Fox News has just come out with a new poll that shows that 77% of Americans believe that prayers “literally help someone heal from an injury or illness” and 15% think Darwinand other scientists are right about evolution and creationists are wrong (but 26% believe that both are correct). The poll has a sampling error of about 3% and appears to have been conducted correctly.
Could someone please tell me why this is interesting?
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Actually, the first question listed (#29) is worded poorly (especially since they had to listen to the question, they could have answered “yes” to the last part in that “Yes, I don’t believe that”). The 2nd question listed (#30) is conceptually incorrect as well since the origin of life is not addressed by evolution.
I would guess their sampling technique is equally flawed…which really shouldn’t come as a surprise since we are dealing with Faux News.
As far as how it is interesting, I would vote for real world examples of confirmation bias and incompetent polling.
It’s interesting because I wonder what the other 28 questions were and why those were the only two published.
I agree that the questions are not ideal but I think the sampling technique is run of the mill. It was done by an indy firm in cooperation with them and the methodologies are given and seem standard. There is of course always this question of how to contact people in this world of disappearing phones and irrelevant phone books.
Surgoshan, well, good point.
Because somehow there are people smart enough to answer a poll and dumb enough to believe in the power of prayer. That is hard to grasp. You’d expect those people to be trapped in their homes unable to figure out why the door doesn’t open when they pray at it.
77%, 15% and 26% are appalling numbers. But how was it decided upon to ask exactly ‘911’ people?
They don’t ask the right questions.
Rick Perry held a huge meeting and prayed for rain, after which God appeared to inundate his state with fire. What does this mean scientifically?
a. God thinks Rick Perry is an ass and is giving him a little hot breath.
b. Prayers only work when said in humbleness and secret as directed in the bible, not when they are public in prayer meetings
c. Global warming is beginning to cause weather instability.
What seems most disturbing is that more college graduates are creationists (36%) or confusionists (Both true: 31%) than not (28%).
Also, what option existed for people who believe in some other, non-Biblical creation myth?
Theistic evolutionists would probably say that both evolution and creation (by which they would mean old earth creation) are correct.
Why is it interesting? Fox News probably thinks that if a majority believe it, then that provides support that it’s true.