,
The truth has left its living word for anyone to read.
So turn and look where best you think the story is unfurled.
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the world.